I have already mentioned Michaela DePrince. Xander Parish stood out in much the same way when I saw him for the first time in York in July 2007. The outstanding young dancer title is for a young man or woman who impresses me in very much the same way as they did. Such performances do not grow on trees. For many years it may be impossible to make a selection.
Also, such a selection will always be very unfair. As readers can see from the above YouTube clip, all the young dancers in the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company are excellent and they are just one company. Because I live near Manchester most of the performances that I see are in Britain or the near continent. There must be so many great performances that I do not see in Russia and other countries in the former Soviet Union, in the United States the other great powerhouse of dance, not to mention China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba and the rest of South America and the entire continent of Africa. Indeed, as I live 200 miles north of London, 250 south of Glasgow and at least 100 from Birmingham there will be many breathtaking performances in my own country that I never get to see.
This year there are two dancers who stand out in the way that Parish did in 2007 and DePrince in 2013 and I want to acknowledge them both.
The other is Gwenllian Davies of Ballet Cymru. In the Riverfront Theatre on the banks of the Usk in Newport on Guy Fawkes night, I witnessed something extraordinary (see A Romeo and Juliet for our Times7 Nov 2016). I have seen many of the world's greatest ballerinas dance Juliet. Technically and indeed artistically their performances were brilliant. But when I saw them dance I knew that I was watching Seymour, Tereshkina and Cojocaru. When Davies danced I saw only Juliet. That is why her performance was spellbinding. Perhaps on another night it would not have been but magic was wrought that night.
I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to all the excellent young dancers whom I have admired but not yet acknowledged in this way and to wish them all the very best in their careers and lives.
When I visited Amsterdam in February I toured the studios and workshops of the Dutch National Ballet. The tour included the wardrobe department and I saw many of the costumes for Mata Hari shown in the film above (see Double Dutch Delights17 Feb 2016). Later in the day I attended Ballet Bubbles at the Meervaart Theatre which opened with a speech by Ernst Meisner in which he said that the Junior Company provided opportunities not just to outstanding young dancers but to technicians and support staff.
My ears pricked up because one of the members of my ballet class at Huddersfield University is a young fine arts and design student with a passion for ballet who happens to be half Dutch. She has already been accepted for a summer placement with the Royal Opera House and hopes to make her career in the theatre. On my return to Yorkshire I told her about Ernst's speech and my tour of the Stopera and she asked me to find out more about the programme for her.
Yesterday the company's press officer Richard Heideman sent me the requested information. The company recruits its costume designers from the Stichting Meesteropleiding Coupeur (Master Tailoring Institute) in Amsterdam. The Institute runs a three year training course in partnership with the Dutch National Ballet, the National Opera and other companies much in the way that the Junior Company provides a bridge between ballet school and the senior company.
Anyone who is interested in the programme should contact the institute at:
Yesterday I wrote about the crowd funding intuitive for the young American dancer Melsissa Chapski and the Italian Giovanni Princic (see Crowdfunding for the Ballet25 May 2016). The donations page is in Dutch which Nadja van Deursen who is in charge of fund raising for the National Ballet thought might be a problem for us Brits who are notorious monoglots. Actually I don't think it is because Dutch is the nearest relation to English and I can understand most of what is written or said to me in the Netherlands including Ernst's speech though that may be because I studied German which even more closely related to Dutch at secondary school. Be that as it may she has suggested that those of us who are not Dutch can donate to Melissa and Giovanni's scholarship fund through this page and I have just done so.
Dutch National Ballet, Junior Company, "No Time Before Time"
Photo Michel Schnater (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the company
I hate panning a show because I know how much work goes into it. Especially when I know and love the company. So now I am going to write something nice. Not than just nice. I'm going to
ENTHUSE
just like the chaps in the photo who are members of Ernst Meisner's Junior Company.
Here they are dancing in Ernst Meisner's No Time Before Time which I saw on my birthday (see Ballet Bubbles16 Feb 2016). Takes my mind off another ballet that I first saw on my birthday in 2004.
