DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET

Artistic director

Associate artistic director

Resident choreographer

Artistic associate

Artistic coordinator Junior Company

Ballet masters

Ted Brandsen

Rachel Beaujean

Hans van Manen

David Dawson

Ernst Meisner

Charlotte Chapellier, Guillaume Graffin, Caroline Sayo Iura (Junior Company) Alan Land, Sandrine Leroy (choreologist/répétiteur), Larissa Lezhnina, Judy Maelor Thomas, Jozef Varga

Senior ballet teacher Rinat Gizatulin

Music director / Chief conductor

Matthew Rowe

First pianist Olga Khoziainova

Pianists

Frida

Concept, libretto, choreography

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Dramaturgy and libretto

Nancy Meckler

Music

Peter Salem

Set and costume design

Dieuweke van Reij

Lighting design

Michael Mazzola

Assistant to the choreographer

Luis Torres Ortiz

Ballet masters

Charlotte Chapellier

Michele Jimenez

Sandrine Leroy

Larissa Lezhnina

Judy Maelor-Thomas

Elena Kim, Ryoko Kondo, Paul Lewis, Mikhail Murach, Viktoriya Ryapolova

World premiere

February 6, 2020, Dutch National Ballet, Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Amsterdam

Conductor

Matthew Rowe

Music recordings

La Llorona, performed by Chavela Vargas Noches de Ahuatepec, composed and performed by Chavela Vargas

Que te vaya bonito, composed by Jose Alfredo Jimenez Sandoval, performed by Chavela Vargas

Total duration

2 hours and 15 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission

The starting point for this full-length production was the shorter ballet Broken Wings, created for English National Ballet in 2016.

Frida

‘Breathtaking explosion of color.’ That is how the Dutch theatre platform Theaterkrant described the world premiere of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida at Dutch National Opera & Ballet in 2020. The production, which is now in demand internationally, tells the life story of one of the most intriguing artists of the 20th century, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Along with designer Dieuweke van Reij and composer Peter Salem, Lopez Ochoa makes the magic of Kahlo’s world tangible in her ballet.

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) did not have a carefree life by any means. At the age of six, she got polio, and, when she was 18, she suffered irreparable damage to her pelvis and spine due to a bus accident. But Kahlo did not let fate thwart her. She fought against taboos and fought for women’s rights, and her colorful self-portraits are still inspiring people all over the world today. Lopez Ochoa says, “When I saw Julie Taymor’s film portrait Frida, I was deeply moved by how Kahlo managed to transform her physical immobility and constant pain into art.”

Kahlo's Souls and Dreams

In 2016, Lopez Ochoa’s fascination with Kahlo led to Broken Wings, which she created for English National Ballet. At the request of Dutch National Ballet’s director Ted Brandsen, she developed this short ballet into a fulllength production in 2020. Frida is not an A-to-Z story of Kahlo’s life. The most essential events are portrayed in a succession of impressionistic scenes in and around two black boxes, which symbolize her many bedridden days. In addition, Lopez Ochoa presents various alter egos, who reveal Kahlo’s soul and dreams, and 10 male dancers bring Kahlo’s selfportraits to life.

Involving 49 dancers, Frida is the biggest production created to date by the ColombianBelgian choreographer Lopez Ochoa.

Dutch National Ballet

The past decades have seen Dutch National Ballet evolve into a leading ballet company that ranks among the top 10 most prestigious ballet companies in the world. With 76 dancers — and 16 dancers from the Junior Company — Dutch National Ballet is the largest ballet company in the Netherlands. Since its foundation, it has been under the leadership of Sonia Gaskell (1961–1969), Rudi van Dantzig and Robert Kaesen (1969–1971), Rudi van Dantzig (1971–1991) and Wayne Eagling (1991–2003). Ted Brandsen has been the company’s artistic director since 2003. The company presents some 130 performances annually, both at home and abroad. When performing at home, Dutch National Ballet generally dances to music played by Dutch Ballet Orchestra. The company has a rich and varied repertoire that includes full-length classical ballets, reinterpretations of classics, 20th century works — primarily pieces by George Balanchine, Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk — as well as contemporary pieces by leading choreographers such as Hans van Manen, David Dawson, William Forsythe, Krzysztof Pastor, Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon.

