Welcome Back! Junior Company returns to the Linbury

Standard YouTube Licence

Dutch National Ballet Junior Company Young Talent Festival Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House 5 July 2019, 19:45

Last night I dashed down to London to welcome the Dutch National Ballet, Junior Company back to the UK. I have been following them since 24 Nov 2013 when I first saw them at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam.  They visited London for the first time in 2014 (see And can they fly! The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at Covent Garden 30 May 2014) and again in 2015 (see Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015). Since then the Linbury has been closed for refurbishment.  Last night they returned as part of the Royal Ballet's Young Talent Festival.

I went to Amsterdam in 2013 to see Michaela DePrince whom I had first mentioned in April 2013 - several months before she joined the Junior Company,  I saw her at the Stasshouwberg and was impressed:

"I had come to Amsterdam to see Michaela dePrince about whom I have written a lot. She appeared as Diana in Diana & Actaeon a ballet originally choreographed by Agrippina Vaganova for the Kirov in 1935. Soviet ballet was athletic and spectacular requiring enormous virtuosity. I had seen something of dePrince's virtuosity in her YouTube videos but she is even more impressive in real life. She is quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while."

But I was also impressed by the other 11 dancers. I have followed their careers and those of their successors ever since. I have seen many performances by several cohorts of the Junior Company but I don't think I have ever seen the Junior Company dance better than they did last night. 

More satisfyingly, the audience loved them. London sees a lot of dance - possibly more than any city in the world with the possible exception of New York - and balletomanes in our national capital do not easily rise to their feet for anything. I have always stood up for the Junior Company but in London, I have often been the only one. Yesterday I was joined by others and there was certainly a lot of noise even from those who had remained seated.

The programme started with Ernst Meisner's No Time Before Time.  That is one of my favourite ballets from one of my favourite choreographers of all time. Meisner's work touches my emotions in a way that only one other work has ever done.  When I see Embers, for example, my eyes begin to water, I start to sniffle, my body begins to tremble. I deploy every single sinew to control myself.  Only Fokine's Dying Swan has the same effect on me and that is at least partly because of its association with Pavlova.  No Time before Time is exuberant and makes me want to join the dancers on stage. It has a beautiful score by Alexander Balanescu that echoed tin my brain all the way back home to Yorkshire. Lasr night's cast interpreted it differently from those who danced it at Lausanne and the Meervaart in 2016. Perhaps more sensitively and delicately but equally delightfully. 

The next work was Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse which I had also seen at the Meervaart in 2016.  Set to Armand Amar's Dam in China and Paddy Fields it begins with three dancers who appear to be bound to each other with their bonds behind their back. As the music changes from vocals to percussion the dancers appear to break free.  In a short speech before the show, Ernst Meisner explained that the idea for Fuse had originated on the Linbury stage the last time the Junior Company had visited London.  They had been so impressed with Edmonds's work that the company had invited her to create a work for the Junior Company in Amsterdam.  In a short video which was shown before the piece was performed Edmonds reflected on the encounter between different cultures, interests and traditions. "Fuse" in this context appears to mean the result of mixing rather than the ignition of explosive (though it could also have meant that). The first time that I saw that ballet, I wrote:  "This was the first time I had seen Edmonds's work and I look forward to more." Since then I have seen more at Northern Ballet's Tell Tale Steps 2 and I look forward to her work with Ballet Cymru.

Daniela Cardim's Cardim's What got you here was the only work that I had not seen before.  It was a thought provoking piece but one that was not entirely bereft of humour.  There was a commentary which started with a celebration of the genetic accident that each individual represents but continued with the chilling thought that well over 99% of all life forms  that have ever existed are now extinct. There was an exchange of finger pointing that seemed to result in a realization that any responsibility for such mass-extinctions is pretty widely shared. There was the interesting discussion of the circularity of time and movement. If a traveller started in a straight line to travel to the end of the universe he would eventually return to his starting point.  More disturbing was considering what would happen if we knew the world would be destroyed within 4 years by the explosion of a neighbouring star,  Would farmers bother to plant crops or deliver them to stores?  The work ended dramatically with the dancers pointing accusingly at the audience before retracting their fingers and directing them to themselves.

An interval followed Cardim's work in which members of the audience were equipped with tiny red and green torches for Juanjo Arques's Fingers in the Air.   That was a work I had seen at the company's fifth anniversary show on 15 April 2018 (see  "In the Future" - Junior Company's Fifth Anniversary Performance 17 April 2018).  This time the commentary was in English. The audience was asked to vote on whether the men or women should dance, whether we wanted to see solos or duets and whether we wanted the dancers to perform with or without lights.   It did not matter because at the end we were shown what we had been missing but the audience voted for the women, duets and lights. The site of the whole company dressed in the same black leotards was compelling.  Arques was in the audience. I greeted him just before his piece started. It happened to be his birthday, What a way to celebrate!

