A Thoroughly Good Chap - HNB's Next Artistic Director

Ernst Meisner

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The appointment of Ernst Meisner as the next Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet is excellent news and nowhere will it be welcomed more than in this country.  He trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent the first 10 years of his career with the Royal Ballet.  While he was here he staged a gala at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford at which he invited Leanne Benjamin, Alina Cojocaru, Zenaida Yanowsk, Ed Watson, Filip Barankiewicz and four dancers from Russia to perform (see Mara Galeazzi Ernst Meisner: My Project in Dartford 4 June 2005).  Since returning to the Netherlands in 2010 he has maintained many connections with us.

I first made his acquaintance in 2013 when he responded to my review of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's first performance at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam on 24 Nov 2013.  The company was about to take its show on a tour of the Netherlands, Having attended the recording of an outstanding performance of The Messiah by the Huddersfield Choral Society at the Huddersfield Town Hall I sent the Junior Company the DVD of the recording to play on the road.  The next year he asked Richard Heideman, the company's press officer, to arrange for me to interview him and his remarkable young artists (see Jane Lambert Meet Ernst Meisner and His Remarkable Young Dances 6 Dec 2014 Terpsichore),  On their next performance at the Stadsshouwburg Ernst invited me to meet him the dancers and their families at a reception after the show. I have kept in touch with many of them ever since.

Two weeks after the Junior Company returned to London in 2015 the Dutch National Ballet Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella at the Coliseum.   I saw it on 11 July 2015 and loved it (see Jane Lambert Bend It Like Cinders - My Take on Cinderella 18 July 2015 Terpsichore),  Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding danced the lead roles but several of the members of the Junior Company whom I had met in Amsterdam were given roles in Cinderella.

Every year the company presents extracts of its work from the previous year as well as other short pieces at a gala and throws a party.   I attended the gala on  8 Sept 2015 which I described without any hyperbole as The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet in Terpsichore. Following my visit I joined the Friends of the Dutch National Ballet and have been a fan ever since.

When I first met Ernst he was the "artistic coordinator" of the Junior Company.  He is now its Artistic Director.  He later became Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy and is now the Associate Director of Talent Development.  Above all, he is an exceptionally talented choreographer.  I cannot watch Embers without tears welling up but my all-time favourite is No Time Before Time.  This work expresses perfectly the energy and exuberance of the Junior Company. In my lifetime the Netherlands has produced three towering figures;  Rudi van Danzig, Toer van Schayk and Hans van Manen.  It is no idle flattery to mention Ernst Meisner in the same breath.

I have illustrated this article with a frame from Ernst's Online Ballet Class video.  He gained a whole new worldwide audience from those classes during lockdown,  Those classes kept us moving and gave us hope. I followed every single class and am enormously grateful for them.   

When Ernst Meisner becomes Artistic Director, the Futch National Ballet will be in excellent hands.