No Time Before Time was premièred at the finals of the Grand Prix of Lausanne. If you click on this link and run the cursor to 1:43:52 / 2:37:55 and you will find a recording of that first performance. It is worth looking at the reverence at the end of the show where each of the dancers is presented with a flower and Ernst get's a bouquet. Regard the grin on his face. He looks so proud and he has every right to be because his young dancers are brilliant.
The surname of one of his dancers is Superfine. Now isn't that an appropriate name for such a talented artist.
Clara Suerfine in No Time Before Time
Photo Michel Schnater (c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the company
However, all those dancers are super and they are all fine.
Van Manen appeared at those performances because the Junior Company include one of his works in their tour each year. This time it was was Trois Gnossienneswhich he created for the Dutch National Ballet on 20 Oct 1982. The music that he used for this ballet is by Erik Satie, the same composer who inspired Sir Frederick Ashton to create Monotones. That is another ballet I love very much.
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet, All rights reserved
Reproduction licensed by kind permission of the company
They work very well together. Earlier in the performance Princic had danced a masterly Ballet 101and Chapski had charmed us in the Pas de Six. My review of the whole show is Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016.
Audiences in this country will gain an opportunity to see more of van Manen's work when the Netherlands Dance Theatre tours the UK next month. I hope to catch NDT2 in Bradford and at The Lowry.
This work featured two of my favourite young dancers: Thomas van Damme who had delighted me the previous year with his performance of Ernst Meisner's Embers with Nancy Burer in 2015 (see Junior Company's New Season6 Feb 2015) earning Meisner my personal choreographer of the year award for 2015 (see Highlights of 201529 Dec 2015) and Emilie Tassinari who had impressed me and many others in Cinderella at the Coliseum (see Wheeldon's Cinderella13 July 2015). Those two have really blossomed since I first met them just over a year ago and I am sure that they can both look forward to a glittering future.
Photo Michel Schnater, Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet. Reproduction licensed with kind permission of the company,All rights reserved
Those chaps were also in that piece. As they have only just joined the company this was the first time I had seen them. I am very impressed and will follow their careers with interest.
You will find my review of the show in Ballet Bubbles on 16 Feb 2016.
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved
Reproduction licensed by the company
Another lovely photo of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's performance of Ballet Bubbles at the Meervaart Theatre in Amsterdam on 14 Feb 2016 (see my review Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016). This shows the young American dancer, Clara Superfine, in David Dawson's 5.
Photo Michel Schnater Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet All rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the company
Eric Gauthier's Ballet 101 is fun. I've seen Xander Parish and Daniel Montero do it and here is a YouTube video of Armando Braswell of the Basel Ballet. I am longing to have a go myself if a woman can do it though I would have problems with position 25, 40 and "the beautiful Swan Lake 80". Anyway Mel has promised to show me how.
Last Sunday I saw the talented young Italian dancer Giovanni Princic perform this piece and he did a particularly good job (see Ballet Bubbles 16 July 2016). I was introduced to this excellent young man after the showand he was as charming off stage as he was impressive on it. I congratulate him on his success to date and wish him well for the future.
Emilie Tassinari and Theo Duff Grant in La Vivandière – Pas de six
Photo Michel Schnater
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet
All rights reserved
Reproduction licensed by the Company
I reviewed the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's matinee performance ofBallet Bubbleson 16 Feb 2016. The company has kindly sent me some gorgeous photos of the show which I shall upload over the next few days.
Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Ballet Bubbles, Meervaart Theatre, Amsterdam, 14 Feb 2016
Mata Hari is a hard act to follow (see Brandsen's Masterpiece14 Feb 2016). Mindful of the words of Voltaire's wise Italian that "le mieux est l’ennemi du bien" I feared that anything following it would be an anticlimax. That was what happened after the opening gala in September (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet13 Sept 2015). After seeing some of the best dancers in the world on the same stage the same evening I was temporarily spoilt for anything else.