Act One

SCENE 1: OVERTURE

It’s the Day of the Dead. Skeletons are passing the time on top of a black cube. They are bored and decide to tell the story of a young girl called Frida Kahlo. She is cheeky, vibrant and knows what she wants.

SCENE 2: FAMILY

The Cube opens and Frida’s painting My Family Tree comes to life.

SCENE 3: FRIDA AND ALEJANDRO

Frida is in love with Alejandro Gomez Arias. They dance happily, unaware of the danger lurking. The traffic surrounding them is getting busier and busier. Frida is severely injured in a bus accident.

SCENE 4: DISCOVERING PAINTING

Frida is bedridden for a year. The Deer appears, an alter ego that will be at her side whenever Frida feels lonely. Frida’s mother places a mirror above her bed, and her father encourages her to paint. Out of boredom, Frida starts to paint.

SCENE 5: MALE FRIDAS

10 Male Fridas represent Frida's many selfportraits. With her traditional Tehuana dress, Frida emphasizes her mestiza ancestry. It also allows her to express her feminist and anticolonialist ideals.

SCENE 6: DIEGO RIVERA

Diego Rivera is a prominent Mexican painter of large-scale murals. Frida visits him and shows him three of her paintings. She asks Diego to judge whether her paintings show enough talent.

SCENE 7: FRIDA AND DIEGO

Frida and Diego fall in love and get married. Their duet ends abruptly with Frida being taken ill with extreme leg and back pain.

SCENE 8: DIEGO’S INFIDELITIES

Diego goes to work in his studio. A model enters, and Diego seduces her. In the hospital, Frida is aware of Diego’s infidelities, and she is deeply hurt.

SCENE 9: HALLUCINATION

Frida is given a lot of morphine against the pain. Suffering from deep mental and emotional pain, she starts hallucinating.

SCENE 10: DESIRE FOR MOTHERHOOD

And Miscarriage

The Deer and Frida are in a desolate forest of red umbilical cords. Suddenly, a little Skeleton Child appears, dressed as a girl. It is Frida’s deepest wish to become a mother. She dreams of a happy future. In vain, she miscarries.

20-MINUTE INTERMISSION Act Two

SCENE 11: PROLOGUE

Frida once said: “There have been two major accidents in my life. One was the bus accident, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.”

SCENE 12: ROOTS

In this painting, Frida depicts herself with her torso open like a window and giving birth to a vine, symbolizing her desire to have a child.

SCENE 13: AMERICA

Diego and Frida travel to America, where Diego is invited to paint murals in several big cities. Diego receives a lot of attention from the press.

SCENE 14: FRIDA AND HER LOVERS

Frida has many lovers, both men and women. The first one, Nick Muray, is a famous photographer. In New York, she also meets sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Furthermore, she has a brief affair with Josephine Baker.

SCENE 15: ROCKEFELLER — MAN AT THE CROSSROADS

Diego works on a mural at the Rockefeller Center in New York titled Man at the Crossroads. A furor erupts because it contains a portrait of Lenin. When Diego refuses to remove Lenin from the painting, Diego is ordered to leave the United States.

SCENE 16: DECLINE

Frida and Diego are back in Mexico. Frida’s health is declining. Diego spends a lot of time in his studio. To pay for her medical treatments, Frida works on bigger paintings. In The Two Fridas and The Broken Column, her pain is tangible.

SCENE 17: DIEGO AND CRISTINA

A Mariachi band enters. Diego begins an affair with Frida’s sister Cristina. Frida finds out and is furious. She cuts her long hair short.

SCENE 18: I

Hope The End Is Joyful And I Hope Never To Return

Frida becomes severely depressed and anxious, and her dependency on painkillers escalates. She can hardly paint and never leaves the Casa Azul anymore. She commits suicide. On July 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo dies at the age of 47.

A colorful journey through the life of the famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, that is Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s ballet Frida. Following its successful premiere three years ago, this season Dutch National Ballet is dancing Frida not only in Amsterdam, but also in Los Angeles.

During the first performances of Frida, the media often underlined the fact that Lopez Ochoa was “the first female choreographer to create a full-length ballet for Dutch National Ballet in over 30 years.” However, the choreographer herself paid little attention to this fact. Lopez Ochoa says, “I think the reason Ted (Brandsen — ed.) asked me to make a piece was not that he was looking for a female choreographer, but that he wanted a choreographer who enjoyed telling stories.”

