Meet the New Creative Associates at Dutch National Ballet
Many ballet companies offer opportunities for emerging choreographers to test their chops, but few can boast sustained mentorship and cultivation of the next generation of dance makers. A few exceptions include BalletX’s season-long choreographic fellowship, The Royal Ballet’s Young Choreographer Programme and New York City Ballet’s New York Choreographic Institute. Now, Dutch National Ballet is joining the ranks of companies committed to developing new talent.
Starting in the new year, Juanjo Arqués and Peter Leung will be appointed as Young Creative Associates of Dutch National Ballet. Their relationship with the company will include both artistic and technical support for their work, over the course of several years.
Both men are former dancers with the company: Arqués has created work internationally and will premiere a ballet as part of Dutch National’s Made in Amsterdam program in February 2017. Leung created the company’s breakthrough virtual reality ballet and is an artistic director of the interdisciplinary House of Makers (which has had at least one event in Brooklyn!). In 2017, he’ll make a new work for the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company.
For those wishing that a few women were included in this opportunity, Dutch National will partner with UK-based Rambert Dance for a program called Young Choreographer and Composer Exchange Project. Rambert’s choreography fellow Julie Cunningham, and music fellow Anna Appleby, will join Leung and Arqués as the group meets with choreographers connected to both companies, observing their creative processes, and more.
