Dutch National Ballet new season updates with new La Bayadere and secret Ratmansky

Ikuko
Jun 28
3 min read

The Dutch National Ballet has updated its 2025-2026 season on its website since it announced the new season in March 2025. The company has revealed the title of what it only described as Ratmansky's never-seen-in-Europe ballet and a new La Bayadere with a Dutch antagonist.

The secret work of Alexei Ratmansky is Solitude. The 22-minute ballet set to Gustav Mahler's music will be featured as a part of Masters of Movement triple bill in June 2026. Ratmansky created Solitude for New York City Ballet and it world-premiered in February 2024. The ballet is about a grief and an isolation of a father following a loss of his child in the war in Ukraine.

In the prior article of mine, I used term "again" referring to the popularity of Ratmansky, as well as David Dawson. Now I regret the poor word choice. There is a reason for their popularity. It is very relevant to show Solitude now. I very much look forward to seeing it.

The Masters of the Movement will also showcase a new work by Krzysztof Pastor, who is currently the Director of the Polish National Ballet. It will be set to Philip Glass' music.

The Polish National Ballet is performing Pastor's new full length ballet, Prometheus which is set to Glass and Mozart, until 28th June 2025. Opera and ballet website Gramilano gave Prometheus a rave review calling it "genus". I wonder what his new work with the Dutch National Ballet is going to be like!

I have also spotted this purple-pink image on the Dutch National Ballet website. The caption says La Bayadere to be shown in March-April 2026.

Screenshot of the Dutch National Ballet webpage

I wrote about the new season on 19th March 2025 while this page about the new La Bayadere has a date stamp of 25th March 2025. So I did not notice it until now. I am human after all.

The Dutch National Ballet says, "The new production of La Bayadère is based on fact rather than fiction. Its original dance gems remain intact, but they are set in a vision that is compatible with our times."

The website explains the synopsis;

"The new La Bayadère is set in Southeast India, where the Dutch established several trading posts during the era of the Dutch East India Company. The sincere love between Nikiya, a spiritual temple dancer, and Solor, a captain of mixed heritage, challenges the expectations of race and caste. However, Solor allows himself to be manipulated by the Dutch governor William Carel Hartsinck, who forces him to marry his daughter, Alida. When Alida discovers that Solor already loves another, she decides to eliminate Nikiya. Overcome with grief and guilt, Solor drifts into a dream state. In the iconic ‘Kingdom of the Shades’, he sees Nikiya once more, but she remains out of reach. The consequences of the wrong choices will haunt him forever."

Parts of the choreography of the Marius Petipa classic will be changed in accordance with the new storyline. Rachel Beaujean is in charge of additional choreographies. It will be co-produced, co-written and c0-directed by her, Kalpana Raghuraman, Dr Priya Srinivasan and Artistic Director Ted Brandsen. Apparently, Nikiya will be created on Principal Olga Smirnova.

The recreation of La Bayadere by the Dutch National Ballet comes as the Birmingham Royal Ballet will do the same for September 2026. Artistic Director Carlos Acosta is concerned about the cultural appropriation of the ballet, he will set it in Italy instead of India to correct it.

Another highlight of the Dutch National Ballet's upcoming season is the Paquita/Carmen/5 Tango's triple bill. It will revive Beaujean's adaptation of Paquita and Brandsen's Carmen before they retire at the end of the next season. The fiery 5 Tango's is one of Hans van Manen's most performed works.

Please click here to read about other ballets to be performed in the 2025-2026 season. Click here for the Dutch National Ballet website.

A monologue about the Dutch National Ballet's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling. I have only seen its recording. To be brutally honest, I find it distasteful. It shows a torture of an apparent European prisoner of war by an apparent Middle Easterner in the section of the typical Arabian dance. I am not sure if it is still there. If the company is concerned of about the politically-correctness of a classical ballet, I wonder why it does not update this version of The Nutcracker.