We are proud to present the new 2023-2024 season with you! Eleven world premieres, exciting interdisciplinary collaborations, and the return of works by internationally renowned makers. We invite you to get inspired!
NDT 1 opens the new season with the programme In/with/in. Experience this programme in Dutch theatres from September 21 to November 10.
See an overview of choreographers creating work for NDT.
NDT is one of the few dance companies that invites so many choreographers on an annual basis, providing them the opportunity to create new works with a virtuoso modern dance company. It is therefore not surprising that international, award-winning choreographers such as Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Hofesh Shechter and Edward Clug are recurring guests at NDT. In addition, world renowned associate choreographers Marco Goecke and Crystal Pite complete NDT’s repertoire on a regular basis with contemporary masterpieces. The presence of established as well as upcoming choreographers leads to creative cross-pollinations of memorable ballets of the highest quality.
Season 2023- 2024 features eleven world premieres by new voices to NDT and celebrates the return of works by internationally renowned makers
Siblings Imre van Opstal and Marne van Opstal (The Netherlands) – both former NDT dancers – debuted with their creation LiNK for the talent development programme Up & Coming Choreographers in 2014. After that the created multiple works for NDT: for Up & Coming Choreographers 2015 they made the work John Doe and season 2016-2017 marked their choreographic debut for the regular programme of NDT 2 with The Grey (2017). They created their highly praised first work for NDT 1, Take Root (2019), in season 2018-2019, which was awarded with a nomination for a Dutch ‘Zwaan’ for ‘most impressive dance production’. In 2020, both decided to fully focus on choreography. For NDT 1, they then created Baby don’t hurt me in 2021. In season 2023-2024, the makers will return to create a new work for NDT 1 in collaboration with Studio Drift.
Tao Ye, choreographer and founder of the TAO Dance Theater will debut a work with NDT and with that his first ever creation for an external company. For the choreographer, the act of repetition as a ritual of the natural sequence of the body progresses into, as he describes, “a state that is pure and minimal.” Tao Ye works in numerical form, marking this the fifteenth creation within his oeuvre, that he will be creating in close collaboration with the dancers of NDT 1 and renowned composer Xiao He.
In 2013 Marco Goecke (Germany) joined NDT as an associate choreographer. For the company he created many choreographies in this period. His Midnight Raga (2017) earned him the Zwaan for ‘most impressive dance production’. In season 2022-2023, Goecke created his first full-length creation for NDT 1, In the Dutch Mountains.
Nadav Zelner (Israel) loved dancing and listening to music as a child and during his high school years he discovered his choreography skills. Over the years Nadav formed a unique dance language and recently he started to developers his own new dance technique of which he wants to make accessible to the world.
His creation Bedtime story for NDT 2 in the 2021-2022 season marked Nadav’s debut with NDT, and in 2023-2024, NDT 2 will bring back this piece to stage.
Micaela Taylor is a choreographer, and the Artistic Director of her company TL Collective. Trained in hip-hop and ballet, she has created her own dance genre called Expand Practice, exuding emotion from the core and creating varied physicality and textures as expressions of one’s authentic self. Taylor’s movement language has been described by the Los Angeles Times as “athletic and graceful, precise and fluid,” and one that “settles in the dichotomies.” This premiere will mark Taylor’s first ever creation for the company.
Jermaine Spivey (US) is an independent dancer and choreographer who has danced and worked for various dance companies. In season 2021-2022, Jermaine first created work for NDT during Up & Coming Choreographers named Code of Conduct. In season 2023-2024, he will return to continue working on this creation with NDT 2.
William Forsythe (USA) has been active in the field of choreography for over 50 years. His three decades of work with his ensembles in Frankfurt exerted significant influence upon generations of artists in a wide array of creative practices.
With an initial focus on the organizational underpinnings of academic ballet Forsythe has, since 1991, extended his choreographic discourse into the field of visual arts. Forsythe has been the recipient of numerous awards which include the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale and Der Faust, both for lifetime achievement.
Actor, writer and director Simon McBurney is one of the most innovative, mercurial and influential theatre-makers working today. In 1983 he co-founded the company Complicité, since when all his work has been made through a deeply researched and highly collaborative process which fuses a profound belief that all aspects of the theatre should challenge the limits of theatrical form.
In season 2021-2022, Simon McBurney created for NDT for the first time, in collaboration with associate choreographer Crystal Pite. He returns in 2023-2024 for the second creation resulting from this collaboration.
Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar (Israel) form an innovative duo in the contemporary danceworld. For NDT 2 they created Sara (2013) and FEELINGS (2016) and for NDT 1 they created Bedroom Folk (2015) and Salt Womb (2016). In 2013 the duo formed their dance company L-E-V.
In season 2022-2023, Sharon Eyal created a work for the NDT 1 dancers, Jakie. This work will be part of the programming in season 2023-2024 again.
Gabriela Carrizo (Argentina) danced for les ballets C de la B/Alain Platel before founding the Brussels-based collective Peeping Tom in 2000, together with Franck Chartier. Carrizo’s experimental style constitutes a mix between dance and theatre and between the everyday and the mysterious. In 2013 Carrizo created The missing door for NDT 1. In season 2021-2022, she made her latest creation for NDT, La Ruta (2022). In 2023-2024, NDT 1 will restage this piece.
