The Opera Ballet gives a chance to new choreographers

Jun 14, 2017 | by Justine Vallée | Art

About the author

Half-tourist and half-journalist, I am a full-time hot chocolate drinker who never leaves her camera. Always on the lookout, from classical music to rap, to the arts or good spots to visit, I could also feed myself with history and culture of all kinds.

Right now four new talents are working on building a unique piece with the Junior Company dancers from the National Opera Ballet Academy. This project, called Choreography Academy, is supervised by Ersnt Meisner, artistic coordinator of the Junior Company. The most important thing isn’t the result, but the entire learning process.

A learning process rather than a performance

They’ve been chosen to participate in the process, providing them a platform for further development. Here, they can express themselves and deepen the creative process of a dance performance. All of them are eager to mount their own piece. The four have danced for years, some have been learning a bit of choreography, some others are new to it, and all are from different backgrounds.

The point is also to learn how to communicate on a project when everyone has a different path. Milena Sidorova is a Ukrainian dancing for the National Opera since 2005 and became Grand Sujet in 2013. Daniela Cardim has danced from 1999 to 2010 at the Nationale Opera and this Brazilian is now willing to build a piece herself. Canadian Joshua Beamish collaborated with some big operas (Royal Ballet, Cape Town Opera) and choreographed for movies. Last but not least, Farita Keilman danced in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2015, released by the Junior Company.

It’s important that talent development happens at a young age. Our involvement and encouragement can help parents make the choice to send their child to a ballet school.

We don’t really care about the result; practice and experience are way more teaching than hours of lectures. As a consequence, the National Ballet provides this immersive experience to motivate choreographers to cross out their own limit and learn how to work with each other. This way, young creative talents are offered a platform to grow on and challenge themselves. The final result will only be shown in front of an intimate crowd of 50 people.

The National Opera Ballet has improved the schooling program to create the new generation of future dancers. The Junior Company was established in 2013 to be a stepping stone for young dancers to make the leap from the Dutch National Ballet Academy to The Dutch National Ballet. Ted Brandsen, the director of The Dutch National Ballet, said: “It’s important that talent development happens at a young age. Our involvement and encouragement can help parents make the choice to send their child to a ballet school.” It seems to be working fine as their crowdfunding campaign achieved 113% of the intended amount to build a new place for the Junior Company dancers.

Are you curious what these 4 choreographers will experience? Watch, listen and participate on social media through #ChoreoAcademy!