HOLD ON

As of this week, you can watch the new ballet Hold On through the online channels of Dutch National Ballet. Milena Sidorova, dancer and choreographer with the company, choreographed the online work for 25 dancers from her own home, to the track of the same name by the Dutch band Di-rect.

The dancers, who are no longer able to rehearse together in the studio due to the corona crisis, received Sidorova’s choreographic instructions through WhatsApp. The dancers then filmed their own part in the work themselves, directed by Dutch National Ballet’s filmmaker Altin Kaftira, who edited the dancers’ contributions to create a whole piece.

Inspired by the current crisis, Hold On shows people who can no longer meet up and are searching for new ways of getting together.

Hold On is now being shown online, through the online channels of Dutch National Ballet, including the online platform https://www.operaballet.nl/online/ballet/photos-and-videos and the YouTube channel https://youtu.be/FuvXG4As80c

Milena Sidorova (Ukraine) has been dancing with Dutch National Ballet since 2005, and has held the rank of Grand Sujet since 2013. At the age of 14, she won 3rd prize as the youngest participant in the Moscow International Ballet Competition, and at the age of 15 she won a Prix De Lausanne scholarship. When she was 13, she choreographed the work The Spider, which met with great success. In 2018, she choreographed the work WITHDRAWN for the Junior Company’s programme Unboxing Ballet.

Hold On
choreography: Milena Siderova
montage: Altin Kaftira
music: Di-rect – Hold On
repetiteur: Sandrine Leroy

Photo: Still from Hold On
Dancers: Anna Ol and Constantine Allen