Ernst Meisner appointed as interim artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy and René Vlemmix as business manager

[Translate to English:] Ernst Meisner, photography: Sebastien Galtier

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The directorate of the Academy of Theatre and Dance of the Amsterdam University of the Arts has appointed Ernst Meisner as artistic director (ad interim) of the National Ballet Academy (NBA). At the end of September 2018,  together with business manager René Vlemmix, Ernst Meisner will take charge of the National Ballet Academy, the only training course in the Netherlands affiliated with The Dutch National Ballet. 

 

Ernst Meisner is choreographer and has been artistic coordinator for the Junior Company of The Dutch National Ballet  since 2013. He will continue in this function next to his new task as artistic director of the NBA. Ernst himself studied at the National Ballet Academy and went on to dance with The Royal Ballet and The Dutch National Ballet . He created various works for The Dutch National Ballet , including Saltarello (2012), And after we were, (2011), Het Nationale Canta Ballet, (2012), Axiom of Choice, (2014), In Transit, (2017), Impermanence, (2018) and the children’s production, De kleine grote kist, (2011). For the Junior Company he choreographed Embers, (2013), No Time Before Time, (2016) and Revelry, (2017). With Marco Gerris, artistic director of ISH, he made the much acclaimed ‘hip-hop meets ballet’ productions, Narnia: de Leeuw, de Heks en de Kleerkast, (2014) and GRIMM, (2018). Meisner also made choreographies for the New York Choreographic Institute, (part of the New York City Ballet), The Royal Ballet New Works Program, the English National Ballet School, DanceEast and the Encore Dance Company. Earlier Ernst was a guest teacher at, among others,  the English National Ballet School, the Summer Schools of The Royal Ballet School, Korean Youth Ballet Stars and the Youth American Grand Prix.

 

Rene Vlemmix worked for the Nederlands Dans Theater for 13 years during which time he was responsible for all NDT’s international projects. Since three years he is active as independent (interim) manager and advisor in the podium arts field. He was general manager of Springdance, a festival for contemporary dance in Utrecht. In this capacity he  co-founded the SPRING International Performing Arts Festival for which he worked as business manager till 2015. 

 

Intensive collaboration between the Junior Company and The Dutch National Ballet 

The appointment of Ernst Meisner reinforces the National Ballet Academy’s partnership with the Junior Company. The National Ballet Academy founded the ensemble in 2013 in collaboration with Het National Ballet to serve as a special launch pad for talented graduate dancers. The relation between the two partners will be continued and further developed. Young dancers from the National Ballet Academy also perform at the Dutch National Ballet in major productions like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet. At a very early age they gain the necessary experience on the large stage of the Nationale Opera & Ballet.

[Translate to English:] René Vlemmix

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