Timothy van Poucke

‘I speak Dutch, English and ballet’ 

But instead of going to hiphop or musical classes, Timothy ended up at the ballet school in Zoetermeer. “My parents just happen to prefer the classical arts, and my mother thought that was the place to learn the discipline you need as a dancer. Incidentally, I surprised myself with how quickly I got hooked, and soon I thought ballet was just as cool as those video clips. The technique, the finesse and the completely new language you learn…” He laughs, “I sometimes still say, ‘I speak Dutch, English and ballet!’” 

When he was ten, Timothy was accepted for the Dutch National Ballet Academy, and from that moment on he regularly performed children’s roles in productions by Dutch National Ballet, including the role of Frits in The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. “When you’re at a ballet academy, at a certain point everything becomes routine: the endless repetition of exercises, your regular teacher and your everyday ‘ballet uniform’. But when you get to Dutch National Ballet, you zoom in, as it were. Everything is suddenly so much bigger: the sumptuous sets and costumes, the orchestra you’re working with and the dancers who are so much further on than you. All of a sudden, you don’t need to watch YouTube anymore – you just see it all happening right in front of you.” 

Ideal ‘teacher’ 

So his preferred destination after his training had already been clear to him for a long time. “This company just had to be the place for me.” In 2016, he was accepted for the Junior Company, after which things really took off. Just one year later, he moved up to his ‘dream company’, Dutch National Ballet. A couple of weeks later, at the company’s annual gala, he danced Wubkje Kuindersma’s Two and Only with principal dancer Marijn Rademaker, and a week after that he performed in Hans van Manen’s 5 Tangos, which he’d admired ever since appearing in the masterpiece as a dance student. 

Looking back on the years that have passed since then, he says, “I’ve really done my very best, but so many opportunities have come my way as well. The collaboration and communication with the artistic staff, the choreographers, my colleagues, the audience and the orchestra – all of that has formed me. That whole environment in its totality has been a sort of ideal ‘teacher’, not just for my dancing, but also for my relationships with people and for my approach to life.”  

‘Grooving’ and chemistry 

Highlights? “Phew, there are so many!” Like the role of Basilio in Don Quixote, for example, which he was given immediately in his first season, with his now regular dance partner Salome Leverashvili at his side. “I’d always wanted to dance that role since I was young. You can’t imagine how many times I watched the video of Mikhail Baryshnikov as Basilio!” His collaboration with Van Manen is also incredibly precious to him. “Hans’s style and ideas have contributed to shaping this company – and now it’s amazing to be able to work with him personally. He’s so good at explaining where dance comes from and what exactly he wants, and when Hans starts ‘grooving’, it’s so fantastic and so natural – it’s absolutely impossible to copy.” 

A similarly big impression has been made on him more recently by William Forsythe. “He has such a unique way of creating and of analysing dance. His movements all have their own energy value, almost as if it’s chemistry, and all those movements together form a mind-blowing text.”

Interactive 

Of course, says Timothy, he wants to be “a dancer of a certain standard”, but what’s really important to him is that he’s ‘interactive’ with everything and everyone around him. “Whether you’re with other dancers, in front of an audience or on a bare stage, you want to communicate and to explain in dance what you’re actually doing. When you play music, then you use your instrument to make something sound good. When you dance, you have to ‘play’ your body and make it ‘sound’, and your surroundings are of the utmost importance in doing so.”

Text: Astrid van Leeuwen

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Timothy van Poucke & Salome Leverashvili promoted to soloist