End-of-year performances Dancers of Tomorrow in Dutch National Opera & Ballet, accompanied by the Dutch Ballet Orchestra

Ernst Meisners 'Poulenc Suite', photo: Sjoerd Derine

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On Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 July 2023, the Dutch National Ballet Academy is presenting its annual end-of-year production, entitled Dancers of Tomorrow. Ticket sales have already started for the performances on the big stage of Dutch National Opera & Ballet – the home base of Dutch National Ballet. This year, students and pupils of the academy will be appearing in the Dutch premieres of works by David Dawson and Didy Veldman, and in brand new creations by Remi Wörtmeyer, Ken Ossola and Iva Lešić. The programme also includes two challenging classical ballets with large casts: Rachel Beaujean’s wonderful version of Paquita and Ernst Meisner’s vivacious finale ballet Poulenc Suite. The performances of Dancers of Tomorrow  will once again have live accompaniment from the Dutch Ballet Orchestra, the regular orchestra of Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater.

Dutch premieres
A new acquisition for the Dutch National Ballet Academy is the pas de deux from David Dawson’s beautiful A Sweet Spell of Oblivion, which was created by the leading British choreographer in 2007 for Ballet Vlaanderen. For this dreamy duet, which he describes as an ode to dance and to the dancers, Dawson was inspired by some preludes from Bach’s Das wohltemperierte Klavier. The other Dutch premiere is Didy Veldman’s Is to Be, an impressive group work to music by Arvo Pärt. It was originally created for the Prix de Lausanne Choreographic Project 2019, but has since been performed with great success by The Royal Ballet School and the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz, in Dresden.

World premieres
For
Dancers of Tomorrow, choreographer and former principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet, Remi Wörtmeyer, is creating a new, very rhythmical ensemble piece to the last movement of George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto. For the occasion, the Dutch Ballet Orchestra is joined by leading pianist Nicolas van Poucke (brother of Dutch National Ballet soloist Timothy van Poucke).

The second world premiere in Dancers of Tomorrow  is by choreographer, teacher, répétiteur and former NDT dancer Ken Ossola. He, too, is making a work for a large cast, for which he has chosen a piece of music by the young Dutch composer Polle van Genechten, supplemented with a text by Martino Muller.

Classical repertoire
This year, the pupils and students will, of course, also take up the challenge of the classical ballet repertoire. Pupils of NBA 4 and students on the Bachelor’s programme will be performing Marius Petipa’s Paquita, in the highly acclaimed production staged by Rachel Beaujean for Dutch National Ballet, in 2012. Artistic director Ernst Meisner is reviving his successful Poulenc Suite, which he created in 2021 for all the Bachelor’s programme students. For this ballet, too, the ranks of Dutch Ballet Orchestra will be swelled by Nicolas van Poucke, as well as by Caspar Vos, who – like Van Poucke – is regarded as one of the best pianists of his generation.

World dance and recent creations by young choreographers
Furthermore, as is now tradition, world dance choreographer and teacher Iva Lešić will create a new work for Dansers van Morgen for the academy’s youngest pupils (NBA 1 to 4). Lešić’s new four-part creation, Blast from the Past, will consist of separate pieces, ranging from melancholy lyricism to exuberant, rhythmic fireworks.

In addition, this year’s Dancers of Tomorrow  will include three works that stood out at the last edition of the Dutch National Ballet Academy’s Choreographic Project. The solos by Carla Reynés and Mathilde Valin and the group work by Gaya Hagemeierwill be combined into one continuous work by Ernst Meisner, in collaboration with the three students.

Dutch Ballet Orchestra
As an academy, we are delighted that the Dutch Ballet Orchestra will be accompanying our end-of-year performances again this year, led by principal conductor Matthew Rowe. But the partnership is not restricted to these two performance days. Throughout the year, various members of the orchestra, coordinated by second bassoonist Maud van Daal, give music lessons to the pupils of NBA 1 - NBA 7, in which they explore and focus on the function and importance of music in dance. This academic year, music education was also added to the programme for the Associate Degree students, in which clear links are made to the programmes of Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater – which are musically very varied – and to the orchestra’s own projects.

Click here to reserve your ticket(s) for one of the performances of Dancers of Tomorrow.

'Paquita' 2019: Emma Mardegan and Mischa Goodman, photo: Antoinette Mooy

'Paquita' 2019, photo: Antoinette Mooy

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