Toer van Schayk (born 28 September 1936) is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer, scenic and costume designer, painter, and sculptor. Along with Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen, he is one of the creative triumvirate that brought the Dutch National Ballet to international prominence in the latter half of the twentieth century. [1]
Born in Amsterdam, Toer van Schayk (or Schaijk) began his ballet studies as a teenager, first with Irail Gadeskov and then with Sonia Gaskell, a former Ballets Russes dancer who ran a school and a small classical company in the city. She invited him to join her company, the Nederlands Ballet, in 1955, when he was 19 years old. A handsome young man and an expressive dancer, he remained with her troupe until 1959, when he interrupted his dancing career to study painting and sculpture at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. [2]
In 1965, van Schayk returned to dance and joined Het National Ballet (Dutch National Ballet), which had been formed by the merger of the Nederlands Ballet and the Amsterdam Ballet, There, from 1965 to 1976, his eloquent and powerful interpretations led him to become one of the company's best-loved soloists. Among his most admired roles was the Young Boy in Monument voor een Gestorven Jongen (Monument for a Dead Boy), a ballet by Rudi van Dantzig set to music by Jan Boerman that concerned a homosexual youth who suffered prejudice because of his unorthodox sexuality. Van Schayk choreographed his own first work, Onvoltooid Verleden Tijd (Imperfect Past Tense), set to music by György Ligeti, in 1971. A few years later, in 1976, he joined van Dantzig and van Manen as a resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet and won an international reputation through some thirty works that he created for the company. He also became known as one of the foremost Dutch stage designers, particularly for his own ballets and those of van Dantzig. As a painter and sculptor, he has had exhibitions in Amsterdam, Athens, London, and New York. [3]
Van Schayk's choreographic approach is very plastic, often combining dance and mime and using his dancers as moving sculptures. His ballets exhibit an affinity with those of van Dantzig, particularly in their use of both classical ballet and modern dance techniques. His emphasis on the expression of emotions is also similar to van Dantzig's, often enigmatic and anxious but less tormented and more elegiac, sometimes with an air of melancholy. Further, his dance images are more impressionistic, with a fluid, ethereal aspect and a distilled, linear movement of arms and legs that imbues his work with a certain quality suggestive of a sketchbook. In short, his choreographies are more sculptural and painterly than those of his colleague. [4]
Toer van Schayk met Rudi van Dantzig when both were young men in Sonia Gaskell's company in the late 1950s. They formed a strong romantic union that lasted more than fifty years, until van Dantzig's death in 2012. As professionals, they were an extraordinary couple in the dance world, both talented and prolific choreographers and creative colleagues in mounting new works. Van Schayk designed sets and costumes for most of van Dantzig's many works as well as his own. [5]
Although van Schayk retired in 2011, he continues to be active within Dutch National Ballet. He still rehearses his own ballets with the company and supervises his designs. He designed a new production of Sir Frederick Ashton's Cinderella for the Royal Ballet in London in 2003; he created the remarkable sets and costumes for the Dutch National's much-admired production of Giselle in 2009; and he designed the fairytale costumes for Wayne Eagling's production of The Sleeping Beauty for the National Ballet of Japan in 2014. He has since supervised the sets, costumes, and lighting in various ballet productions in the Netherlands, England, Poland, and Canada. [6]
Nederlands Dans Theater is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the Amare building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam's Het Muziektheater and Nijmegen's Stadsschouwburg.
Rudi van Dantzig was a Dutch choreographer, company director, and writer. He was a pivotal figure in the rise to world renown of Dutch ballet in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Hans Arthur Gerard van Manen is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.
There is great variety in dance in the Netherlands. The traditional dance is the Dutch folk dance; however, this is hardly practiced anymore. Many Dutch practise ballroom dancing, but also tango has a large following.
The Cape Town City Ballet Company, formerly known as the CAPAB Ballet Company, is a dance company based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Eduard Greyling is a South African ballet dancer, now retired. After an illustrious career as a principal dancer with CAPAB Ballet in Cape Town, he became well known as a dance notator, teacher, journalist, and critic.
The Dutch National Ballet is the official and largest ballet company in the Netherlands.
Wayne Eagling is a Canadian ballet dancer, now retired. After more than twenty years as a popular member of The Royal Ballet in London, he became well known as an international choreographer and company director.
Altin Kaftira is a former danseur with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He danced with the Ballet from 1995 on, and from 2000 to 2007 was the Ballet's principal dancer, and has danced in almost a dozen George Balanchine ballets. In 2007, he left to pursue a career as a filmmaker. One of his first film assignments was the production and direction of the 75th anniversary gala for Hans van Manen.
David Dawson, is a British dancer and choreographer. Since his career debut, Dawson has released over 20 creations. Noted for his atmospheric, emotionally physical pieces, Dawson received numerous honours and awards.
Sonia Gaskell was a Lithuanian-Dutch-Jewish dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, ballet and dance director.
Alexandra Mary Theodora (Lex) Radius is a retired Dutch ballerina.
Igone Römer - de Jongh is a Dutch ballerina and a former principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet. She is featured in the music video for Anouk's song Birds, the official Netherlands entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.
Anna Tsygankova is a Russian ballet dancer. After terms with the Bolshoi and the Hungarian National Ballet, she joined the Dutch National Ballet in 2008 where she is a principal dancer.
Artem Nikolayevich Yachmennikov is a ballet artist, soloist and premier at leading theaters, including the Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre.
Krzysztof Pastor is a Polish dancer, choreographer and ballet director. He was resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam from 2003 to 2017, director of the Polish National Ballet in Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw since 2009 and at the same time from 2011 until 2020 was the artistic director of the ballet of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius.
Vladimir Yaroshenko – Polish-Russian ballet dancer in type danseur noble, first soloist with Yury Grigorovich's Ballet Theatre, Krasnodar, trained in classical Russian ballet school. Polish resident since 2007, engaged with Teatr Wielki, Warsaw, where since September 2010 is a first soloist, and since January 2020 - a principal dancer of Polish National Ballet under direction of Krzysztof Pastor.
Nadia Yanowsky is a Spanish ballet dancer.
Jungle is a ballet composed by the Dutch composer Henk Badings in 1959. It was choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig for the Dutch National Ballet, with sets and costumes by Toer van Schayk, and premiered on 20 December 1961 in Amsterdam.
Adagio Hammerklavier is a ballet choreographed by Hans van Manen to the Adagio from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29, Hammerklavier. The ballet is plotless and danced by three couples. Van Manen made Adagio Hammerklavier for the Dutch National Ballet, and it premiered on 4 October 1973, at the Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam.
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