Power Woman

In Frida, Lopez Ochoa tells the life story of Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). From the moment she saw a film about Kahlo’s life 15 years ago, the BelgianColombian choreographer was inspired by the artist. “Frida is such a power woman! She had a difficult life, with a lot of pain. But rather than wasting away, she used her situation as a source of inspiration for her art. At the same time, painting was Frida’s way of taking her mind off the pain for a while. It’s so special that I can share the story of this impressive and — like me — Latin American woman with Dutch and American audiences.” Frida, however, is not an explicitly biographical ballet. “I didn’t want the piece to be too anecdotal. Instead, I chose to tell the story through Frida’s fantasy world. So I kept looking for which paintings were based on the various events in her life, and brought those paintings and their characters to life.”

Mexicanismo

Lopez Ochoa also took inspiration for Frida from the style that Kahlo used in her paintings: Mexicanismo. “The Mexicanismo style is characterized by its indigenous origins, and works painted in this style are often twodimensional,” explains Lopez Ochoa. “This is also reflected in the ballet. My choreography for some of the characters is angular and frontal, in order to illustrate Mexicanismo.” Besides artistic reasons, there were personal reasons for this choice, too. “My father is Colombian, and we had paintings in Mexicanismo style hanging on the walls at home. I never used to understand them—in my eyes the portraits were very flat and the people in them looked just like hieroglyphs—but my parents were always so proud of them! So it was even more important to me that Mexicanismo was clearly recognizable in Frida. I wanted the ballet to stay close to my Latino roots.”

This season, Lopez Ochoa is returning to the ballet studio to rehearse Frida with the dancers of Dutch National Ballet. “I’m so grateful that this company is open to ballets like Frida, which tell new stories and are not totally classical. For example, some roles, including that of Frida, are not danced on pointe. By presenting productions like this, Dutch National Ballet shows that there are ballets that tell stories in other ways and have a different sort of beauty to what people in the West are used to.”

ANNABELLE LOPEZ OCHOA Choreography

The Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle

Lopez Ochoa trained at the Royal Ballet School Antwerp, after which she was a high-profile dancer with companies such as Djazzex (1993–1997) and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam (1997–2003) for 12 years. The latter company was where she created her first official choreographic works.

In 2003, she bade the stage farewell to focus completely on choreography. In the same year, the newspaper NRC called her ‘the rising star of the Dutch dance world.’ The versatile choreographer has worked in the fields of theatre, opera, musicals and with the Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, among others. In 2008, her international career really took off, and since then she has created new works for more than 75 companies all over the world, including New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, The Joffrey Ballet, Scottish Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba and English National Ballet.

For Dutch National Ballet, Lopez Ochoa has created the workshop ballet Before After (2002), Solitaire (2003), Since (2007), Last Resistance (2018, with Wende Snijders), Frida (2020) and Quasicrystal (2021). Frida arose from the one-act Broken Wings, which she made in 2016 for English National Ballet. At the request of Dutch National Ballet, she developed this piece about the life of Frida Kahlo into a full-length ballet, which received glowing reviews.

Lopez Ochoa has won various prizes for her work, including the British National Dance Award and the South Bank Award for A Streetcar Named Desire (2013), created for Scottish Ballet. In 2019, she received the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.

NANCY MECKLER

Dramaturgy and Libretto

Nancy Meckler was born in North America and has been working as a dramaturge and a theatre and movie director for many years. She also fulfilled the role of artistic director of the internationally renowned Experience Theatre in the United Kingdom for multiple years. Meckler worked as a dramaturge on Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s The Little Prince (BalletX) and Broken Wings (English National Ballet). Together with Lopez Ochoa, she created A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet. For this work, Meckler was nominated for an Olivier Award and won the 2013 South Bank Award. She also created several theatre productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company, including Romeo and Juliet, All's Well that Ends Well, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Comedy of Errors, and worked for National Theatre (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ) and The Globe (King Lear). Her work as a movie director includes the two feature films My Sister and Alive and Kicking, for which she won the audience award at the London Film Festival.

