Nederlands Dans Theater was established in 1959 - a group of 18 members of the former Het Nederlands Ballet (Ballet of the Netherlands) broke away from the traditionally orientated company. The new group under leadership of Benjamin Harkarvy (ballet master and artistic director) and Carel Birnie (managing director) was dedicated to the exploration of new forms of dance, using new techniques and open to new ideas and experimentation.

Throughout the years, the company's persistence, talent and distinguished choreographers (such as Hans van Manen, Anna Sokolow and Glen Tetley) created a ballet that is nowadays one of the most innovative and exciting dance groups in Europe.

Nowadays, Nederlands Dans Theater is unique in being three companies in one. NDT I is the main company with 32 dancers; NDT II is a group of 14 young dancers up to the age of 21 and with its own repertory, and NDT III is a small group of dancers of 40 plus years. The NDT II dancers are able to bring all their accumulated experience and expertise to a repertory devised to exploit their theatrical presence. Thus NDT, as a three in one entity, is able to present to its audiences the whole working life span of its artists. The current artistic director/choreographer is Jirí Kylián.

The three companies are also unique in not being based on a hierarchy: there are no entities such as corps de ballet, coryphées, soloists and principals; all the dancers are of equal status. Finally, NDT is unique in having its own state-of-the-art theater in The Hague, the Lucent Dans Theater. This theater has a magnificent stage, five studios and every necessary facility.

Nederlands Dans Theater is moving all over the world and is a regular guest at important international events. The company regularly accompanies Queen Beatrix on several state visits. In 1996, Nederlands Dans Theater performed during the Olympics in Atlanta and in 1997 the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs sent the company to Moscow on the occasion of the Peter the Great-year. In 2000, Nederlands Dans Theater performed during the official program of the Foundation Holland-Japan 400 years.


For more information on the program and tickets:

Lucent Dans Theater
Spuiplein 152, The Hague
Phone: + 31 (0)70 880 0333