The world-renowned choreographer Jiří Kylián (Czechoslovakia) was the artistic director of NDT for nearly a quarter century. He remained house choreographer until 2009. Kylián’s exceeding body of work counts 100 creations to date, of which no less than 75 were especially created for NDT. Numerous dance companies and schools around the world frequently perform Kylián’s masterpieces. Kylián has received many prestigious, international awards and honours, among which an election as foreign associate member of the prestigious French Académie des Beaux-Arts, for the newly founded choreography section of the Academy.
Since 2002 Maxine Doyle has been director and choreographer for Punchdrunk, with whom she co-directed the multi-awardwinning Sleep No More, The Drowned Man, The Firebird Ball, Faust, and more. Doyle has created for various dance companies as well as for television and film. Her work combines an intense physicality with a focus on crafting characters and non-linear narratives. This premiere with NDT 2 marks Doyle’s debut with the company and will centre around a collaboration with composer Cassie Kinoshi who will create an original score for the work.
Batsheva Dance Company Choreographer & Artistic Director Ohad Naharin has been hailed as one of the world’s preeminent contemporary choreographers. As Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company since 1990, he has guided the company with an adventurous artistic vision and reinvigorated its repertory with his captivating choreography. Naharin is also the originator of an innovative movement language, Gaga, which has enriched his extraordinary movement invention, revolutionized the company’s training, and emerged as a growing force in the larger field of movement practices for both dancers and non-dancers.
Between Barcelona and New York, Marcos Morau (Spain) studied photography, movement and theatre. He builds worlds and imaginary landscapes where movement and image meet and shallow one another. For over ten years, Marcos runs La Veronal, as director, choreographer, and set, light and wardrobe designer. He’s travelled the world presenting his pieces at festivals, theatres and international contexts.
In season 2021-2022, Marcos created his debut for the company with the NDT 2 dancers, Folkå. In 2023-2024, he will return to create a work with NDT 1.
Acrobat, actor, juggler, dancer, choreographer, Yoann Bourgeois (France) is first and foremost a player. He founded his Compagnie Yoann Bourgeois in 2010. His works strongly depict Bourgeois’ fascination with gravity, often through installations that defy the forces of physical strength. In 2016, Bourgeois became codirector of the CCN2 – Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble. In the 2019-2020 season, Bourgeois created his first piece for the company called Little song for the dancers of NDT 2. A year later in the 2020-2021 season, he created his first piece for NDT 1, I wonder where the dreamsI don’t remember go.
In 2008 Crystal Pite (Canada) joined NDT as an associate choreographer. She is also an associate dance artist with the Canada’s National Arts Centre and Sadler’s Wells, London. For NDT 1 Pite created several pieces, and most recently, Figures in Extinction [1.0] (2022) in collaboration with Simon McBurney, Artistic Director of Complicité, which was awarded with the Dutch Zwaan for best Dance Production in 2022.In 2002 Pite founded Kidd Pivot, her own company in Vancouver.
As NDT’s associate choreographer, Crystal regularly creates new work. The work Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue (2008) marked her first collaboration with the NDT 2 dancers. In season 2023-2024, NDT 1 will bring back the acclaimed Solo Echo.
Sofia Nappi is the Artistic Director and co-founder of dance company KOMOCO based in Italy. “Music, a strong emotion connected to a thought or a concept, a need to convey a message, and letting go into structured improvisation are the engines of my creative process,” says Nappi. Her first creations with KOMOCO won the Partner Introdans Award at the Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition 2021, and won prizes at the prestigious 35th International Choreography Competition Hannover 2021.
In season 2023-2024, Sofia will create a new work for NDT 2 for Up & Coming Choreographers 2024.
Ella Rothschild is a choreographer and multidisciplinary artist. Rothschild was a dancer with Inbal Pinto, and Batsheva Dance Company under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is currently a dancer with Crystal Pite’s company Kidd Pivot. Since 2010, she has been creating her own work in collaboration with various artists from different disciplines, integrating dance, visual art and music. “I love working with dancers,” says Rothschild. “Teaching them physical materials, seeing it move from my body to their bodies and how they wear the movement, change it and make it their own.” In 2016, she received Tel-Aviv’s Rosenblum Performing Arts Award as a promising creator, and the Ministry Cultural Award.
In season 2023-2024, Ella will create a new work for NDT 2 for Up & Coming Choreographers 2024.
Antonio de Rosa and Mattia Russo lead the Madrid-based Kor’sia collective as directors and choreographers, along with researcher and co-founder Giuseppe Dagostino and Professor of Performing Arts Agnès López-Río as artistic advisors. The project grew out of a desire to use the body as a means to transcend verbal communication. Kor’sia’s visionary creations include film, photography, literature and sculpture and invite the audience to immerse themselves in all-encompassing experiences. About their 2019 performance Siciliana, The Theatre Times wrote: “Kor’sia’s choreographers are masters at creating a rich visual effect full of movement complexity and polyphony through [the dancers’ bodies].”
In season 2023-2024, Kor’sia will create a new work for NDT 2 for Up & Coming Choreographers 2024.
Choreographers who have worked with NDT in previous seasons can be found below:
