World première 'Gently quiet'

On June 4th is the launch of Gently Quiet, the dance film project by Peter Leung and Altin Kaftira created for Dutch National Ballet. Peter Leung, young creative associate of Dutch National Ballet together with filmmaker Altin Kaftira, created eleven short dance films shot on different, almost deserted locations in Amsterdam during lockdown.

Eleven dancers from Dutch National Ballet danced solos around amongst others Dutch National Opera & Ballet at the Amstel river, the Hermitage, the Hortus and the Eye Film museum at the IJ river. A compilation has been made of the eleven short dance films which can now be seen through the online channels of Dutch National Ballet. De eleven individual films will be revealed in the upcoming weeks.

Peter Leung:

“I started to imagine that artists are like butterflies, wanting to fly. In these films they are imagining that they are outside and free, dancing… flying. I also wanted to create something unique during this period. Right now the city has no tourists, it actually feels like our city. This is what I wanted to show in the videos. The city is where we live, and it’s not a postcard. The videos all show the dancers outside, but they are all also alone on a small square piece of dance floor.”

Gently Quiet is now being shown online, through the online channels of Dutch National Ballet, including the online platform: photos and videos

Peter Leung – director, concept & choreography

Peter Leung, originally from Britain but now living in Amsterdam, ended his dancing career with Dutch National Ballet in 2016. He made his choreographic debut with Dutch National Ballet in 2009 and has been developing as a choreographer ever since.Leung regularly creates work for international festivals, television, film and museums, and has made pop videos for Go Back to the Zoo en Armin van Buuren.

In 2016, Leung choreographed the first virtual reality ballet in the world, Night Fall, for Dutch National Ballet.

Peter Leung is also one of the artistic directors of the interdisciplinary collective House of Makers, with whom he has created work for the Van Gogh Museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, TEDx Women Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Museum N8 Amsterdam and many other cultural events.

Altin Kaftira – director, director of photography & editing

Altin Kaftira is a former principal dancer at Dutch National Ballet. After he ended his dance career in 2007 he became filmmaker and created the position of creative filmmaker within Dutch National Ballet. Through the years Altin has created many video trailers, video portraits, documentaries, TV commercials, live streams on World Ballet Day and short dance films for Dutch National Ballet. Since 2015 Altin is also the in-house photographer of the company.

Gently Quiet

Directed by: Peter Leung & Altin Kaftira

Concept & choreographye: Peter Leung

Director of photography & editing: Altin Kaftira

Music composition: Setareh Nafisi & Nicholas Robert Thayer

Dancers: Luiza Bertho, Kira Hilli, Erica Horwood, Sebia Plantefève, Yvonne Slingerland, Bastiaan Stoop, Tess Sturmann, Antonina Tchirpanlieva, Dustin True, Lore Zonderman, Alejandro Zwartendijk.

Photographer: Peter Leung