Aktuell

Three-strong artistic team for Dutch National Ballet Academy (NBA)

The board of the Academy of Theatre and Dance (ATD) at Amsterdam University of the Arts announce that the Dutch National Ballet Academy (NBA) will collaborate with a three-member artistic team starting in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Ernst Meisner, the current artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy and associate director of talent development at Dutch National Ballet, will continue to hold the position of artistic director, contrary to previous announcements. 

Dario Elia, a current teacher at NBA, will assume the role of the new deputy artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy.

Mthuthuzeli November, an international choreographer, will be appointed as an Artistic Associate and will join the artistic team of the Dutch National Ballet Academy as an external choreographer. In his capacity as artistic director, Ernst Meisner will oversee the mission, vision, and core values of the NBA. His responsibilities encompass managing the academy’s operations (including schedules, curriculum, teachers, and educational innovation), conducting national and international talent scouting, and ensuring overall quality control.

As deputy artistic director, Dario Elia will support the artistic director in handling daily educational matters, leading the teaching team, participating in internal and external meetings, and representing the academy externally. Additionally, he will continue to teach himself.

Mthuthuzeli November, in his role as Artistic Associate, will contribute specialized knowledge and insights that align with the artistic directors’ vision. His appointment promises to invigorate the academy’s development, shape contemporary perspectives on ballet, and influence the future of ballet training. The position of Artistic Associate within the artistic team underscores the NBA’s commitment to excellence and innovation.


Photo: Nicoló Muraca

About Dario Elia
The Italian ballet teacher Dario Elia started dancing at the school Artedanza in Catanzaro (Italy), followed by his professional ballet training of Academia Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Italy) and the Royal Ballet School in London.

After his training he danced with the Zurich Ballet in Switzerland, with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and joined the Dutch National Ballet in 2012 where he got promoted to coryphée in 2018. He danced a big part of the classical repertoire and has been dancing around the world as part of the Dutch National Ballet, performing group/solos and principal roles. Dario has danced most works of the greatest choreographers of our time. Dario has developed his teacher training over the years practicing and visiting many different schools around the world.

Dario has taught at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and worked as repetitor for the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet, setting ballets and teaching company classes. From January 2020, Dario started to teach at the Dutch National Ballet Academy as a fulltime teacher. Dario is the artistic coordinator of productions of the Dutch National Ballet where students of the Dutch National Ballet Academy are involved. Since 2023 Dario is the Artistic coordinator of the Summer school of the Dutch National Ballet Academy. Dario has been training on Leadership and management following courses from the Harvard Business School, the Clore Foundation and the LPC Institute. He has also been a judge in many ballet competitions and has been a representative member of the Dutch National Ballet Academy around the world.

Photo: Helena Fegura

About Mthuthuzeli November
Mthuthuzeli November is an exciting choreographic voice of a new generation from South Africa. Mthuthuzeli only started dancing when he was fifteen through the outreach program, Dance For All. He won a gold medal in the South African Ballet Competition in 2014 and then danced with the Cape Dance Company for a year.In 2015, he committed as a dancer to Ballet Black in London, where he would also create his first ballet for the company a year later.

Since then, Mthuthuzeli has rapidly developed as a dance maker and already created work for Northern Ballet, Cape Dance Company, Glastonbury Festival, Zurich Ballet and in February 2024 premiered a new work for The Royal Ballet in London. In 2020 he won the Olivier Award for ‘Best Dance Production’ for his work Ingoma with Ballet Black.

Beginning with the 2024-’25 school year, Mthuthuzeli will be affiliated with the Dutch National Ballet Academy as an Associate. In this new position, he and the NBA will enter into an exciting and important bond and development with each other.

With a distinct voice of his own, a natural enthusiasm for influencing and enhancing classical dance with rhythms and other influences coming from Africa, and a fresh perspective on what storytelling can mean within ballet, Mthuthuzeli will create works for NBA students and pupils in the coming years.

At the same time, he will work with the NBA’s teaching team to create educational paths and projects in which the convergence of different worlds plays a leading role.

By working with a choreographer who is currently in demand in many places around the world, the pupils and students of the NBA will have a unique opportunity to be in direct contact with and learn from – and with – this dancemaker who is currently pushing boundaries when it comes to the development and future of ballet in the world.

Photo: Erwin Olaf

About Ernst Meisner
Ernst Meisner has been appointed deputy director of talent development at the Dutch National Ballet from 1 February 2024. Ernst Meisner is a choreographer, and has been artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company since its foundation in 2013. Alongside that position, he was also artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy from 2018. Meisner trained as a dancer with the Dutch National Ballet Academy and danced with The Royal Ballet and Dutch National Ballet.

He has choreographed several works for Dutch National Ballet and the Junior Company, including a number of special projects like The Dutch National Canta Ballet (2012) and the children’s performance The little big chest (2011). In collaboration with Marco Gerris from ISH Dance Collective, he also created the highly acclaimed hiphop-meets-ballet productions Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe (2015), GRIMM (2018) and Dorian (2023).

In 2021, Meisner received the ‘Special Prize’ from Dansersfonds ’79 for his great contribution to talent development in classical dance.