Ted Brandsen talks about his final ballet season
At the end of the 2025 – 2026 season, Ted Brandsen is saying farewell as artistic director of Dutch National Ballet. For the last time, he’ll be presenting a new full-length production of an enchanting ballet. In addition, he’ll be programming works by choreographers he admires and spotlighting talented youngsters. He’ll also share with us the milestones that formed him as a dancer.
A few years ago, looking ahead to your departure from Dutch National Ballet, you said, “When it comes to it, they’ll really have to drive me out!”
“Yes, that’s how it felt at the time. I couldn’t imagine a future without Dutch National Ballet. Now I’m a bit more used to the idea. It’s not that I want to go, but at subsidised cultural institutions in the Netherlands your contract automatically ends when you turn 67. To quote the title of a novel by Louis Couperus, it’s a question of ‘Old People and the Things that Pass’. It’s all part of the course and you have to deal with it. I’m going to find it terribly difficult to leave the group. But it isn’t my company, and I am immensely pleased that such an excellent successor, Ernst Meisner, has now been appointed. This means that I will be able to hand over the company with all love and confidence.”
In the new season, your personal stamp will be even clearer than in previous years. What were your absolute must-dos and must-shows?
“I still had a great wish to stage a new version of a big, full-length classic. In addition, besides several world premieres, I also wanted to revive a number of works that have been very important to our company and to me personally. And finally, I wanted our group to perform at the Carré theatre again – like we did in the eighties. I have very special memories of our Romeo and Juliet series in the round there, in 1984 – despite being wounded at the premiere, when one of the dancers grazed my eyebrow with his sword. It bled a lot and had to be stitched.” He laughs, “Yes, it was really quite spectacular.” And seriously again, “Another milestone at Carré was Hans van Manen’s Live, and we’re presenting this iconic video ballet there again. I was at its premiere in 1979, with Coleen Davis in the main role, and it blew me away. That ending, where you watch on screen how the ballerina leaves the theatre and disappears into the night, really broke my heart.”
The full-length classic being presented in a new version is La Bayadère, one of the crown jewels of the nineteenth-century ballet repertoire. Why did you choose this ballet?
“La Bayadère is a very valuable part of our cultural heritage, with exceptionally beautiful choreography. We used to perform this ballet by Marius Petipa in a traditional version by Natalia Makarova, but we think the time’s ripe for a new interpretation, in line with today’s insights. Petipa’s La Bayadère shows a Western, orientalist view of India as an exotic place, as it was seen at the time, around 1875. He made many assumptions that don’t correspond to reality and might be regarded as offensive today. So now we’re staging our own production, with Rachel Beaujean in charge of the choreography. The concept has been formed in close collaboration with co-directors Kalpana Raghuraman (choreographer and anthropologist), Dr. Priya Srinivasan (scholar and choreographer), and myself. Petipa’s choreographic gems will remain largely intact, but as we’ve radically reworked the libretto – following extensive research – Rachel will be choreographing additional sections where necessary. Few people know, for example, that Petipa took inspiration at the time from Indian dancers travelling around Europe. We want to restore that element. We’ve also situated the ballet in the seventeenth century, at the time of the Dutch East India Company, when there were several Dutch trading posts in South East India and the region was a multicultural society. Ballet is a living art form, and not a painting alongside which you can hang an informative label. So we deliberately choose not only to cherish our heritage, but also to reinvent it where necessary.”
Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet returns, as does The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Why these two classics?
“If you had to choose ten milestones in Dutch National Ballet’s history, they would certainly include these two. Rudi van Dantzig created his emotionally charged Romeo and Juliet in 1967, making it the oldest full-length ballet created in the Netherlands. Yet it still looks fresh and it works every time. It keeps giving people – including myself – goose bumps and moving them deeply. So I want to give a new generation of dancers the chance to prove themselves in this masterpiece.
We danced The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, by Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling, recently, in December 2024. But there was such a run on tickets that we decided to programme this festive ballet again in the new season.”
Van Dantzig and Van Schayk, along with Hans van Manen, formed the ‘three Van’s’ who brought world fame to Dutch National Ballet in the past. How much did they influence you and other choreographers of your generation?
