Wayne Eagling and Dutch National Ballet

By Patricia Boccadoro

PARIS, 11 July 2003 - As European classical companies go, Dutch National Ballet, which presented an excellent programme of four short contemporary pieces at the Theatre de Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines, is a relatively young troupe. Created in 1961 by Sonia Gaskell , who ran it with the help of Rudi van Dantzig, (who had co-founded Netherlands Dans Theater two years before), it was subsequently directed by van Dantzig for the next twelve years. He added many of his own works to the repertoire of nineteenth century classics and twentieth century ballets, and brought in the Dutch choreographers Hans van Manen and Toer van Schayk whose pieces began to give the troupe an identity of their own.

"However", said Canadian dancer Wayne Eagling, director since 1991, the man responsible for turning them into one of today's important companies, "when I arrived there was a lot of work to do to make the company world class. My immediate aim was to get together a really good group of dancers that people wouldn't laugh at. I remember Paul Lightfoot* telling me that they used to come and watch us just to see how many people fell over.

Dutch National Ballet
© Photo: Deen Van Meer

"The large repertoire, which included Peter Wright's Sleeping Beauty, and van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake, as well as many original pieces by van Manen was fine, but the technical and artistic level of the dancers fell well below that of New York City Ballet for example. It was very provincial."

No one could have been better qualified to take over. Wayne Eagling knew what he was talking about. A danseur noble, he had joined the Royal Ballet in 1969 and throughout his long career there had performed all the main classical roles as well as creating many twentieth century ballets. He was known for his versatility. Partner of Lesley Collier, Jennifer Penney, Merle Park and of Margot Fonteyn in Ashton's Hamlet and Ophelia, he had also danced with many other international stars including Alessandra Ferri.

" Because there was so much to do, I stopped dancing myself to concentrate on directing the company and coaching the dancers", he commented," but I had a hard time right from the beginning with the critics asking why a Dutchman wasn't running things. "He'll just turn it into another version of the Royal Ballet. " they said. "Was that such a bad thing?"

Dutch National Ballet
© Photo: Deen Van Meer

Eagling was continually criticised for not doing more Dutch choreography, yet each time I have seen them, he has been anxiously emphasising the fact the company hails from Holland. In 1996 he staged a very attractive version of the Nutcracker, in collaboration with Dutchman Toer van Schayk , where the first act opened with skaters on the frozen canals of Amsterdam. Three works of van Manen were taken to Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, and his recent programme at the Theatre de Saint -Quentin-en-Yvelines near Paris saw thirty-eight dancers presenting three more Dutch pieces plus a work by Polish choreographer, Krzysztof Pastor, who had been a company member for ten years.

"I 've always emphasised the classics because they are the most important, being the yardstick by which any company is judged", he said, "and while I've brought in Act III of The Bayadère, Cranko's Onegin, as well as The Magic Flute, which I choreographed with van Schayk, pieces from new Dutch people cannot be programmed just for the sake of it. I haven't seen that many new Balanchines emerge recently", he added morosely, "and all directors are looking for good choreographers who don't create solely for their own troupe. The moment anyone with a little bit of talent comes along, everyone runs after him. It's a problem throughout the dance world." .

"Nevertheless, the company looks very good despite all the cuts in subsidy", he commented. "Every year I've been there the subsidy has been reduced, which means I can't get the works I want as quickly as I want, nor get the choreographers in to revive their works.

Dutch National Ballet
© Photo: Deen Van Meer

Eagling has also been obliged to reduce the number of dancers from 93 to 78, while his excellent soloists, Sofiane Sylve, who is French, will move to New York City Ballet as Principal at the same time that Italian Federico Bonelli will join the Royal Ballet in London. Several others, I learnt, have also accepted posts elsewhere. All the advantages he had when he took the job seem to have been systematically stripped away since the board of directors who appointed him changed.

There's a very definite problem here. At the present time, only a few dancers boast Dutch nationality due to the mediocre quality of schooling in the Netherlands. But why indeed should the Dutch government pay for the Japanese, the four Frenchman and two Italians, plus the Russians and Poles in a company of no less than twenty-eight nationalities, run by a Canadian, to say this is the National Ballet of Holland? After all, in France, while no one has so far complained of the diverse nationalities of choreographers whose works are staged there, the Paris Opéra Ballet itself is predominantly French. But France has a tradition of dance that goes back to before the time of Louis XIV and is blessed with probably the finest dance school in the world. Holland can offer no comparable training.

Not to worry. Holland does possess an extremely good football team.



* Paul Lightfoot is resident choreographer of Netherlands Dans Theater.