Dutch National Ballet announces 2025-2026 season

Dutch National Opera & Ballet (Nationale Opera & Ballet) announced its 2025-2026 season programme on 17th March 2025.

Dutch National Ballet's new season will opends with the Monument triple bill as a follow up to the Pride Amsterdam 2025, which will take place from end-July to early-August. It features Monument for a Dead Boy by Rudi van Dantzig (created in 1965), 7th Symphony by Toer van Schayk (1986), and the new work IN FLUX by Juanjo Arqués.

It revives Romeo and Juliet by van Dantzig. He created it in 1967 and it was the first full-length ballet created in the Netherlands. I have never seen his version. As a reference, Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet premiered in 1965 and John Cranko's in 1962.

Some "again" works, which I am sure I will go to watch, will be featured, too. The Masters of Movement triple bill showcases David Dawson's Empire Noir, Alexei Ratmansky's secret never-seen-in-Europe ballet (what would it be?), and a world premiere by Krzysztof Pastor. Dawson and Ratmansky are the Dutch National Ballet's associate artists.

For more details, including Hans van Manen's ballet and the Junior Company's performances, click here.

The season will be the last for Ted Brandsen as Artistic Director and Rachel Beaujean as Associate Artistic Director. Also, it will be the 60th anniversary of Dutch National Opera and the 10th anniversary of the Opera Forward Festival.

As a personal monologue.. it may be high time for a new Nutcracker .....