For 2016-2017, artistic director Ted Brandsen has again packed Dutch National Ballet’s programme with much must-see dance. The season includes three world premieres and the European premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s much-lauded Shostakovich Trilogy; revivals of the timeless and audience-pulling classics Onegin, La Bayadère and Coppélia; and an 80th birthday tribute to Toer van Schayk.
The season opens on September 7 with a gala that marks Igone de Jongh’s twentieth anniversary as a dancer with the company.
The three world premieres all appear in the two Made in Amsterdam programmes, alongside a selection of ballets choreographed for the company since 2000. Associate artist David Dawson is basing his new work on Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and collaborating with set designer Eno Henze and composer Szymon Brzóska. There are also new works by Ernst Meisner, artistic coordinator of Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company, and guest choreographer Juanjo Arques.
Alongside the world premieres, Made in Amsterdam features revivals of Romance by Ton Simons, Van Manen’s Frank Bridge Variations, Christopher Wheeldon’s Concerto Concordia, Krzysztof Pastor’s Moving Rooms and Ratmanksy’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher.
Ratmansky’s Shostakovich Trilogy has been critically well received on both east and west coasts in the US. European audiences get their first look at it in its entirety (parts have been previously shown separately) in June 2017. The ballet is a personal tribute from choreographer to composer in which Ratmansky explores his complex relationship with his homeland.
Choreographer and designer Toer van Schayk, who along with Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen established firmly Dutch National Ballet as a world-class company in the 1970s and 80s, celebrates his 80th birthday in September this year. The Dutch Masters programme pays tributes to the trio with revivals of van Schayk’s Requiem (1990), in which he addresses human culpability for the destruction of nature, Van Dantzig’s Vier letzte Lieder and Van Manen’s Adagio Hammerklavier.
The 2016-2017 season also sees New Moves, the programme for talented young choreographers, shifted to the big stage of Dutch National Opera & Ballet.
Planned tours include a visit to Mexico in October 2016, and of a Best of Balanchine programme in ten theatres throughout the Netherlands in May 2017.
The Junior Company will also be embarking on a big tour of the Netherlands, from February 2017. In Juniors Go Dutch, there will be new works by Peter Leung and Wubkje Kuindersma, and existing ballets by Van Manen, Van Schayk, Van Dantzig and Arques. The programme also includes a revival of The little big chest, a dance performance for young children.
The season in brief
Gala: September 7, 2016.
Dutch Masters (Requiem, Vier letzte Liede, Adagio Hammerklavier): September 14-25.
La Bayadère (Makarova/Petipa): October 8-November 13.
Coppélia (Brandsen): December 10-January 1, 2017.Made in Amsterdam programme 1 (new Arques, new Meisner, Romance, Frank Bridge Variations): February 11-March 4.
Made in Amsterdam programme 2 (The Little Prince, Concerto Concordia, Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Moving Rooms): February 12-March 3.
Onegin (Cranko): March 29-April 16.
Best of Balanchine (Apollon Musagète, Tarantella, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Theme and Variations): May 2-20.
Shostakovich Trilogy: June 17-30.
New Moves: June 26.
Junior Company
Juniors Go Dutch: February 18-May 14, Dutch tour.
Little big chest: April 21-26.