The Junior Company is a springboard for top talent transitioning from dance education to the professional field. What was the reason behind the founding of the Junior Company in 2013?

It was the idea of Ted Brandsen, the director of the Dutch National Ballet and of the Junior Company. He had long had the dream and ambition for an intermediate step between training and the professional field. People you hire for the main company, which consists of about 80 to 90 people, are often the best dancers to come out of a training course. They have followed intensive training, where they have danced a lot and received a lot of attention. Then, when they start working in the field, they end up in a large group and are often at the back. Even when someone is incredibly good, it often happens that they don’t really stand out in the group and therefore don’t get opportunities to develop as well as we’d like. This usually has nothing to do with a lack of talent, but more to do with learning to cope with the daily routine, learning to work with choreographers and with ballet masters. The way you act as a dancer in rehearsals, for example, is not something you learn at the academy. You have to learn that in practice, and sometimes dancers need guidance in that. People coming out of college are still young and often come from abroad. They suddenly have to learn to look after themself, maybe live with two other dancers and have to do all those performances. That need is what we are responding to with the Junior Company. Among other things, we give them cooking lessons, because some of them have never cooked before. But one of the most important things about the Junior Company is putting in the hours. Especially at this young age, this is important.

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Why is getting a lot of hours so important?

When they come in, they can already do quite a lot and have trained for 8 or 9 years, but ultimately you can only learn dancing on stage. I can rehearse with people for hours, but some of them take a step back on stage or are exactly the same in the studio as they are on stage. For that group, you have to find something to inspire them. Actually, you can't really progress until you've seen people a few times on stage. In the Junior Company, they get to dance big roles quickly. Then we see that after one or two years with the Junior Company, they enter the larger group and are no longer afraid when they go on stage. They have the guts, they dare and that is because they have danced so much. That produces a very different dancer. People who have come through the Junior Company route often develop quickly and well. They can often handle bigger work and some bigger roles well, precisely because they have had some extra experience and guidance.

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What is the key to success when mentoring young dancers?

I don't think there is one key. Actually, I always say 'you can only give them a platform' and then they have to do it themselves. That platform is a little different for everyone. That's the beauty of having a small group of 12 dancers. You have the time and the opportunity to get to know them really well and to see exactly what that platform is for everyone. With some you find out much faster, with others it takes a bit longer and you have to search. We offer different options, and we have a great physio team and sports team working with them. So in all kinds of areas we offer that platform, but ultimately they have to do it themselves.

How is the influx of new talent doing?

We work with our own training, the National Ballet Academy, which is our first 'port of call'. Those are people you watch from the age of 10 and see growing up. That's very important because that's our Dutch talent. Sometimes foreign talent also joins the HBO programme earlier, we then follow them for one or two years and we also scout internationally. But with the interest being shown in the Junior Company, it’s going incredibly well. We had 700 applications for the last audition and over the years that number has just kept increasing. I notice that young dancers from abroad now know about the Junior Company. They want to come here because they can dance a lot here and get a lot of guidance. We have also already had people choose us over a permanent contract in a corps de ballet with another group. They prefer to dance in a small group and thus gain a lot of experience. Some dancers make that decision very consciously, which is really nice!

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Auditions include physical aptitude, musicality, coordination and dance sense. What exactly are you looking for in dancers?

First you always look at some basic elements like turnout of hips and feet, lines of legs, those are very technical things. Those are certain expectations that a person has to meet. And then you start looking at technique. Can they actually do something with that body. You can have a beautiful body, but a dancer has to be able to do something with it, to turn and jump. Do they have natural coordination, so that they can also connect steps, musicality, all those things. It gets really interesting if someone can also say something with those steps. The steps are the language. During auditions for the Junior Company, we look to see if most of that language is there. Not everything has to be perfect yet. You look to see if someone can grow and expand in that language, that vocabulary and that technique. Sometimes we see dancers of 17 or 18 and can see they are physically talented and also have something interesting. They are musical and have something to say on stage, but it is still 'rough'. You see they are intelligent, they want it and have drive. This is someone who can develop, you can make great strides with them. But ultimately it has to be someone who fits in with us in the group.

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Is there a certain signature of the Junior Company?

There is definitely a certain signature. The group is a physical group. In the sense that we have a wide range of living choreographers working with the large group and the juniors. Hans van Manen with his own repertoire and David Dawson who works with us. But also choreographers from outside such as Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky and Wayne McGregor. It is a forward-thinking group, with a lot of new work being created and rehearsed. Our dancers must be open to this and have an interest in it. Having said all this, you then have to fall a little in love with a dancer in a professional way. There has to be something special that makes you think 'we have to have them with us'!

How has this group evolved over the past five years?

Quite a lot has changed in the past five years. The first year was pioneering. In a large institution such as the National Opera & Ballet where hundreds of people work, suddenly this new thing came along. That took a lot of getting used to in the beginning. We really needed the last few years to get to where we are now. We started with the strict idea of working with six first years and six second years. With a division of six boys and six girls, because that is convenient for dancing repertoire. But we gradually came to reaslise that some people really need a second year in the Junior Company and others are totally ready after just one year. We want to look at each individual and assess what he or she needs. In the last five years, we have trained about 50 dancers within the Junior Company, of which more than half have progressed to the main company.