PETER SALEM Music

Peter Salem creates music for contemporary ballet as well as for film and television. His first composition for ballet was A Streetcar Named Desire, which was also his first collaboration with choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and dramaturge Nancy Meckler. After that, he created Broken Wings (English National Ballet) and The Little Prince (BalletX) with them. Salem also composed the music for Helen Pickett’s full-length ballets Camino Real (Atlanta Ballet) and The Crucible (Scottish Ballet) —which was the opening production of the dance program of the Edinburgh International Festival 2019. His music for The Crucible was nominated for a National Dance Award. Frida is Salem's sixth composition for contemporary ballet.

Furthermore, his work for film and television has gained international renown including his music for Call the Midwife (BBC), Cider With Rosie, Five Daughters, Great Expectations (BBC) and the documentaries Francesco's Venice and The Tower of Art (Simon Schama, BBC). Salem has also written extensively for theatre, including The Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre and Shared Experience Theatre.

DIEUWEKE VAN REIJ Set and Costume Design

Dieuweke van Reij studied scenography at the University of the Arts in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and designs costumes for opera, music theatre, youth theatre, cabaret and dance. She has designed costumes for choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Broken Wings at English National Ballet, Mammatus for The Joffrey Ballet (Chicago), De Sade Affair for House of Makers, Celeste for Ballet Nacional de Cuba and Dangerous Liaisons for Augsburg Ballet, among others.

Van Reij maintains long-term collaborations with various collectives and makers. She has designed, for example, both the set and costumes for director Floris Visser for many of his operas, including Jenufa (Hannover), La Bohème and Antigona (Osnabrueck), Orphée et Eurydice and La Traviata (Reisopera), Così fan tutte (Bolshoi Theater, Moscow), Fortress Europe (Opera Trionfo and Dutch National Opera), Juditha Triumphans (Dutch National Opera) and Manon (Zurich). Furthermore, she frequently works with the Dutch contemporary music theatre company Orkater. She recently designed the set and costumes for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida at Dutch National Ballet. She returned to Dutch National Opera & Ballet during season 2021/2022, designing the sets and costumes for How Anansi Freed the Stories of the World.

For her designs for Così fan tutte, Van Reij was nominated for a Golden Mask, Russia's most prestigious theatre award. She also won the Musical Award for Best Design for De terugkeer van Hans en Grietje (The Return of Hansel and Gretel) by Orkater, in collaboration with the Dutch Ballet Orchestra.

MICHAEL MAZZOLA

Lighting Design

Since the 1980s, Michael Mazzola’s highly acclaimed designs have been featured in both the United States and Europe, in venues ranging from opera houses to circus tents and amphitheaters. He worked as the resident lighting designer of Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Bebe Miller Company, Steve Paxton & Lisa Nelson, Yoshiko Chuma, Milwaukee Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet Company, Trinity Irish Dance Company and Hubbard Street Dance Company. Mazzola designed the production Stars of the New York City Ballet, which was performed in a garden that he had designed especially for this event, and provided the lighting design for Within/Without by Nicolo Fonte in 2004. He also regularly works as a lighting designer for music events.

LUIS TORRES ORTIZ

Assistant to the Choreographer

Luis Torres Ortiz is currently a ballet master at Hong Kong Ballet. After completing his interdisciplinary Bachelor's degree in Dance and Psychology at Arizona State University and a Master of Fine Arts at George Mason University, he began his career as a dancer with Ballet Arizona. He danced as a soloist and principal dancer with Ballet Arizona, Ballet Theatre of Maryland and at The Washington Ballet, after which he started working as a ballet master. He has gained experience as a ballet master at Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Chamber Dance Project and The Washington Ballet's Studio Company and works regularly with Septime Webre, artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, among others, staging their works at various companies.

MATTHEW ROWE

Musical Direction

Matthew Rowe is Music Director of Dutch National Ballet and Principal Conductor of the Dutch Ballet Orchestra. He made his debut with Dutch National Ballet in 2004 and was appointed to the dual position in 2013. Rowe is praised internationally and is much sought-after as a guest conductor across the world. He is exceptionally versatile with a wide repertoire and stands out in the conducting world for his skill and experience with complex collaborative productions.

