Nederlands Dans Theatre

Nederlands Dans Theater

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Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation, Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the Lucent Danstheater in The Hague. In addition to the Lucent Danstheater, NDT performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam's Het Muziektheater and Nijmegen's Stadsschouwburg.

NDT was founded in 1959 by Benjamin Harkarvy, Aart Verstegen and Carel Birnie together with a group of 18 members of the Dutch National Ballet (which was directed by Sonia Gaskell). Their intention was to break away from the more traditionally oriented Dutch National Ballet (Het Nederlands Ballet). NDT focused onto new ideas and experimentation with the exploration of new forms and techniques of dance.

In 1961 the Nederlands Dans Theater got subsidy from the city of The Hague and from the government. In the 1960s the NDTs repertoire comprised classical dance with a strong influence by American modern dance. The NDT got unprecedented recognition and success with the guidance of different persons like Hans van Manen and Jiří Kylián as artistic directors. In the first years of the 1970s there was no clear policy because of various conflicts within the board of the NDT. That changed when in 1975 Jirí Kylian entered the board as artistic leader.

The Nederlands Dans Theater is based in the Lucent Danstheater at the Spui in The Hague since 1987.

Many of the founding NDT dancers have made their mark on Dutch ballet and dance:

• Gérard Lemaître was knighted Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix. He retired in 1982 but returned as dancer of the NDT III company till 2006.
• Charles Czarny, Martinette Janmaat and Mabel Alter became well known ballet teachers at the conservatoires and dance academies in Rotterdam and Amsterdam
• Martinette Janmaat was artistic director for the Contemporary dance department at the Nationale Ballet Academy in Amsterdam.

Artistic directors

• Benjamin Harkarvy (1959–1969) as choreographer and artistic co-director (with Hans van Manen). He went on to be the co-director of the Dutch National Ballet and from 1992 he became the director of the Dance Division of The Juilliard School in New York.

• Hans van Manen (1961–1970) He was connected to the NDT from 1960 till 1971 as a dancer (till 1963) and after that as a choreographer and artistic leader. He was also a freelancer at the Nationaal Ballet, as a choreographer. He came back in 1988 as house choreographer at the Nederlands Dans Theater. His repertoire comprises more than 110 ballets (two of which were written for the Nederlands Dans Theater).

• Jaap Flier (1970–1973) became the new artistic director. For this job he stopped dancing but once in a while he made choreographies himself.

• Hans Knill (1975–1977) has worked together for 2 years as artistic director with Jiří Kylián.

• Jiří Kylián (1975–2004), the second artistic director, brought unprecedented recognition and success to NDT. His time as artistic director was from 1975 to 1999 – after he stepped down as artistic director, he remained with NDT as chief choreographer and artistic adviser.^[1]

• Marian Sarstädt (1962-1972/1999-2004) has been a dancer and a staffmember of the artistic council as adjunct-director and she made a great contribution to the NDT.

• Anders Hellström (2004 to September 2009) trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and danced with the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Hamburg Ballet. He also danced with William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt from 1993-1999 before taking over as Artistic Director of Sweden's Goteburg Ballet.

• Jim Vincent (James Francis Vincent Jr.) (2009–2012) He danced for the NDT from 1978 till 1990. After that he went to Spain where he danced from 1990 till 1994 and he was the adjunct-director. After this he worked in Lyon (Opera ballet) and Disneyland Resort Paris (director "corporate and Special Events"). In 2000 he became artistic director of the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. And in 2009 he became the artistic director of the NDT.

• Paul Lightfoot, who danced with NDT since 1985, and who is resident choreographer since 2002, has been appointed artistic director as of Januari 2012.