Junior Company
The foundation of the Junior Company in 2013 created a stepping stone for young dancers to make the transition from the Dutch National Ballet Academy to Dutch National Ballet. The Junior Company bridges the gap between training and professional practice, and gives talented young dancers the opportunity to prepare for a career with Dutch National Ballet or another leading international ballet company.
About the Junior Company
Currently, there are 17 dancers in the Junior Company, led by artistic director Ernst Meisner. They follow a daily programme that reflects that of a major ballet company. Each season, the Junior Company usually presents two of their own programmes. One programme is a full-length contemporary production and the other is a mixed bill showing a cross section of the ballet repertoire, including classical pas de deux and extracts from the classical and neoclassical repertoire, alongside new works created especially for the company by established choreographers and young upcoming creatives. The Junior Company’s full-length productions are often presented in collaboration with urban dance company ISH Dance Collective; for example, Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe (2015) and GRIMM (2018), which showcase a spectacular encounter between ballet and hiphop. In May 2023, a new joint production followed, which this time included dancers from Dutch National Ballet as well: Dorian, after Oscar Wilde’s famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The dancers
Second year: Ella Kolpakov, Frédérique Meewis, Aafke Wolles, Alexander Álvarez, Vincent Vivet
First year: Eva Bakker, Sophia Bielik, Gabrielle Brett, Annabelle Eubanks, Léa Sauvignon, Joseph Clarke, Javier Cubero, Jenson Blight, John Murch, Darius-Oriol Tamosi
Ted Brandsen
‘I’m extremely proud of what the Junior Company has achieved in this relatively short time’
Besides working on their own programmes, the Junior Company dancers also regularly perform in productions by Dutch National Ballet, especially in the big classics like Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. More than forty former Junior Company dancers have now made the transition to the main company. At present, they include two principal dancers and eight soloists. The company has really made its mark with successful tours of the Netherlands and abroad. In early 2020, for instance, the Junior Company gave three hugely successful performances in Indonesia. Also in June 2023, the juniors spent two weeks there for a tour along various theatres with a programme they danced earlier that season during the Dutch tour of Ballet Bubbles.
Ted Brandsen, director of Dutch National Ballet: "I am very proud of what the group has achieved in this relatively short time. All those young talents also give an enormous boost to the company as a whole. And, what is also very nice: the juniors create a very good working atmosphere. They are used to operating as a group, have performed together everywhere, at home and abroad, and you can feel that, even after they have moved on to Dutch National Ballet."
Open Call for dance makers – NextSteps 2025
Over the past ten years, the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet and ISH Dance Collective have shown in several successful collaborative projects how ballet and hip-hop complement and enhance each other. With the programme NextSteps, we now aim to give a new generation of creators the opportunity to explore the synergy between these two dance forms.
Are you a new dancemaker with an affinity for ballet and/or hip-hop, and do you have an idea for a piece in which you further investigate the interaction between ballet and hip-hop? Then respond to this Open Call!
Want to audition?
The Junior Company is made possible by