In fact, the Junior Company's matinee performance of Ballet Bubbleswhich I saw at the end of a weekend that included a preview of the 2016 to 2017 opera and ballet season with interludes of heavenly singing and dancing and a tour of the home of the company which allowed access to company class and a walk on the Stopera's stage for Friends of the Dutch National Ballet as well as Mata Hari was the pièce de résistance. It was in its own way every bit as good as Mata Hari. The ability of the Dutch National Ballet to stage two outstanding but very different shows at the same time is an astounding achievement. I struggle to think of another company in the world that could have done the same.
Of course, I should not have been so apprehensive. The week before, the Junior Company had premièred Ernst Meisner's joyful No Time Before Time at the finals of the 2016 Lausanne International Ballet Competition and nobody gets to dance there in any capacity unless they are special. Meisner's work was the finale of a brilliant performance which included work by David Dawson, Krzysztof Pastor, Hans van Manen as well as Charlotte Edmonds. In an opening address just before the start of the performance (which was in Dutch - not a language that I have ever studied - so I may well have got it wrong) I believe that Meisner explained that the Junior Company offers opportunities not only for the world's most promising young dancers but also for young technicians and choreographers such as Edmonds.
The performance was staged not in the Stadsschouwburg where the last two seasons' tours had started (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 201325 Nov 2013 and The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet8 Feb 2015) but in the Theater de Meervaart near an artificial lake called the Sloterplas in the western suburbs of Amsterdam. Although nobody in my hotel nor even the Stopera seemed to know where it was, the Meervaart proved to be a good venue, particularly for a matinee performance where there were lots of children. There was plenty of space to sit and chat before and after the performance. In the interval the management served drinks to the audience: red and white wine or fruit juice to the adults and every kind of sugary fizz to the children. A delightful gesture which I appreciated as I had had no time for lunch or dinner the day before nor any kind of meal on Sunday until after I had landed in England.
The show began with a short talk by Meisner who spoke about the company and the works that were to be performed. As in previous years each piece was preceded by a film in which a dancer set out his or her thoughts in his or her language of choice.
In the first film Emilie Tassinari introduced the pas de six from Arthur Saint-Léon's La Vivandière which was originally staged in London in 1844 with Fanny Cerrito as La Vivandière and Saint-Léon himself as Hans. This is a gorgeous romantic ballet which is a type of dance in which Tassinari excels and seems to enjoy. In the previous year she had danced a divertissement from Napoli delightfully. In La Vivandière she danced the role that had been created by Cerrito which includes some spectacular grands jetés and tours en l'air that prompted a barrage of bravo from the audience. Saint-Leon's steps were traced impressively by the young Canadian dancer Theo Duff-Grant. They were accompanied equally impressively by Lisanne Kottenhagen, Melissa Chapski, Clara Superfine and Hannah Williams.
The next piece was Eric Gauthier's Ballet 101. It is one of my all time favourites and one that I would love to do. In fact Mel has kindly offered to coach me. It requires enormous strength and agility but it is also very witty. Last year it was performed by Xander Parish at the 45th anniversary gala of Northern Ballet (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). I had previously seen Daniel Montero dance it for the Junior Company in 2013. I am collecting material for a book to be called "Will I like Ballet?" in which I shall refer to this piece throughout the work. On Sunday the piece was danced by Giovanni Princip who was nothing short of magnificent.
Next came Edmonds's Fuse which was arranged to Armand Amar's Dam in China and Paddy Fields. There is a lot of energy in this work with its compelling beat which was translated into movement by Thomas van Damme, Antonio Martinez Cegarra and Belle Beasley. Amar's music cannot have been easy to choreograph or dance but it was interpreted imaginatively by the choreographer and executed beautifully by her dancers. This was the first time I had seen Edmonds's work and I look forward to more.