The last work was Hans van Manen's In the Future.  I had seen that work in the fifth anniversary show and also at last September's gala.  Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, two new movements were added to In the Future.   According to the programme notes, these were Winter and The Sound of Business which were part of David Byrne's Music for the Knee Plays album.  I enjoyed Winter and the Sound of Business but I would have preferred to see them as separate pieces. Each of those works is a complete work itself in words and music as well as dance.  It was, however, a spectacular way to end a very successful evening and a triumphant return to London.

The Junior Company will perform again tonight at 19:45. I do not know whether tickets are still on sale at the box office but if they are and you can reach the House in time I strongly recommend this show,

"In the Future" - Junior Company's Fifth Anniversary Performance

Standard YouTube Licence

Dutch National Ballet Junior Company In the Future 15 April 2018, 19:30  Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam

In the Future is a triple bill to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company.  It takes its title from Hans van Manen's masterpiece of the same name which in turn takes its name from David Byrne's setting of his own words:

"In the future everyone will have the same haircut and the same clothes.
In the future everyone will be very fat from the starchy diet.
In the future everyone will be very thin from not having enough to eat.
In the future it will be next to impossible to tell girls from boys, even in bed ....."

This is a visually arresting but also a very witty piece.  It opens to a repetitive, pulsating score suggesting an industrial process.  The dancers enter the stage in pairs coalesce into larger groups then separate into smaller ones again.  Each and every movement in completely synchronized just like the equipment and components on an assembly line.

Van Manen created In the Future in 1986 for the Scarpino Ballet of Rotterdam but it could have been tailored for the Junior Company. It requires 12 very special dancers with very sharp minds and very agile bodies.  The young men and women who performed at the Stadsschouwburg on Sunday night are among the best on the planet.  Their artistic coordinator, Ernst Meisner, scored the world looking for them at competitions like the Prix de Lausanne and the Youth America Grand Prix and elsewhere. Watching those artists was a mesmerizing, awe-inspiring experience that swept the audience to their feet.

Of the towering choreographic geniuses of my youth - Ashton, Balanchine, Béjart, Cranko, MacMillan, Petit - van Manen is the only one left and he is still busy.  He is one of the reasons why the Dutch National Ballet is special.  He symbolizes its willingness to innovate and thereby renew itself. Van Manen's muse is the great ballerina, Igone de Jongh, and she was the Junior Company's ballet master for Sunday's performance.   In the trailer. Ode to the Master, de Jongh and van Mann dance together.  There could have been no stronger collaboration for this work.

© 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert
All rights reserved

The colours red and green were also used by the brilliant Spanish choreographer Juanjo Arqués in Fingers in the Air.  Click on the link to the left to see the video as it is the best way to explain the work.  Lamps no more than an inch long were distributed to the audience and carried by the cast. One emitted red light and the other green.  At various stages of the performance groups of dancers competed with each other - three men against three women or a soloist against a duet - and the members of the audience were asked to vote on which performance they preferred, Celebrity Big Brother style using their lamps. On the first vote, the women won. The jubilant females punched the air and continued to dance as the dejected males slunk away.  Perhaps this was the beginning of a whole new art form - reality ballet.

Towards the end of the work the lights went down. The dancers continued to dance but all that was visible was the movement of the reds and greens just like fireflies. The effect was magical and captivating especially when members of the audience lit their lamps too

I discussed the work with the choreographer after the show.  "What if the audience had chosen the men in the first vote?" I asked.  "The audience had been guided" Juanjo added. "Just like we were in the Brexit referendum," I suggested, "or the Americans who voted for Donald Trump?" The choreographer did not deny the possibility of a political dimension to his work though I got the impression he was more comfortable discussing the analogy with reality TV where the viewers are consumers.

Though the Dutch National Ballet is innovative it is also strongly rooted in a tradition and looks beyond Petipa to Bournonville.  The Junior Company's homage to that tradition was the Pas de Six and Tarantella from Napoli.  Though notionally set in Italy Napoli is associated primarily with the Royal Danish Ballet - much in the same way as Ashton's La Fille mal gardée is quintessentially English even though it is supposed to be located in pre-revolutionary France.  In their swirling skirts the women were enchanting.  The men in their breeches and white shirts and stockings were so dashing. This is a feel good ballet if ever there was. Coached by Ernst Meisner and Caroline Sayo Iura the dancers were magnificent.

I cannot think of a better choice of work than those three ballets to show off the qualities of the Dutch National Ballet.  It is that combination of innovation and classicism that distinguishes that company from the others.  From time to time representatives of the company thank me for my support.  "But I don't think I do" I explain "other than by sitting in the audience and being one of the company's Friends." I am not, alas, an industrialist or aristocrat who could donate what I would like to give and that company deserves.  All I can do is cross the North Sea to see its shows whenever I can.  Why wouldn't I?   This company has a je ne sais quoi that makes it great.  I say that in all seriousness and with all sincerity.

