David Dawson's Empire Noir

Dutch National Ballet's Cool Britannia opened in Amsterdam last night and will run until the 27 June 2015. It is a triple bill featuring works by three British choreographers:

• Christopher Wheeldon
• David Dawson, and
• Wayne McGregor.

I have already mentioned Cool Britannia in Cool Britannia - in Amsterdam on 16 April 2015. Each of those choreographers will contribute a work to the performance. McGregor offers Chroma which the Royal Ballet danced last year. Wheeldon and Dawson have created new works for the Dutch National Ballet. I discussed Wheeldon's in Wheeldon in Amsterdam and the Dutch National Ballet in London 5 June 2015. Today I focus on Dawson.

Up to now I have been unable to name Dawson's new work. According to the YouTube clip that I have embedded above it is called Empire Noir. The company's website says Greg Haines has written the score and that Viito Mazzeo, Igone de Jongh, Jozef Varga, Floor Eimers, Artur Shesterkirov, Michaela DePrince, James Stout, Sasha Mukhamedov, Edo Wijnen, Suzana Kaic, Casey Herd and Samantha Mednick. 

I am particularly excited by the promise of seeing DePrince dance again as it was she who attracted my attention to the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company last year which in turn attracted me to the main company. I have written quite a lot about that outstanding young dancer in this blog and you will find links to my other articles about her in Michaela DePrince at TEDx Amsterdam 20 Nov 2015. DePrince will be giving a master class at Danceworks on 7 July 2015 and Lesley Osman has very kindly offered to pricure an article from one of the dancers who attends that class for publication in Terpsichore (see Dance with DePrince 2 March 2015). I also look forward to seeing DePrince in Chroma.

Dawson knows the Dutch National Ballet well because he joined the company as a dancer in 1995 and later became one of its resident choreographers. He has achieved much in his career both as a dancer and choreographer winning many honours and prizes over the years.

I shall be in Amsterdam on 27 June 2015 and will review the ballets shortly afterwards.

Further Reading

13 March 2015   Nina Siegal   For Michaela DePrince, a Dream Comes True at the Dutch National Ballet