Every year, young ballet dancers from all over the world audition for a place in Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company. The Junior Company bridges the gap between training and professional practice, and gives talented young dancers the opportunity to prepare for a career with Dutch National Ballet or another leading international ballet company. Springboard for talented young dancers Junior Company Founded in 2013 by Dutch National Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet Academy, the Junior Company is led by artistic director Ernst Meisner. In the 2023 – 2024 season, the group comprised seventeen dancers, who follow a daily programme that reflects that of a major ballet company. Own programmes, classical productions and interesting collaborations Each season, the Junior Company takes its own programme on tour to theatres throughout the Netherlands. Including classical pas de deux, excerpts of the classical and neoclassical repertoire, and new works created especially for the company, this touring programme presents a cross section of the ballet repertoire. For the programme, the Junior Company works with established choreographers, new choreographic talent and young composers. In this way, Dutch National Ballet aims to provide a platform not only for talented young dancers, but also for other promising artists. Besides working on their own programmes, the Junior Company dancers also regularly appear in performances by Dutch National Ballet, for example in classical productions like The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Raymonda and Don Quixote. The group also works regularly with ISH Dance Collective. In recent years, this partnership has resulted in full-length productions like Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe (2015) and GRIMM (2018), which showcase a spectacular encounter between ballet and hiphop. The latest co-production by the Junior Company and ISH premiered in May 2023: Dorian, based on Oscar Wilde’s famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Formula for success Over half of all the dancers now in Dutch National Ballet came from the Junior Company, including five soloists and four principal dancers. This fact alone demonstrates the great success of the Junior Company. But also during its tours in the Netherlands and abroad, the group proves its worth time and time again; for instance on its recent tours to places like London and Indonesia. Ted Brandsen says, “In recent years, the Junior Company has not only been very important for individual dancers – who have grown thanks to the group, and had some wonderful opportunities – but it has also transformed the main company. The fact that so many of the dancers now in our main company came from the Junior Company gives Dutch National Ballet a unique identity.” For more information about the Junior Company and for the biographies of the Juniors, see operaballet.nl/en/ junior-company Main sponsor Junior Company Partners Junior Company “ The Junior Company has also transformed the main company” Ted Brandsen PIETER HOUBOLT FONDS 134 About us
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