Junior Company - Five Tremendous Years

Standard YouTube Licence

In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014, Ernst Meisner. the Artistic Coordinator of the Dutch National Company Junior Company, told me how that company came to be formed:

“It has been a wish of Artistic Director Ted Brandsen for a long time to have a Junior Company to bridge the gap between school and company. While Christopher Powney was Director at the National Ballet Academy and placing the school on the international map, it seemed the right time to start such a young group. I was involved in setting the Junior Company up and it has been great to have the chance to develop the way we like this venture to go together with Ted and Christopher (now Jean-Yves Esquerre) during the years. We had a great start last year, with seven of the first group actually having joined the main company now."

I was lucky enough to attend the first performance of that company at the  Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam  which I reviewed in The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013.  On 15 April 2018 I am returning to the Stadsshouwburg to celebrate that company's fifth anniversary with a special performance of In the Future by the current members of the Junior Company.

According to the Dutch National Ballet's website, In the Future will be a triple bill consisting of the Napoli Suite (Pas de Six and Tarantella) by August Bournonville, Fingers in the Air, a new work by Juanjo Arques and In the Future by Hans van Manen.  it is described as "an attractive, yet daring programme for twelve dancers."  It differs from previous galas that I have seen where up to 8 new works were presented in a single evening.

Because I had been married for many years to a Sierra Leonean national who loved ballet as much as I do and knew a lot more about it, I was thrilled to learn about a young American dancer of Sierra Leonean origin.  She was already carving an enviable reputation for herself by winning the Youth America Grand Prix. her film First Position and early reviews of her performances in New York and her guest appearances in South Africa (see Michaela DePrince 4 April 2013).  When I learned that she had moved to Amsterdam my heart leapt (see No Holds Barred  4 Oct 2013).  I bought a ticket for the Junior Company's first show and booked a flight to Amsterdam.

When I eventually saw DePrince I described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" but she was not the only dancer who impressed me that night. So, too, did Sho Yamada who partnered DePrince in Diana and Actaeon and all the other brilliant young people whom I saw on 24 Nov 2013 and subsequently.  On my last visit to Amsterdam just over a month ago I was overjoyed to see Yamada and Riho Sakamoto top the bill in Don Quixote (see A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote 1 March 2018).

I have got to know several of those dancers.  When the outstanding young dancer and choreographer, Cristiano Principato, brought friends and colleagues from the Dutch National Ballet and other major companies to Trecate, a small town in Piedmont to raise funds for the charity Casa Alessia, I attended and reviewed their show (see From Italy with Love  1 July 2015).  The next year Principato arranged an even more ambitious programme of new choreography in Amsterdam called New Moves I was there for that too. One of the dancers who accompanied Principato to Italy was Thomas van Damme. Van Damme.  Van Damme also showed enormous talent as a choreographer in  New Moves 2017 but he also shows extraordinary talent as a film maker (see The Ballet Couple 8 Sept 2016). In that regard he reminds me so much of our own Kenneth Tindall.

If you can't make the Staddshouwburg next Sunday you get another chance to see it on 28 June 2018 at the Korzo Theatre in the Hague, The International Court, the International Criminal Court and a branch of the European Patent Office are also to be found there though only a lawyer would be interested in that kind of thing.  One of my ballet teachers danced there in The Lion King but he has now returned to Manchester.

If you miss In the Future  I recommend the opening night gala on the 8 Sept 2018 which is followed by a party a which you can meet the dancers and choreographers, Giselle, Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella and Rudi van Dantzig;s Swan Lake.  There is now a direct train to Amsterdam from St Pancras and yesterday The Guardian published the Top 10 affordable hotels, hostels and B&Bs in Amsterdam.   

Ballet's Accelerator: Crowdfunding the Junior Company's Fifth Anniversary Ballet

Standard YouTube Licence


Next year will be the fifth anniversary of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company. I was fortunate enough to see one of its first public performances at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam on the 24 Nov 2013 (see
The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013).

The Junior Company has launched the careers of outstanding young dancers in the Dutch National Ballet and elsewhere. Of the dancers I saw in November 2013, Michaela DePrince is already a soloist, Jessica Xuan and Sho Yamada are coryphées and several others are in the corps. Although the Central School of Ballet has Ballet Central, the Northern Ballet School has Manchester City Ballet and Ballet West has a company that tours Scotland at the beginning of each year, we don't have an equivalent in the UK. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of another company anywhere in the world that has anything quite like the Junior Company. All the analogies that spring to mind lie outside dance.  The closest that springs to mind is the famous Y Combinator accelerator of Silicon Valley.

The analogy with Silicon Valley accelerators can be taken a stage further in that the object of such programmes is to enable the young companies to attract investment. The Junior Company has used crowdfunding in the past to train young dancers (see Crowdfunding for the Ballet 25 May 2016). Now the company is using crowdfunding to raise money for a brand new ballet.

On the Dutch giving site Voordekunst (which I guess means "For the Arts") the company is appealing for €30,000 for a new ballet by Juanjo Arques to celebrate its fifth anniversary (see Maak een ballet met de Junior Company (so like English that I am not going to insult my readers' intelligence by translating it)). The choice of choreographer is a good one because Arques has already created Blink and Fresas (Strawberries) for the young dancers.