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Internationally, for example in Vienna, Hamburg and Munich, the connection between a dance company and an academy is a common and long-standing phenomenon. What makes the Junior Company unique, compared to groups abroad?

The Junior Company stands out with the fact that the group is strongly linked to the main company. We are in the same building, have classes together 3 times a week, the juniors dance along in the big productions. This is not always the case with other Junior Companies. Some are closely linked to the school, then it's more like a final year of training. Whereas with the Junior Company, we do in miniature what the Dutch National Ballet stands for. For instance, we supervise not only young dancers, but also young choreographers who you probably wouldn’t give the chance to work with the main company straight away, but who can do a short piece with juniors. The Junior Company thus serves several purposes. When we go on tour, we work with young technicians, young musicians and go to places in the Netherlands where the main company does not always go. The Junior Company performances are slightly smaller, so they can also go to alternative theatres. We do performances in all kinds of different places. We performed during Museum Night, we can perform at Central Station. It's about all those different experiences and putting in the hours. We also engage in a lot of beautiful, weird and fun collaborations.

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As a choreographer, you worked with the dance company ISH, among others, combining hip-hop and classical ballet in one performance. Currently, the Junior Company is performing the fairytale ballet GRIMM. This is the third collaboration between you and Marco Gerris (artistic director of ISH). Why do you enter into these collaborations?

I think working together with others is one of the best things. You learn so much from each other. It works if you pull together and trust each other and really allow each other to do their own thing, but also complement each other. That is the case with Marco. Narnia was already a great production, but with GRIMM we went one step further. Marco and I get along well and have an awful lot of fun making it together, we trust and believe strongly in each other. We complement each other well. If you can work together like that, more beautiful things can develop than if you do it on your own. I think it's important in these times that we look outwards above all. There are so many interesting things happening everywhere and nowhere. Collaborating with other people, other art forms, with musicians, you name it, it's a source of inspiration every time.

Are there certain people you would love to work with who you haven't worked with before?

That is a difficult question. I definitely want to continue with the collaborations we have now. But I have one person in the world, I don't know if it will ever happen, who I really admire enormously and that is the Simon McBurney. He is an English theatre director and has his own group, Complicite. He has also done a number of operas here at National Opera & Ballet such as Die Zauberflöte. Collaborating with him is maybe just a dream, but when I look at his work, I am hugely inspired by it. He really is a great director.

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How do you see the development of academic ballet?

What I really like to see is that the group is doing very well. We have a significant audience, especially for the full-length big classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Everyone wants to see them. I think that's great, because that's our tradition. That's where we come from. I think it's important to be aware of where you come from. The company has now existed for some 55 years and choreographers such as Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen and Toer van Schayk are now also part of the tradition. That's great, but I think you shouldn't cling too much to traditions and should keep progressing. Above all, do, make new things, choreograph, dare. That's where the future of the profession lies. I don't think we should be afraid of losing anything at all. I sometimes hear that from people, but it can all coexist. You are aware of the repertoire, but that doesn't mean you have to perform it every day. On the contrary, you also have to make room for new things. That's very important, it always has been. The other day, someone was talking about a training system, the Vaganova system, that dancers are generally trained in. But Vaganova was adjusting that system a little bit every day to what she saw, to what was needed. To fix something like that and say this is how it is, is a strange and unnatural thing. As long as you keep developing with the awareness and knowledge of where you came from, then the whole world is open and you can do whatever you want. It's the foundation that you have to be aware of and have an awful lot of love for. That's where you come from. From that love you have to look forward and keep going.

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What are you looking forward to in the coming months?

The biggest rush is over. We had a successful anniversary programme with In the Future, which was a great weekend at the International Theatre Amsterdam. GRIMM premiered really well and what's coming up in June is a tour to Berlin for the Junior Company. We actually try to organise at least one international tour for them every year. They now also have a Junior Company in Berlin which is celebrating its first anniversary and they are going to celebrate with other Junior Companies. The group from Zurich and Dortmund will be there and we will too. It's important and inspiring for young dancers to see other younger dancers as well. I am really looking forward to that.

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What are the biggest challenges in your field?

There are always a huge number of things, which is kind of part of this job. Actually, you spend 50 to 60 per cent of the day fixing things. Putting out fires and making sure everything runs smoothly again. There are always little things. Maybe someone is sick and a cast change has to be made. You name it. You're dealing with 12 really young people, who are 18 or 19 and not only incredibly ambitious in their work, but meanwhile are also just an 18-year-old whose life changes every week. A boyfriend who it was one with last week, now its off again. A hundred things that happen in a life like that. When you are that young, it all happens a bit more and a bit faster. It's all new. But precisely because of personal contact and a good atmosphere in the group, beautiful things can come out of it.

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Published on 13 June 2018.