Reflections - Nationale Opera & Ballet

Name: Reflections - Nationale Opera & Ballet - Wonkapodia
Start: 2027-05-18T20:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-11-08T18:24:04+01:00
Location: Parktheater Eindhoven

Dans & ballet

No Dutch Required

Art offers room for reflection. On ourselves and on the world around us. Reflections by Nationale Opera & Ballet offers personal stories, social themes and pure dance energy.

For Solitude top choreographer Alexei Ratmansky was inspired by a newspaper photograph of a Ukrainian father who held the hand of his son for hours after the boy had been killed in a Russian attack. Set to two compositions by Mahler, Ratmansky’s abstract, piercing choreography makes universal human grief tangible.

In her new ballet, the young Canadian choreographer Kirsten Wicklund explores the theme of gender equality, prompted by the celebration of 25 years of marriage equality in 2026. Wicklund draws on the musical ode – with vocals – that composer Willem Jeths wrote in 2011 to marriage for all. The vocal parts are performed by young singers from De Nationale Opera Studio.

In the exhilarating opening and closing sections of Simple Things (Hans van Manen), two men spur each other on in two duets that positively crackle with sparks. In between, they are distracted by two women who tempt them into a fleeting romance. In this dynamic dance quartet, movement and music come together incomparably.

The fourth choreographer, George Balanchine, spent essentially his whole life reflecting on the purely classical, Franco-Russian ballet style he grew up with. Symphony in C is a homage to its splendour and grandeur, but he injected the dance with verve and swing, culminating in a finale that fizzes and sparkles like a glass of champagne.