“Enormously. I, and also Krzysztof Pastor and David Dawson, for example, really stand on the shoulders of these choreographic giants. In Krzysztof’s case, you see the expressionism of the contemporary works of Rudi and Toer, as well as the clarity and musicality that typify Hans’ oeuvre. David, of course, has now developed a totally individual style, but his work, too, shows elements of the ‘Dutch school’: the clear construction, the great musicality and the huge power of dance as an autonomous art form. As for me, my choreographic work probably wouldn’t even have existed without that of Hans. So I’m really happy we’re presenting his video ballet Live at Carré again, as part of a Van Manen programme: Hans in Carré, including some new works for our company. In the programme Monument, we’re also reviving major successes by the two other ‘Van’s’: Rudi’s expressionist, poignant Monument for a Dead Boy, which was groundbreaking at the time it was created (1965 – ed.) and Toer’s jubilant, whirling 7th Symphony. As homosexuality is an important theme in both works, we are presenting them as part of Pride Amsterdam, alongside a new work by Juanjo Arqués, who takes a contemporary perspective on gender identity and queerness in the piece, in collaboration with composer (and Project Rembrandt winner – ed.) Thomas van Dun.”
We’ll also be seeing works by David Dawson, Krzysztof Pastor and yourself, as well as by the new Associate Artist of Dutch National Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky. What can you tell us about their pieces?
“Krzysztof – who’s now been director of the Polish National Ballet for many years – is going to create a new ballet for a large cast of dancers, which I’m looking forward to immensely. We’re also presenting a new work by Alexei Ratmansky. I’m proud that we’ve been able to strengthen our ties with him even further, by appointing him Associate Artist. And we’re reviving Empire Noir, by David, who like Alexei is one of the world’s leading choreographers. This highly acclaimed ballet dates from 2015, but already contains all the hallmarks of David’s style: enormous drive, technical virtuosity and exceptional physical power.
Ted Brandsen
“Ballet is not a painting alongside which you can hang an informative label”
My own contribution is the revival of Carmen, which I created for West Australian Ballet in 2000 (and which received the Australian Dance Award – ed.). It fits well in the tradition we’ve since built up of presenting productions about strong women – Coppelia, Mata Hari, Frida, Raymonda and Lady Macbeth – to counterbalance the role of victim often traditionally played by women in classical ballet. We’re pairing Carmen with the equally sunny and high-spirited Paquita, which can best be described as a glittering showcase of classical ballet technique.”
You once said in an interview, “New talent is the life blood of every ballet company.” What new talent can we expect in the coming season?
“We’ve got a variety of programmes that give young choreographers and/or dancers the opportunity to make new work, such as New Moves, NextSteps and our Choreographic Academy. Besides that, in the Junior Company programme Ballet Beats, we’re presenting new works by three young makers who’ve already proved their talent: Joshua Junker, Mthuthuzeli November and Arielle Smith Jones. All three give new impulses to the ballet vocabulary – and thus to our dancers – by drawing on their original background: hiphop, African dance and modern dance respectively. It’s a refreshing ‘dialogue’ that’s been initiated in recent years by Ernst Meisner and ISH director Marco Gerris, through their joint productions. One of those, GRIMM, will be performed throughout the Netherlands again this season, due to its earlier resounding success.”
How do you look back on your time as artistic director, and what are your wishes for the future?
“I’m extremely grateful for everything I’ve been able to do in the past twenty years or so. I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with so many fantastic people. Ballet’s not something you do alone – it takes a village! I regularly look with amazement at all we’ve achieved. The Junior Company, which has become even more successful than we ever dared hope, under Ernst Meisner and Caroline Sayo Iura. Rachel Beaujean, who’s become an expert in taking a fresh look at famous classics. The way we’ve managed to perpetuate Hans van Manen’s oeuvre through setting up the Van Manen Foundation. The numerous new works, many tours and all those wonderful dancers I’ve watched surpass themselves. When I was appointed artistic director in 2003, the company was not in the greatest shape, and I’m proud to leave it looking considerably better. I hope the group will continue to grow in the coming decades. But I also hope that even more people will come to realise what a wonderfully rich repertoire and what fantastic dancers we have here, and what an incredibly high international standing Dutch National Ballet has attained. The value of this, and of art in general, cannot be overestimated. Without imagination, we can’t conceive of what others are like and what they’re thinking. And without the connection that art brings about, and which I see arising every day among the thirty different nationalities of our group, we can’t break down walls. As a society, we can choose for light; we can choose to hold on to one another and to make a difference. I hope that many more people – and certainly politicians too – become fully aware of that fact.”
Text: Astrid van Leeuwen