Noteworthy ballet productions with Dutch National Ballet have included Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella; Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird; and world premieres of Shen Wei’s Sacre du Printemps, Ted Brandsen’s Mata Hari, David Dawson’s Requiem and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida. His extensive repertoire embraces the work of many renowned choreographers—including numerous works of Hans van Manen, George Balanchine, Wayne McGregor and Krzysztof Pastor.

Rowe also has a longstanding association with Nederlands Dans Theater, where he has collaborated with many contemporary choreographers including Jiří Kylián, Leon|Lightfoot and Crystal Pite. He is a regular guest conductor with many international dance companies, including San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgarter Ballett, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Polish National Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.

TED BRANDSEN Artistic Director

Ted Brandsen has been the director of Dutch National Ballet since 2003. His leadership ushered in a new heyday for the company, which now ranks among the top leading ballet companies in the world. Brandsen’s initiatives include rejuvenating the full-length repertoire, introducing new world-class choreographers, distributing performances more widely throughout the Netherlands and increasing the company’s appearances at major international venues. In 2013, in collaboration with the Dutch National Ballet Academy, he initiated the foundation of Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company, which bridges the gap between dance training and professional practice.

Following a late start at the Scapino Dance Academy, Brandsen joined Dutch National Ballet as a dancer in 1981, where he stood out particularly in the works by contemporary choreographers. After creating various pieces for Dutch National Ballet’s annual choreographic workshop and for other companies, he stopped dancing in 1991 and started working as a freelance choreographer. His first ‘official’ work for Dutch National Ballet, Four Sections, was a great success in the same year. In the years that followed, he created work for several Dutch and international dance companies and festivals. In 1998, he was appointed artistic director of West Australian Ballet, where he created a great many ballets, including Carmen (2000, which received the Australian Dance Award) and Pulcinella (2001).

In 2002, Brandsen was invited to return to Dutch National Ballet, initially in the position of assistant artistic director and in 2003 as artistic director. Since then, Brandsen has created Body (2004), Stealing Time (2006), Raï (2013), Replay (2014), Classical Symphony (2020) and other works, as well as the full-length productions Coppelia (2008) and Mata Hari (2016). Brandsen’s work is in the repertoire of many companies abroad. He is also in great demand as a jury member for awards such as the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, the Fedora Prize for Ballet, the Dance Open and the international Benois de la Danse awards, which are also known as the ‘Oscars of dance.’

In 2014, Stichting Dansersfonds ’79 presented Brandsen with the Merit Award. And four years later, the Dansersfonds dedicated their 21st ballet gala to him, in recognition of his important work for Dutch National Ballet. In October 2019, the Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, presented him with the Amsterdam Prize for Art, in the category ‘Proven Quality,’ and, in June 2022, he was appointed Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion.

Rachel Beaujean

Associate Artistic Director

Rachel Beaujean has been working with Dutch National Ballet since 1977. Following her training at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, she joined the company as a dancer. In 1981, she was promoted to soloist. After 20 years as a dancer, she said farewell to the stage in a performance of Hans van Manen’s Sarcasmen, which had been created for her and Clint Farha. She was then appointed ballet mistress with Dutch National Ballet. In 2003, Beaujean became head of the artistic staff and has been associate artistic director of the company since 2017. In the same year, at the celebration of her 40th anniversary with the company, she was made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

As a dancer, Beaujean was known mainly for her interpretations of ballets by Hans van Manen, whose muse she was for many years. She also appeared in ballets by Rudi van Dantzig, Toer van Schayk and George Balanchine and danced striking roles in works choreographed by William Forsythe, Martha Graham and Édouard Lock, among others. In the classical repertoire, she stood out for her interpretations of the roles of Myrtha in Giselle and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty.

In recent years, Beaujean has made various adaptations of major 19 th-century productions for Dutch National Ballet. For instance, she created her own version of Les Sylphides, a revised interpretation of Giselle (along with Ricardo Bustamante) and a dazzling new production of Paquita. In 2022, Beaujean created an entirely new version of Raymonda, a masterpiece by Marius Petipa.

For her excellence as a dancer, the Dutch Association of Theater and Concert Hall Directors awarded Beaujean the Golden Dance Theater Award in 1993, and she received the Merit Award from Dansersfonds ’79 in 1995. Beaujean has previously been a member of the board of the Dutch Dance Days, the Hans van Manen Foundation and the Toer van Schayk Foundation. As an assistant to Hans van Manen, she now coordinates and organizes the teaching of Van Manen’s works to international companies, some of which she teaches herself.