This is a rare and possibly unique opportunity for members of the public to participate in the creative process (see "The First Ballet by the Junior Company and You"). Contributors can attend the first meeting with the artistic team at the beginning of September where they will be "brainstorming about the ballet, the music, the lighting, the costumes and the dancers." The company's website describes it as "a unique moment, as this is where the very first ideas for the ballet are conceived" and adds appealingly "you can be part of it." Contributors will also be among the first to see the costumes and to witness the rehearsals.

So far €3,045 has been raised for the project from 29 donors which is not a bad start and there are still another 33 days to go. I invite all my readers to dig deep for Juanjo Arques, Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers. 

Kammerballett

Kammerballett

Photo Altin Kaftira
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Licensed by kind permission of the company

Dutch National Ballet Kammerballett Stopera, 7 Sept 2016

Kammerballett (literally Chamber Ballet in German) was created by Hans van Manen for the Netherlands Dance Theatre (Nederlands Dans Theater) and was first performed in the Hague in 1995. It is set to the music of Domenico Scarlatti and features a piano and a lot of chairs as well as the dancers.

Photo Altin Kaftire
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced by kind permission of the company

The leading dancers in this piece were  Vito Mazzeo and Igone de Jongh but they were supported by a very distinguished cast: Rachel Beaujean, Floor Elmers, Juanjo Arques, Ernst Meisner, Marijn Rademaker, James Stout and Alexander Zhermbrovskyy. Ernst Meinser and Juanjo Arques are particularly well known to British audiences as they danced for the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet respectively. It was very good to see them both on stage again.

The above photo shows the principals with the other dances sitting on the chairs in the background.

Fuse

Belle Beasley with Thomas van Damme and Antonio Martinez in Fuse

Photo Michel Schnater
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet
All rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by the company

Another great photo from the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's matinee performance at the Meervaart Theatre on 14 Feb 2016 which I reviewed in Ballet Bubbles on 16 Feb 2016. This photo shows Belle Beasley with Thomas van Damme and Antonio Martinez Cegarra in Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse.

Two other bits of news about the Junior Company.

Tomorrow they will perform Fresas ("Strawberries"), a new ballet by Juanjo Arques on Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights in 's-Hertogenbosch which was the artist's home town.

The above triptych hangs in the Prado in the choreographer's capital city. A neat link between the Netherlands and Spain.

The other news is that it Bart Engelen's birthday. Bart wowed the Linbury last year with his solo performance of Full Moon (see Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015).

Bart is now with the Norwegian National Ballet.  I am sure I speak for everyone who saw him in London in wishing him a happy birthday and continued success in his career.

The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet

The Dutch National Ballet Grand Défilé

Angela Sterling
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet

All rights reserved

Dutch National Ballet Gala 2015, Stopera, Amsterdam, 8 Sept 2015


Last Tuesday I attended the opening gala of the 2015-2016 Amsterdam ballet season.  It was the best night I have ever spent at the ballet. I have been to some great galas in my time including Northern Ballet's 45th anniversary celebration earlier this year (see Sapphire  15 March 2015) and Sir Frederick Ashton's retirement on 24 July 1970 but this was the best ever. I still feel as though I am floating several feet off the ground from the experience. Goodness knows when I will come down to earth.

The gala took place at the Stopera which is also known as the Music Theatre in Amsterdam. That building stands on the banks of the River Amstel and one of the city's canals. It has a white marble façade that is impressive by day and magical when floodlit at night. It houses a massive auditorium with two tiers of seats and an enormous stage. Every tier has a terrace overlooking the river. The terrace is an excellent place to reflect on the previous act on a warm summer evening.

I had been to the Stopera in June to see Cool Britannia (see Going Dutch 29 June 2015) and was impressed with it then. On Tuesday it was even more grand because everyone in the audience (including me) had been invited to a party after the show. Almost all the gents were in black tie and the majority of the ladies were in long evening dress. I have been to special performances at the Paris Opera, Lincoln Center and, of course, Covent Garden as well as many other theatres in the UK but nowhere  had I such such elegance, such glitter, such chic.

Upon our arrival we were offered drinks: champagne or some other bubbly, red and white wine, soft drinks and whatever happened to be behind the bar. Knowing that I had to wake at the crack of dawn for my return flight to be followed by a long day's work I grabbed a glass of sparkling mineral water and opened my purse to pay for it. "Don't worry" said the barman "it's on the house tonight." Another little treat that does not happen very often at home was a free programme. It was in Dutch but although that language's rules of pronunciation defeat most English speakers (including me) the written language is sufficiently like English and German for most Anglophones to get the gist without too much difficulty.