The first act was rounded off by Dawson's 5. 5 is only the second of his works that I have seen, the other being Empire Noir in Cool Britannia (see Going Dutch29 June 2015). That work had been fast and furious and that was also true of 5. The music, Adolphe Adam's Giselle, albeit with some reworking,was familiar but the movement was not. It was exciting and the crowd loved it. The female roles were danced by Chapski, Superfine and Tassinari and the male ones by Joseph Massarelli and Daniel Robert Silva. Dawson has been commissioned by Scottish Ballet to produce a new Swan Lake. If his reworking of Giselle is anything can go by Liverpool can look forward to swans on steroids when Scottish Ballet comes to town.
The first ballet after the interval was Pastor's arrangement of Kurt Weil's Silbersee and Wie Lange Noch. Pastor is another of the Dutch National Ballet's resident choreographers whose work has been performed by Scottish Ballet. I was very impressed with his Romeo and Juliet when it came to Sadler's Wells in 2014 (see Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet18 May 2014). Silbersee was a duet by Silva and Massirelli and Wie Lnnge Noch a pas de deux by Tassinari and van Damme. A beautiful and haunting work with many layers of meaning.
No performance by the Junior Company would be complete without a work by van Manen. In previous years the great man has come on stage to take a bow and the applause has exploded. Trois Gnossiennes with music by Erik Satie is of particular interest to British balletomanes because of its similarity to Ashton's Monotones. The music is sublime and so is van Manen's choreography executed sensitively by Chapski and Princic.
The last work was Meisner's No Time Before Time and it was my favourite by a mile. Starting with a solo by Silva who is joined gradually by the rest of the company in long, swooping stretches each giving the impression of a great bird in flight. The score by the Romanian composer and violinist Alexander Balanescu lifted the audience and enhanced the impression of flight. It must have been such fun to choreograph and even more fun to dance. The piece builds up. There is a lovely duet. Then some exuberant jumps. A pas de quatre. More exits and entrances. A pas de trois. Finally two dancers remain on stage and the music cuts. For those of us who were fortunate enough to be at the Meervaart it felt as though we were dancing too. I don't think I have ever seen a happier audience.
There was no rush for the exits after the show. The bars remained open and the audience stayed to chat. I caught Meisner after the show. "Had this been London the stage would have been knee deep in flowers" I said to him. Having danced with the Royal Ballet he would have seen flower throws. I also met several of the dancers after the show some of whom I met for the first time and several of whom I already knew. In the next few weeks I shall gather material for a feature on the Junior Company which I hope will do them even more justice than last time.
The Junior Company is now starting a tour of the Netherlands beginning at Oss near the Belgian border on the 18 Feb 2016 and finishing in the Hague on the 28 May 2016. Coming from a small village in the North of England 200 miles from London I applaud this initiative. I only wish they could have included a trip to the UK this year as they have done in previous years. But the Netherlands is not far and no part of that country is hard to reach. A performance by 12 of the most promising young dancers in the world would richly reward the jounrey.
My birthday falls on Sunday. Don't ask me how old I will be because it's depressing. But there is one thing that never fails to cheer me up and that is to watch the excellent young men and women of the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet. They are recent graduates of some of the world's best ballet schools and they are now cadet members of one of the world's best companies. I featured them in a series of articles in 2014 (see The Junior Company3 Dec 2014) and I have been following them for almost as long as I have been keeping this blog.
Last weekend they danced in the finals of the Lausanne International Ballet Competition. This weekend they will begin their tour of the Netherlands with a performance of Ballet Bubbles at the Meervaart wherever that may be. Their programme will consist of
La Vivandière Pas de six – Arthur Saint-Léon
Ballet 101 – Eric Gauthier
Fuse – Charlotte Edmonds
5 – David Dawson
Kurt Weill – Krzysztof Pastor
Trois Gnossienes – Hans van Manen
New work – Ernst Meisner.
I will catch their matinee on Sunday which will enable me to see Ted Brandsen's Mata Harithe night before and catch a plane home in time for work on Monday. The role of Mata Hari will be danced by Anna Tsygankova. She danced Cinderella at the Coliseum so delightfully. That will be another treat,