Dancers

MAIA MAKHATELI (Principal Dancer) Frida

Maia Makhateli, from Tbilisi, Georgia, started her dance training at the Choreographic Institute of Chabukiani in her place of birth and continued her studies at the Sun Valley Ballet School in Idaho, after which she danced with Colorado Ballet for four years. In 2006, she made the move to Birmingham Royal Ballet and in 2007, she was accepted at Dutch National Ballet as a grand sujet where she was promoted to soloist in 2009 and one year later to principal dancer. Makhateli is an internationally soughtafter guest principal and has won several awards, including the Dancer of the Year Award of the leading dance magazine Dance Europe in 2020.

SALOME LEVERASHVILI (Soloist)— Frida

Salome Leverashvili studied at the State Ballet School in Tbilisi, where she danced her first solo role at the age of 14. Through the mediation of Maia Makhateli, principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet, she was accepted for Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company in 2016 in the final year of her training. She transferred to the main company in 2017, in the rank of élève, and received promotion in each subsequent year. In 2021, she was promoted to the rank of soloist, at the age of 23. Leverashvili won several awards, including a gold medal at Rigars-Pavasaris competition and, in 2022, the Alexandra Radius Prize.

JAMES STOUT (Principal Dancer)—Diego Rivera

The Canadian-British dancer James Stout got interested in dance through his parents’ Argentinian tango dance club. At the age of 13, he went to The School of Alberta Ballet— “because they needed boys.” Later on, the Calgary native trained with the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver and spent his final year of training at The Royal Ballet School in London. In 2007, he joined Dutch National Ballet, where he was promoted to soloist in 2012 and to principal in 2018, immediately after his performance of the role of Tristan in David Dawson’s Tristan + Isolde. Stout succeeded in reaching the finals of ballet competitions in Varna, Hong Kong and Beijing.

ARTUR SHESTERIKOV (Principal Dancer)—Diego Rivera

Artur Shesterikov trained in his hometown Perm, Russia, at the State Ballet School. He began his professional career with the Tchaikovsky Perm State Opera and Ballet Theater and joined Dutch National Ballet in 2007. Shesterikov started out in the corps de ballet, but was rapidly promoted to coryphée. He became a soloist in 2010 and a principal dancer two years later, immediately after a touring performance of Swan Lake. In 2016, he received the Alexandra Radius Prize and in 2017, 2019 and 2020, the magazine Dance Europe mentioned him in its Critics’ Choice, in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer category.

ERICA HORWOOD (Grand Sujet) —The Deer

Erica Harwood, of Ottawa, Canada, trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and Canada’s National Ballet School. She joined Dutch National Ballet as an adspirant in 2007 and joined the company’s corps de ballet in 2009. In 2011, she was promoted to the rank of coryphée. Her promotion to grand sujet followed one year later.

FLOOR EIMERS (soloist)

—The Deer

Floor Eimers, from Nijmegen in the Netherlands, trained as a dancer with the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and joined Dutch National Ballet as an adspirant in 2012. In the following years, she went through the ranks of élève, corps de ballet and coryphée, becoming a grand sujet in 2017. In 2019, she was promoted to the rank of soloist. Eimers has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Incentive Award from Stichting Dansersfonds ‘79 in 2015 and the Alexandra Radius Prize in 2021. In 2020, the British magazine Dance Europe mentioned Eimers in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer category.

RIHO SAKAMOTO—The Bird

Originally from Osaka, Japan, Riho Sakamoto started amateur ballet classes at the age of four. After a few years of classes in Japan, Sakamoto moved to Washington, D.C., at the age of 10 to continue her training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet. In 2010, she won the gold medal at the finals of the Youth America Grand Prix in New York and in 2014, Sakamoto was admitted to Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company. Just one year later, she joined Dutch National Ballet, in the rank of élève. After that she was promoted every year, becoming a principal in 2021, after her debut as Clara in The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

NINA TONOLI—The Bird

Nina Tonoli, from Ghent, Belgium, studied at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp and The Royal Ballet School in London. In 2013, she joined the Wiener Staatsballett as a corps de ballet dancer. One year later, she was promoted to demi soloist, followed by her promotion to soloist in 2016. She joined Dutch National Ballet in 2019 in the rank of soloist. Tonoli has won various prizes, including second prize and the ‘special prize’ at the Chausson d’Or competition (2009), the British Ballet Association Award (2011) and an Award of Excellence (2013) upon graduating from The Royal Ballet School.

