Under the title Dansers van Morgen, the Dutch National Ballet Academy’s annual end-of-year performances will take place on the big stage of Dutch National Opera & Ballet, on 5 and 6 July. The students and pupils of the academy will be dancing works by leading choreographers Crystal Pite (along with students of the Canadian Arts Umbrella), William Forsythe and Hans van Manen. The programme also includes various classical ballets and several new works created especially for the students and pupils. The performances will have live accompaniment from the Dutch Ballet Orchestra, led by principal conductor Matthew Rowe. Other participants in this new edition of Dansers van Morgen are the pianists Thomas Beijer and Nicolas van Poucke, and singer/performer Joost Spijkers.
Crystal Pite, William Forsythe and Hans van Manen
A new acquisition for the Dutch National Ballet Academy is Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon, which she created in 2016 for the prestigious Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris. A mixed cast totalling 50 students from the Dutch National Ballet Academy and Arts Umbrella from Vancouver will dance two sections from Pite’s work at this edition of Dancers of Tomorrow. The Bachelor’s students of the Dutch National Ballet Academy will also be dancing excerpts from William Forsythe’s masterpiece Artifact Suite, and to celebrate the coming ninetieth birthday of Hans van Manen (patron of the Dutch National Ballet Academy), the young pupils from NBA 2, 3 and 4 will perform Unisono – Van Manen’s only work choreographed especially for ballet pupils – to the Air by Bach.
Classical repertoire
And this year, the pupils and students will, of course, once again take up the challenge of the classical ballet repertoire. For example, the Bachelor’s students are dancing the famous pas de deux from Marius Petipa’s nineteenth-century masterpiece Don Quixote. There is a revival of the successful Poulenc Suite, by artistic director Ernst Meisner, which he created last year for all the Bachelor’s students. Especially for this ballet, the ranks of the Dutch Ballet Orchestra will be swelled by two leading pianists: Thomas Beijer (winner of the Dutch Music Prize 2022) and Nicolas van Poucke (brother of the ballet soloist Timothy van Poucke). Meisner is also choreographing a new piece for the pupils of NBA 5, 6 and 7, set to Tchaikovsky’s famous Garland Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty.
World dance and recent creations by young choreographers
It has become a tradition for the youngest pupils (NBA 1 - 4) to appear in a new world dance piece choreographed by teacher Iva Lešić, and this year is no exception. This time, she is working with her husband, the singer and performer Joost Spijkers. And this edition of Dansers van Morgenalso includes two recent works by talented young choreographers. Harmless Banter, created by the Canadian guest student Maya Smallwood, was one of the highlights of the last edition of the Dutch National Ballet Academy’s Choreographic Project. The dancers of the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company will be performing If only I knew the right way by the student Zoë Greten. She created the work for Shooting Stars, the programme that the Junior Company is taking on tour throughout the Netherlands this month and next month. Greten previously stood out for her creations for the Choreographic Project and her participation in the Dutch National Ballet’s Choreographic Academy.
Highlight
All the pupils and students of the National Ballet Academy will be taking part in this new edition of Dansers van Morgen – from the ten and eleven-year-olds who have just started their training to the exceptionally talented young dancers who are part of the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company during their final year as a student. For all of them, Dansers van Morgen is a highlight of the school year, as it gives them the chance to show a big audience what they have been working towards so hard over the past months.
Reservations
You can reserve as of 22 April tickets for one of the performances ofDansers van Morgen via https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-ballet/2021-2022/dancers-tomorrow