Companies: Belgium

[ConstanzaElisabeth]

So my fiance (yes, I am getting married!) has been thinking about where to go next, and his work might lead to an opportunity in Belgium. I've done a little bit of research as to what's there, but I wanted to see if anyone had opinions or experience concerning ballet or modern companies in Belgium.

[Marjolein]

Well, there's only one ballet company in the country, the Royal Ballet of Flanders (and they're based a 5 minute walk away from me ). They usually do one truly classical ballet every season, last season it was Sleeping Beauty, next season will be Swan Lake. They usually also some more contemporary ballet from renowned choreographers and they always have some new ballets as well. They are rather succesfull at this, as one of their last ones, Impressing The Czar was mentioned in the NY Times as one of the best choreographies of the year. They usually perform in different theatres here in Belgium and they do quite a bit of touring. I would say the strong points of this company are their very strong pointe work (which in my opinion they do not use enough) and the company's men are outstanding. The Royal Ballet School of Antwerp feeds into the company, though they take lots of foreign dancers as well.

 

Unfortunately all other ballet companies disappeared, like the Ballet des XXième sciècle of Maurice Béjart and the Ballet de la Monnaie, the company of the Monnaie Opera House in Brussels.

 

As for modern companies, there are several of those. Rosas is a well known company, which also has it's own school. Ultima Vez is another wel known company, lead by Wim Vandekeybus. There's also Troubleyn/Jan Fabre's performing arts company which does performances that are a combination of contemporary dance, music and art. I don't really know ho to describe it, you should google it to found out more.

There are several more companies, but I'm not familiar with them as I'm not a great fan of modern dance.

 

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them for you, whether it is about dance or life in this rainy little country!! Don't hesitate to pm me!!