NAIRA AGVANEAN—The Bird

Naira Agvanean was born in Armenia, but started her ballet education at the Moldovan National Ballet College in Moldova. She participated in the Youth American Grand Prix in New York and won third prize at the OTR Contest in Wenen. In 2004, she continued her studies at the Munich Ballet Academy for Performing Arts. After her graduation in 2008, she joined Dutch National Ballet as an adspirant. After that, Agvanean was promoted to élève (2009), corps de ballet dancer

(2010), coryphée (2012) and grand sujet (2014). In 2022, after dancing a role in Toer van Schayk’s 7th Symphony, she was promoted to soloist.

JAN SPUNDA (Grand Sujet)

—Solo Skeleton

Originally from Ostrava, Czech Republic, Jan Spunda studied at the Janáček Conservatory and the English National Ballet School. In 2017, he began his professional dance career with the Bayerisches Staatsballett. In 2019, he joined the corps de ballet of Dutch National Ballet, where he was promoted to coryphée in 2021 and to grand sujet in 2022. Spunda won several awards, including third prize at the Tallinn International Ballet Competition in 2014 and third prize at the finals of the Youth America Grand Prix, where he was also awarded the Outstanding Artistry Award from the British magazine Dance Europe.

CONOR WALMSLEY (Coryphée)—Solo Skeleton

Conor Walmsley, of East Yorkshire, United Kingdom, started with ballet at the age of 14 and was accepted at the English National Ballet School when he was 16. After one year, he transferred to the Dutch National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, where he continued his training for two years. He joined the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet in 2017 and the main company in 2019, in the rank of élève. Walmsley was promoted to corps de ballet dancer one year later and to the rank of coryphée in 2022.

PASCAL JOHNSON (Corps de Ballet)—Solo Skeleton

Pascal Johnson, of Watford, United Kingdom, studied at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Tring, England. He started his professional dance career with Scottish Ballet and joined Dutch National Ballet in 2018 as a dancer in the corps de ballet.

DUSTIN TRUE (Corps de Ballet) —Solo Skeleton

A native of Ohio, Dustin True began his ballet training with Mia Klinger and completed his studies at the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center in New York. In 2012, he joined Los Angeles Ballet, where he was promoted to the rank of soloist and danced works from George Balanchine, Jiří Kylián and the classical repertory. In 2017, he joined the Ballett Dortmund in Germany, working with various contemporary choreographers. True joined Dutch National Ballet in 2019 as a dancer in the corps de ballet.

