Dutch National Ballet's "Toer"

[Terpsichore]

As I do not yet feel confident to return to the theatre (whatever our government allows while Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain high and may possibly be increasing) I am very grateful to companies that continue to stream their performances over the internet.   One of those companies is the Dutch National Ballet which streamed a live performance of its double bill "Toer" on 25 Sept and repeated the transmission on 6 Oct.

"Toer" was a tribute to the choreographer, stage and costume designer and former dancer, Toer van Schayk who celebrated his 85th birthday last month.   Celebrated as an artist and designer as much as for choreography he is perhaps the nearest we have in the 21st century to a renaissance man.   The company danced two of his ballets: "Lucifer Studies" which is a new work premiered on 14 Sept 2021 and "7th Symphony" which he created in 1986 to immediate acclaim.

As its name suggests, "Lucifer Studies" consists of studies or bits of choreography for a much longer ballet called "Lucifer".   "Lucifer" was to have been based on a play of the same name by the 17th century playwright Joost van den Vondel.   Now although I like to think that I am reaonably well informed I regret to say that I had never heard of Vondel or his play until I watched the ballet.   I have now found out that it is on the same theme as Milton's "Paradise Lost".   The cast for Lucifer studies consisted entirely of men and included  Timothy van Poucke who has enjoyed a meteoric career with the company as well as  Martin ten Kortenaar whom I featured in my blog as an up and coming dancer in 2014, Daniel Robert Silva, Nathan Brhane and Giovanni Princic.  The music by  Joep Frannsens took time to appreciate but it was performed magnificently.   The sets and costumes were designed by van Schayk.   Strikingly each of the artists wore a different coloured sleeve.   A picture of the dancers which was kindly supplied by the company appears in a longer review in my blog.   I regret that I cannot show it here because my licence is restricted to my publication.   Work on the full length ballet was interrupted by the pandemic.  It is to be hoped that it can be resumed once that scourge is brought under effective control.

I took to "7th Symphony" immediately.  It is based on Beethoven's 7th Symphony which is one of his best known and most exuberant works.   At a symposium on narrative ballet in Leeds that I attended some years ago an eminent authority on dance opined that Beethoven was undanceable.   I disagreed then and having seen van Schayk's ballet I could not disagree more now.  The 7th symphony is a work crying out to be danced.   I struggled to stay silent and keep still,   Van Schayk choreographed the work beautifully and it is easy to see why it was an immediate success.   Women danced in this ballet as well as men and I was impressed by Floor Eimers though all danced well.   The male dancer whom I admired most was Artur Shesterikov who is one of my favourites in the company, but, again, all danced well.   Van Schayk designed the sets and costumes for "7th Symphony".  The simple blue dresses of the women must have been a joy to wear.   Again I have pictures of the ensemble and two of the soloists from the company which I cannot share here but which you can see in my blog if you so wish.