Just before 19:30 a gong summoned us to our seats. I was in the stalls (zaal) just 9 rows from the stage so my view was excellent. The auditorium was packed. I did not see a single empty seat. The house lights dimmed and an electronic notice board above the stage announced the first work. It was the Grand Défilé danced by the Dutch National Ballet, the Junior Company and the students of the National Ballet Academy to Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. The piece had been choreographed by the company's Artistic Director Ted Brandsen and its Welsh ballet mistress, Judy Maelor Thomas. The conductor. Matthew Rowe who was born in London, readied the orchestra.  The curtain rose. The music started. A row of little children in leotards marched on stage to thunderous applause. They were followed by rows of increasingly older children, then the dancers of the Junior Company, the company's  élèves (or apprentices as we might call them), the corps, the coryphées, grands subjets (junior soloists), soloists and finally the principals. The ballerinas partnered by their premiers danseurs nobles. All the women in the company were in gorgeous white tutus. The men were in black. Each rank of dancers took their place on stage until the spectacular formation depicted above had been achieved. All the company's stars were there including its guest artist Matthew Golding. Rarely if ever have I seen such an array of balletic talent on stage at the any one time.

The curtain fell and on to the stage walked Ted Brandsen. As his web page notes:

"Under the directorship of Ted Brandsen (1959, Kortenhoef, the Netherlands) the Dutch National Ballet has made enormous progress. In 2013, for instance, the New York Times ranked the company in the top five dance institutions in the world that presented new productions, and De Süddeutsche Zeitung ranked the group in the top three in the world."

I was fortunate enough to meet him at the reception which followed the opening night of the Junior Company's tour of the Netherlands in February (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015), Brandsen began his talk in Dutch but then switched to English to welcome the many members of the audience from overseas. He spoke of the history of the company and its great achievements in recent years. All that had been accomplished in the last 70 years as there was no balletic tradition in the Netherlands before that time.

I reflected on our own slightly longer ballet history which began with the visits of the Ballets Russes before the first world war, the work of Adeline Genée, Marie Rambert and Ninette de Valois, the formation of the Ballet Club and The Camargo Society and the wartime tour of the Netherlands by the Vic-Wells Ballet just before the German invasion which nearly ended in disaster.

My reflection was interrupted by Brandsen's introducing the great ballerina Alexandra Radius. She was one of the great stars of my youth and I remember seeing her in London. A short video showed her dancing various roles. Brandsen reminded us of her enormous contribution to the company. Then she entered the stage. A strikingly beautiful and elegant woman.  Brandsen explained that an award known as the Alexandra Radius prize had been established in her honour for the most outstanding dancer of the year. It had been won by Matthew Golding in 2011, Igone de Jongh in 2003, Casey Herd in 2012 and Anna Tsygankova in 2007. This year's winner was Maia Makhateli who had once danced with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Impressively as she was born in Georgia and has spent much of her life in English speaking countries she delivered her acceptance speech in what appeared to me to be fluent Dutch. A film showed her dancing the great ballerina roles.

In honour of Alexandra Radius the first pas de deux of the evening was Voorbij Gegaan which I understand to mean Gone Forever. That piece had been choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig for Radius and her husband Han Ebelaar. On Tuesday it was danced by de Jongh and Herd. That was the first time I had seen de Jongh dance and she was wonderful. So, too, was her partner. I savoured every single step, turn and lift as I would a fine claret.

Next came Anna Ol and Semyon Velichko. Those dancers have only just joined the company so this was a first opportunity to see them not only for me but for most of the audience. They danced the final pas de deux between Solor and Nikiya in the kingdom of the shades from the last act of La Bayadère. Having seen Denis Rodkin and Irina Kolesnikova in that role at the Coliseum on 23 Aug 2015 the choreography and music were fresh in my memory (see Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere 24 Aug 2015). The Dutch version had been choreographed by Natalia Makarova and Minkus's music had been arranged by John Lanchberry.

That beautiful pas de deux was followed by Juanjo Arques's Rewind danced by Suzanna Kaic and Vito Mazzeo to music by Gorecki. Arques had created Blink for the Junior Company which had been a great success in both Amsterdam and London (see Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015). I made his acquaintance at the reception that followed the first night of the Junior Company's tour and have followed his career very closely ever since. Arques took a bow after the performance of his work and it was great to see him.

A work from the English choreographer David Dawson came next. I had admired greatly his Empire Noir in Cool Britannia and had been looking forward to On the Nature of Daylight danced by Sasha Mukhamedov and James Stout to the music of Max Richter. I felt a surge of patriotic pride in this largely British line-up. It was very different from Empire Noir but no less enjoyable. Dawson has spent much of his career in Amsterdam and is now an associate artist of the company.  It would be good to see more of his work at home.

Next came Two Pieces for Het choreographed by the great Hans van Manen for Makhateli and Remi Wörtmeyer to music by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Arvo Pärt. These were composers I had not heard before. The performance was received enthusiastically.  