Other Participating Dancers

SOLOISTS

Jingjing Mao

Yuanyuan Zhang

Joseph Massarelli

Giorgi Potskhisvili

Timothy van Poucke

Martin ten Kortenaar

Grands Sujets

Chloë Réveillon

Elisabeth Tonev

Connie Vowles

Daniel Montero Real

Daniel Silva

Sem Sjouke

Coryph Es

Luiza Bertho

Khayla Fitzpatrick

Kira Hilli

Hannah de Klein

Wendeline Wijkstra

Nathan Brhane

Rémy Catalan

Davi Ramos

CORPS DE BALLET

Liza Gorbachova

Beatriz Kuperus

Arianna Maldini

Emma Mardegan

Inés Marroquín

Alexandria Marx

Sebia PlantefèveCastryck

Sandra Quintyn

Laura Rosillo

Yvonne Slingerland

Antonina Tchirpanlieva

Claire Tjoe-Fat

Lore Zonderman

Sander Baaij

Dingkai Bai

Bela Erlandson

Manu Kumar

Leo Hepler

Giovanni Princic

Fabio Rinieri

Rafael Valdez

ÉLÈVES

Koko Bamford

Mila Caviglia

Catarina Pires

Isaac Mueller

Guillermo Torrijos

Koyo Yamamoto

Production Team

SETS, PROPS, WIGS AND MAKE-UP, LIGHTING AND SOUND

Technical department of Dutch National Opera & Ballet

PRODUCTION MANAGERS

Joshua de Kuyper

Anu Viheriäranta

STAGE MANAGERS

Wolfgang Tietze

Kees Prince

PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

Sieger Kotterer

FIRST CARPENTER

Jeroen Jaspers

CARPENTERS

Arjan de Wolff

Carl Kassenaar

Sanne van de Vooren

LIGHTING MANAGERS

Angela Leuthold

Michel van Reijn

LIGHTING OPERATORS

Erik Vrees

Jasper Paternotte

FOLLOW SPOTTER

Panos Mitsopoulos

SOUND ENGINEER

Jannes Noorman

Timo Merkies

PROPS MANAGER

Quani Wolters

HEAD OF COSTUME DEPARTMENT

Oliver Haller

COSTUME SUPERVISOR

Eddie Grundy

FIRST DRESSER

Andrei Brejs

MAKE-UP ARTISTS

Annette Stiller

Bärbel Scheid

COMPANY MANAGERS

Lydia Buisman

Sterre Haverkamp

ARTISTIC LOGISTICS COORDINATOR

Wiard Havenaar

BALLET MASTERS ON LOCATION

Charlotte Chapellier

Michele Jimenez

Management

DIRECTOR DUTCH

NATIONAL BALLET

Ted Brandsen

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Rachel Beaujean

GENERAL DIRECTOR DUTCH

NATIONAL OPERA & BALLET Stijn

Schoonderwoerd

Supervisory Board

Louise Fresco, chair

Else Bos

Rochdi Darrazi

Bernard Foccroulle

Sadik Harchaoui

Robert Swaak

Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi

Paul Waarts

Orchestra

VIOLIN I

Roberto Cani

Concertmaster

Armen Anassian Associate

Concertmaster

Lisa Sutton Assistant

Concertmaster

Margaret Wooten

Olivia Tsui

Lucinda Chiu

Radu Pieptea

Ashoka Thiaragajan

Myroslava Khomik

Adam Millstein

VIOLIN II

Ana Landauer Principal

Kathleen Sloan

Associate Principal

Florence Titmus

Leslie Katz

Michele Kikuchi

Cynthia Moussas

Loránd Lokuszta

Gallia Kastner

VIOLA

Shawn Mann

Principal

Rob Brophy

Associate Principal

Dmitri Bovaird

Carolyn Riley

Aaron Oltman

Diana Wade

CELLI

Trevor Handy Principal

Nadine Hall

Associate Principal

Joo Lee

Margaret Edmondson

Youna Choi

Sarah Kim

BASSES

Nathan Farrington Principal

Frances Liu Wu

Assoc. Principal

Don Ferrone

Tim Eckert

FLUTES

Heather Clark

Principal

Angela Wiegand

OBOES

Leslie Reed

Principal

Jennifer Cullinan

CLARINETS

Stuart Clark Principal

Donald Foster

BASSOONS

William Wood

Principal

Duncan Massey

HORNS

Steven Becknell Principal

Daniel Kelley

TRUMPETS

Ryan Darke Principal

Barry Perkins

TROMBONES

William Booth Principal

Terry Cravens

Bass trombone

HARP

JoAnn Turovsky Principal GUITAR

Paul Viapiano Principal

PIANO

Alan Steinberger Principal

KEYBOARDS

Ryan Whyman Principal

PERCUSSION

Theresa Dimond

Principal, Marimba

Pete Korpela

Dante Luna

Jon Schlitt

Danyelle Squyres

MUSIC LIBRARIAN

Melisandra Dunker

ORCHESTRA

PERSONNEL

MANAGER

Brady Steel

Imagine a child experiencing his first live performance, a teacher discovering new ways to inspire students, a couple enjoying a world-renowned dance company and a family learning new dance moves together, and know that it is your everlasting kindness that allows The Music Center to provide these meaningful experiences that enrich the lives of all Angelenos.

Imagine the impact your gift can make!

We invite you to consider a gift that will create inclusive arts and cultural experiences that champion the diverse voices and communities of Los Angeles for generations to come. The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Society honors and recognizes the generous individuals who have made a commitment with a planned or endowed gift to The Music Center.

To learn more about the Dorothy Chandler Society and other ways to meet your financial and charitable goals, contact Debra Beadle at (213) 972-4319 or visit musiccenterlegacy.org.