✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Kids
  • Benefits
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Benefits
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Dance

Dutch National Ballet Spring Special review ★★★★★

On 10 Apr 21, 19:15 Dur.: 1 hour and 50 mins

Principals and soloists of Dutch National Ballet perform favourite works in a Special Spring gala that amply illustrates the company's artistry and resilience

By Teresa Guerreiro on 6/4/2021

Dutch National Ballet, Two and Only.  Photo: Hans Gerritsen
Dutch National Ballet, Two and Only. Photo: Hans Gerritsen
Dutch National Ballet Spring Special review 4 Dutch National Ballet Spring Special review Teresa Guerreiro
Dutch National Ballet Spring Special streams live on Saturday 10 April at 19:15 BST. Tickets €12.50.
Click here for tickets and access.



Dutch National Ballet Dancers are, of course, delighted to be back on stage, even if before a token audience of just a handful of people, and it shows. All dance with commitment, energy and joy; and if the odd wobble attests to the difficult year of isolation and paralysis they're beginning to emerge from, what is surprising is how rare those moments are. On the whole these dancers are on top form.


This Spring Special follows a gala format, bringing together 10 short pieces or extracts from bigger works performed by the company's principals and soloists on their Amsterdam home stage. Each is introduced by the performers themselves in short, to-the-point video clips, where snatches from rehearsal are interspersed with a brief explanation of why they chose the piece they're dancing.


It's an admirable format, which other companies would do well to copy: efficient and informative, no faffing around, no wasted time.


Every piece in the programme has something to offer, but three are particularly enthralling and they follow each other midway through the performance.


Company director and choreographer Ted Brandsen's duet Replay, set to piano music by Philip Glass, is a dazzling example of Dutch aesthetics in ballet.



Dutch National Ballet, Replay. Photo: Hans Gerritsen
Vito Mazzeo (on whom it was originally created) and Yuanyuan Zhang clad in body-hugging dark unitards, dance with tremendous chemistry, their limbs drawing Brandsen's clean, expansive lines, the work's feather-weight narrative line subtly playing on the older man/younger woman theme. Those familiar with the work of the veteran master of Dutch choreography, Hans van Manen, will see his influence in this piece.


The Grand Pas de Deux from The Sleeping Beauty brings a major revelation in the person of Jessica Xuan. Small and perfectly proportioned, the softness of her arms tempering a steely technique, hers is the perfect Aurora: fresh as a young woman in love, yet very much a regal princess in the tilt of her head and absolutely confident demeanour. Sympathetically partnered by the handsome Jakob Feyferlik, Chinese-Canadian Jessica Xuan's Aurora will live in the memory for a long time.



Dutch National Ballet, Grand Pas de Deux from The Sleeping Beauty. Photo: Hans Gerritsen
Two and Only, by DNB young creative associate Wubkje Kuindersma (pictured top) is a terrifically powerful duet for two men, danced by veteran principal Josef Varga and the young, newly promoted soloist Timothy van Poucke. It is set to two songs by Michael Benjamin, who accompanies himself first on guitar, then on piano, his rich baritone piercing your very soul with its yearning lines about memory and lost love. We're not a million miles from Leonard Cohen here.


In his brief introduction, Varga says for him this was about an older man trying to recapture memories of happier days; but concedes that each viewer will put their own reading on it. This is a work with a strong erotic charge, where many readings can be superimposed, some more literal, some mere suggestions, and it's all the better for its many layers of meaning. The two dancers give it their all. This, too, is another memory to cherish.


Elsewhere, the programme ranges from classical hardy perennials, such as Giselle, to very contemporary with the world premiere of Juliano Nunes's acrobatic Alignment (surely inspired by Wayne McGregor's style of reliance on hyper-extensions and lifted splits, crotch foremost).


Dutch National Ballet Spring Special ends with typical send-them-home-on-a-high gala fare, the virtuoso Talisman pas de deux, danced by the company veteran principal Maia Makhateli and the fiery Young Gyu Choi, an energetic dancer with superb, breathtaking technique.


We can think of few more exciting ways to spend a couple of hours on a cold Saturday evening.



by Teresa Guerreiro

What Dutch National Ballet Spring Special review
Where Online | MAP
When On 10 Apr 21, 19:15 Dur.: 1 hour and 50 mins
Price £€12.50
Website https://operaballet.nl/en/ballet/2020-2021/show/spring-special



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 23 - 25 April. Picture: Luiz Zerbini's Happiness Beyond Paradise, 2020
Things to do in London this weekend: 23 - 25 April
Kelly Macdonald in Line of Duty season 6, BBC One (Photo: BBC)
Line of Duty season 6 episode 5, BBC One review
London's best new restaurants. Photo: Chameleon.
Best new restaurants: London 2021's hottest gastronomic ventures
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Dutch National Ballet

Spring Special

Ted Brandsen

Replay

The Sleeping Beauty

Jessica Xuan

Wubkje Kuindersma

Two and Only

Juliano Nunes

Alignment

Talisman

Young Gyu Choi

You might like

  • British Ballet Charity Gala promotional image

    The British Ballet Charity Gala, Royal Albert Hall

  • Alexander Whitley, Overflow 2019. Photo: Johan Persson

    Alexander Whitley, Overflow, Sadler's Wells

  • Artists of The Royal Ballet in Symphonic Variations © ROH 2017 Tristram Kenton

    The Royal Ballet streams Symphonic Variations



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×