The first half of the evening was rounded off gloriously by Golding and Tsygankova's pas de deux from the black Act of Swan Lake. That was thrilling although I couldn't help thinking of my own shortcomings when I tried to learn Siegfried's solo at KNT's ballet intensive last month (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 3 20 Aug 2015). They were as magnificent in Swan Lake as they had been in Cinderella on 8 July 2015 (see Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015). Apparently it is not the done thing in Amsterdam to clap until Legnani's  32 fouettés are completed. I started clapping when I would in London and quickly stopped after attracting stares.

There were more free drinks and tempting chocolates on every table in the interval.  I bought my daughter manquée (otherwise known as Vlad's mum) a Michaela DePrince T-shirt. As I think I have mentioned more than once in this publication I was married to a Sierra Leonean for nearly 28 years and we gave refuge to a young woman from Freetown in 1990. She later read economics at Cambridge, married a splendid chap from Ghana and they now have a little boy known as Vlad-the-Lad. She is the nearest I have to a daughter and she has been a great comfort to me in the 5 years since my late spouse died. Like many Sierra Leoneans she takes enormous pride in the achievements of Michaela DePrince. When she heard I was going to Amsterdam she asked me whether I might meet DePrince. "It's very unlikely" I told her. "There will be so many people at the party and I am sure Ms DePrince will be surrounded by well wishers. But I can try to get you a Michaela T-shirt."  Before the gong sounded I met two acquaintances from England: Alison Potts (immediate past chair of the London Ballet Circle and Helen McDonough from the Wirral who contributes under the moniker DonQ Fan.

When we returned to the auditorium images of falling snow were projected on to the stage. Before the house lights dimmed two dancers dressed as lions were in the auditorium. Then I recognized some of the beautiful young dancers from the Junior Company on stage. The beat was compelling. The dance an amalgam of ballet and hip hop. It was Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Ernst Mesiner and Marco Gerris. A collaboration between the Junior Company and ISH Dance Collective. That was the highlight of the show for me. When Ernst visited the London Ballet Circle he mentioned the possibility of bringing it to the UK. It would be wonderful if that were ever to happen. Particularly if it could be brought to Leeds or Manchester.

One of the works for which Radius is remembered is Le Corsaire and we were reminded of her artistry in that role by a short film. In her honour the final pas de deux from that ballet was danced by Qian Liu and Young Gyu Choi.  This is a beautiful ballet that I have seen only once on stage and once on an HDTV transmission from Moscow. The pas de deux was executed exquisitely.

It was followed by John Neumeier's La Dame aux  Camélias danced by de Jongh and Marijn Rademaker. Although very different I could not help thinking of Ashton's Marguerite and Armand danced by Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev which had also been inspired by the Dumas novel. Neumeier had used Chopin whereas Ashton had chosen Liszt but Neumeier's work was equally beautiful.

Next came Makhateli and Artur Shesterikov in the Diamonds pas de deux from Balanchine's Jewels. This is one of my very favourite ballets. Shesterikov had impressed me tremendously in Empire Noir and I admired him even more after seeing him in a piece that I knew well. As for Makhateli it was pretty clear why she had won the Radius prize this year. They were both magnificent.

The finale was Wheeldon's Concerto Concordia which I had admired so much in Cool Britannia. Tsygankova and Jozef Varga danced one couple as they had last time but the other couple were Nadia Ynowsky and Wörtmeyer. This was almost the only time that we saw members of the company other than principals and soloists and it was good to see the ensemble. The performance at the gala was even better than in Cool Britannia and the applause was deafening.

The party that followed seemed like a continuation of the ballet except that it was one in which the audience participated in the dancing. Literally for there was a disco on the ground floor of the Stopera. I joined in hoping to be partnered by Golding, Herd or Shesterikov. How many others can say that they have danced at the Amsterdam Music Theatre in the presence of members of the Dutch National Ballet? Throughout the night there was a steady flow of soft drinks, coffee and every kind of alcohol, all sorts of tasty nibbles. Although I missed Ernst Mesiner, Richard Heideman and most of the young dancers I had met in February I did meet Ted Brandsen and Juanjo Arques and I was flattered that they recognized and remembered me.

I told Brandsen that the evening excelled even Ashton's retirement gala. I am not sure that he believed me but it is true for the simple reason that the company had invited their public to their party. That is what makes the Dutch National Ballet great. It is why it is loved so much in the Netherlands and beyond. Ballet in that country does not seem to carry the elitism, exclusivity or snobbery that is to be found here. It is enjoyed by all. Every ethnic group seemed to be represented in the audience in roughly the proportions that they constitute the Netherlands population as a whole. Companies in this country could learn much from the Dutch National Ballet.

As I had been warned that the tubes stop at 01:00 in Amsterdam I left the party at 00:30. I had changed from evening dress into denim and was on my way out when I spotted Michaela DePrince.
"Excuse me" I blurted out, "are you Ms. DePrince?"
"Yes" she replied "and you are?"
I told her my name and that I had written about her in Terpsichore. I also mentioned my connection with Sierra Leone.
"You probably saved that young woman's life" she replied.
I don't think that was ever the case because Vlad's mum came from Freetown which suffered only briefly at the hands of the RUF and indeed her parents and siblings escaped to Nigeria during the occupation but it was so sweet of her to say so. As I was rushing for my tube and the party was still young our conversation was very brief but it was like the icing on a cake. I left the Stopera thinking how that exceptionally talented young dancer was as gracious off stage as she is magnificent upon it.

Now dear readers if you have persevered so far you will know why I am still on a high. I have learned one very important lesson from it.  As Voltaire said:

"Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l'ennemi du bien."

Three days after the gala I attended Northern Ballet's 1984 at West Yorkshire Playhouse. I went there because the company is always at its best in The Quarry. I knew the performance would be good and indeed it was but I just couldn't appreciate it.  I think any performance by any company would have been an anticlimax after that gala. Next time I attend an event like the Dutch gala I will leave at least a week before I see any other ballet. I owe that to the dance maker and artists.

The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet

Thomas van Damme and Nancy Burer in Embers

Photo Michel Schnater
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

On 24 Nov 2013 I attended the first night of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's tour of the Netherlands (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 (25 Nov 2013)). I had come to Amsterdam to see Michaela DePrince as I had heard of her appearance in the documentary First Position and her performance as Gulnare  in the South African Mzansi Ballet's production of Le Corsaire. 

Through coming to watch her I discovered the Junior Company and was charmed by them. They are a very attractive group of young people. Their performances begin with a group photo projected onto a screen that suddenly springs to life. "We are young"says one. "We are international" says another. ""We are fun"says a third. "We are the Junior Company"they say in unison to tinkles of laughter. How can anyone not be charmed by such beautiful and vivacious young people?

The Junior Company's performance of  24 Nov 2013 was one of the most memorable I had ever experienced in the theatre. It was rewarded by a standing ovation which does not happen very often outside political party conferences. I doubted that I would ever see a performance like that one ever again.- but I was wrong, The opening night of the Junior Company's 2015 tour on 6 Feb 2015 at the same theatre won another standing ovation. In my judgment that opening night was even better than the last one.

Before the show there was a short speech by Ted Brandsen, the Dutch National Ballet's Artistic Director. As it was in Dutch which is a language that I have not yet mastered I could make out only a few words but it seemed to tell the origins of the Junior Company, its achievements to date (one of which was its successful visit to the Linbury last year) and an appeal for continued public support. At a reception after the performance I was told by several guests, including the wife of the gentleman in charge of fund raising and also by one of the retired principal dancers, that there is nothing like our Arts Council of England in the Netherlands and that ballet has to rely on box office receipts and individual and corporate donations albeit that one of the largest of those corporate donors is the local authority. If that is the case, the achievement of the Dutch National Ballet in attaining and maintaining the highest artistic standards is all the more remarkable.

The show that the Junior Company are taking on tour is called Ballet Classics and Modern Masters. It is described aptly on the Company's website as "a journey through dance history from the classics to new works created especially for the Junior Company" which

"begins with excerpts from famous classical ballets like Swan Lake and Napoli, which are followed by works by resident choreographer Hans van Manen (Visions Fugitives) and Embers by artistic coordinator Ernst Meisner. Furthermore dancer/choreographer Milena Sidorova presents her work Full Moon. The evening closes with spectacular new works by the young talented Spaniard Juanjo Arques (Surfacing) and Canadian choreographer Robert Binet (Blink)."

As in the last show each ballet is introduced by a short film of the dancers in rehearsal. That is an excellent way of presenting the work to an audience that is not used to ballet. It may not be necessary in Amsterdam and certainly not in London where audiences see a lot of ballet but this show is playing in towns and cities all over the Netherlands where audiences see much less dance. That same technique was used very effectively by Peter Brinson with Ballet for All which helped to create a new audience for dance in the United Kingdom between 1964 and 1979. Raising interest in dance seems to be part of the mission of the Dutch National Ballet too which it has advanced in a variety of ways including, most ingeniously, Bounden, a new dance app for mobile phones which Ernst Meisner and his dancers helped to develop.

Napoli: Riho Sakamoto, Veronika Verterich, Emilie Tassinari,
Yuanyuan Zhang

Photo Michel Schnater
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

The first work of the evening was the pas de six divertissement from Napoli. I had seen the principals and soloists of the Royal Danish Ballet perform some scenes from that ballet at The Peacock on 9 Jan 2015 so they are fresh in my memory. As I said last month we don't see anything like as much as we should of Bournonville in the UK and I love that ballet. Although it is set in Southern Italy the Danes have adopted it as their own just as we have done with La Fille mal gardée. It is a colourful, exuberant work with sparkling dancing to a catchy score. The dancers on Friday were Riho Sakamoto, Veronika Verterich, Emilie Tassinari, Yuanyuan Zhang, Cristiano Principato and Martin ten Kortenaar. I don't think I have ever seen a happier performance of Napoli.

The next work was Embers by Ernst Meisner. I have not yet seen much of Meisner's choreography but everything that I have seen I have liked enormously. His Saltarello was the highlight of last year's show and this performance of Embers by Nancy Burer and Thomas van Damme to the haunting music of Max Richter was my favourite this year. Quite simply, it is one of the most beautiful ballets I have ever seen. Its beauty had me close to tears. Like that of our own Christopher Marney, Meisner's work reminds me very much of Cranko's who is my all time favourite choreographer. London audiences have been reminded of Cranko's genius by the Royal Ballet's production of Onegin which I shall see on 16 Feb - my 66th birthday present from I to me. Sadly Cranko died very young but happily we now have Meisner and I just can't get enough of his work.

Next up was the first pas de deux by Siegfried and Odette in Swan Lake danced beautifully by ten Kortenaar and Zhang. The version that the Dutch dance is by Rudi van Dantzig. I've seen this ballet many times and  thought I knew it well but I learned a lot from the video of the rehearsal. "If you position yourself you will naturally turn"  said Igone de Jongh to Zhang. "You don't need to make yourself turn". Then later "You don't want to leave..... but you leave." No doubt compelled by Rothbart's spell. I understood not only the mechanics of the choreography but also the emotion of the piece so much more.

Bart Engelen, Full Moon

Photo Michel Schnater
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Milena Siderova's Full Moon was such fun. The music to Romeo and Juliet boomed across the auditorium but there was no sword fight, crowd scene or bedroom pas de deux. Just Bart Engelen clutching a cushion. Engelen is a beautiful young man. Tall and muscular, blond and slender. He contorted himself into all kinds of shapes as Ed Watson did in the first act of Winter's Tale. "This pillow has such a force" explained Siderova in the film. "You can't let it go". I wondered why the company had placed this work immediately after Swan Lake and then it dawned on me. Siegfied saw Odette by moonlight and she was also under a force, namely Siegfried's spell that she could not let go. And why Romeo and Juliet? Well it is a good tune but perhaps the lovers were sent to their by a force that they could not let go.

The first part of the show was rounded off by Hans van Manen's Visions Fugitives. He is one of the all time greats in ballet and I have admired his work for for as long as I can remember. This was the first time this work had been danced by the National Ballet. It was classic van Manen. A gorgeous score also by Prokofiev. Stripy costumes for each pair of dancers in different shades of blue. Wonderful architectural shapes.  Flowing choreography. Beautiful dancing by Burer, Verterich, van Damme, Zhang, ten Kortenaar and Ryosuke Morimoto. Here and there a touch of humour. The crowd loved it as did I. And when he was coaxed on to stage to take a bow the applause exploded. 

I was dazzled by the part one. Most of the audience beetled off to the bars or the loos but I needed space and time to take in all that I had seen. I found my phone and tweeted: "The English language does not contain enough superlatives".

There was more good stuff in part two. Robet Binet's "Surfacing" which was also commissioned for the show. "Get closer. Closer. Closer, Smile more, That's nice" said Binet on the film to his dancers, Sakimoto, Principato, Burer and the company's very latest recruit Antonio Martinez. "Chassé as though you were skating." As Meisner reminds me of Cranko so Binet reminded me of van Manen. More interesting group shapes. The same fluidity. Similar pairing of dancers in costume as well as style. And even the same sort of touches of humour. The audience seemed to recognize the likeness and acknowledged him with the same thunderous applause as they had given van Manen when Binet came out to take his bow. This was the first time I have seen Binet's work and I can't wait to see more.

The last work Blink by Juanjo Arques was pure delight, In a way it encapsulated everything we had seen that evening. The exuberance of Napoli. The fluidity of the Meisner, van Manen and Binet. The touches of humour along the way. His music was also by Richter, His dancers were Verterich, Sakamoto, ten Kortenaar, Morimoto and Engelen. I talked to him about the ballet at the reception after the show. He explained that there was so much misery in the world right now with terrorism, war, austerity and more. We need a bit of levity. He is a charming man kissing me three times on our introduction and again when we said goodbye. "Because I am Spanish" he explained. Spanish he may be but he has danced with the English National Ballet and he knows what we Brits like. This is a work that is sure to appeal to us when we see it at The Linbury in June.

I saw the show as the guest of the company and they treated me royally. They gave me a seat in the stalls in the middle of the 12th row (more or less where I had been last time) which is probably the best place in the auditorium to see a show. That was kind of them but the invitation to attend the party after the show was even kinder. I met the dancers all of whom are beautiful. Some strikingly so. I owned up to writing their profiles in December. I met Ted Brandsen and Ernst Meisner and personally conveyed good wishes from David Nixon and Mark Skipper of Northern Ballet on the off-chance that I might see them. I met Bart Engelen's mum and told her how I admired her son's work - compliments that they both accepted graciously. 

I also got a chance to meet the press officer, Richard Heideman, who had helped me so much with my feature on the Company. Yesterday he sent me all the photos of the performance, three of which I have used today. As this is unlikely to be my last review of those works I expect to use them all. My thanks to him and everyone at the Dutch National Ballet who made my trip to Amsterdam so memorable.