Artistic Directors

Jan Linkens - artistic director dance/choreography

Jan Linkens, born in Maastricht, received his dance training at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. From 1977 to 1994 he was a dancer and choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam.

In his dance career he has worked with many choreographers such as Hans van Manen, Rudi van Dantzig, Toer van Schayk, Kurt Jooss, Carolyn Carlsson, Maguy Marin, Peter Martins and Peter Wright. He danced in works by Bronislava Nijinska, Mikhail Fokine, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton and many others. 

Jan Linkens himself created more than 50 ballets around the world and danced in almost all European countries, and beyond such as Israel, Turkey, Japan, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, the Netherlands Antilles, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Australia.

Since 2011, Jan worked as the artistic director of Tanztheater der Komischen Oper, in Berlin and choreographer at Companhia Nacional de Bailado, in Portugal, after which he became artistic intendant of the International Dance Theatre in Amsterdam. Sinds September 2014 Jan Linkens is director of Royal Conservatoire Dance and trains 'dancers of the future into artists with a creative open mind, in combination with craftsmanship, passion and ambition. Dancers who have mastered both classical and modern techniques, and are able to apply them to contemporary dance styles.

Teachers

Yannick is a well-known ballet master and teacher, in demand world-wide with many important companies and ballet schools. Yannick was born in France and received his ballet training at at the prestigious Paris Opera Ballet School and subsequently at the National Conservatoire de Paris. As a principal dancer he performed with the Bonn Opera Ballet, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rome Opera Ballet and with the Royal Ballet of Flanders.

During his career he was the recipient of the following prizes:
1st prize of the Conservatoire de Paris (1981), Gold Medal (Houlgate Competition, 1985), Gold Medal (International Competition, Paris, 1987) and the Positano and Leonide Massine Award (Italy 1995).
He was ballet master with the Vienna Opera Ballet from 2004 until 2006 and since then became a successful free-lance teacher, working currently with the following companies:
Dresden Semper Oper Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Royal Opera House London, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Norwegian National Ballet, Houston Ballet, Béjart Ballert Lausanne, National Ballet of Prague, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Bolshoi Theater of Moscow, Stanislavski Theater Moscow, Berlin Staats Ballet, Northern Ballet England, Astana Opera and Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, National Ballet of Korea, Zurich Ballet, Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse.

Yannick Boquin is also in demand as a master teacher with the following international ballet schools: Summer Course Centre Ecole Superieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower, Houston Ballet Academy, Astana Ballet Academy, Oslo Ballet Academy, Académie Princesse Grace de Monaco, the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp and Oslo Dance Academy (KHIO)

In 2011 he choreographed a two-act ballet for Istanbul State Ballet entitled ‘The Sufferings of young Werther’ after a story by Goethe and set to the music of Frederic Chopin. This ballet was also premiered by the Greek National Ballet in 2014.

“To encounter and study different repertoire, enriches the dancer’s knowledge of various styles, and of different musicality and coordination.”

Chao Si

Chao Shi, born in Shanghai, China. He started his ballet training at the Shanghai Dance School, China, when he was 10 years of age. At 16, he won the Prix de Lausanne, followed by two years of study at the Canada's National Ballet School on scholarship. Between 2005 and 2016, he danced many classical and contemporary ballets with the Dutch National Ballet on the Dutch and international stages . Chao now teaches at Royal Conservatoire Dance. In addition to daily ballet classes, he also teaches male techniques , pas de deux, pointe and classical ballet repertoire.

Chao is passionate to share his knowledge and experiences in dance, and has become a qualified teacher under the Vaganova ballet system from Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2012. And he has completed an approved Master's degree program, specialized in dance and has qualified as a Certified Dance Teacher in Budapest, 2019.

Chao has given classes at places such as the Dutch National Ballet and the National Ballet Academy, Amsterdam, Canada's National Ballet school, Shanghai Dance School and Shanghai Ballet, China, among other schools in the Netherlands and abroad.

"When I teach, coach, rehearse and watch dancers dance, I feel that attention is the most important thing. Because of the amplification of attention, your perception and thinking will expand. It's like some new language has been injected into the work. And you pass on its perception of attention."

Siner joined the State Opera and Ballet of Izmir (Turkey) in 1988 and  performed with the company until 2004. In the years 2005-2009 she worked there as  ballet mistress, associate director and then artistic director. Since 2005 she has been working with Yannick Boquin  as his assistant and studying his method and style of teaching. She staged the ballet “The sufferences of young Werther” chor.Yannick Boquin in 2011 for the Istanbul State ballet and later in 2014 for the Greek National Ballet. She has been invited as guest teacher in the Dance Nordic Seminar in Stockholm in August 2014 and International Summer Ballet School, Dresden in August 2015

Siner works as a guest teacher with the following companies: Béjart Ballet Lausanne, The Houston Ballet Company, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Architanz in Tokyo, The Czech National Ballet Company in Prague, Opera National Bucharest, NRW Junior Ballet Dortmund, The Greek National Opera in Athens, The Henny Jurriens Foundation in Amsterdam, Slovenian National Opera and Ballet, Estonian National Ballet, Istanbul State Ballet, Izmir State Ballet, Antalya State Ballet, Ankara State Ballet

She also taught as a guest at teh following schools; Houston Ballet Academy, Academy of Dance KHIO in Oslo, Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Royal Conservatory of Anvers, Academie Princesse Grace de Monte Carlo, ESDC Rosella Hightower (Ecole Superieure de Danse de Cannes)

“We all have different stories to tell. Learning how to create our own stories gives us the confidence to express ourselves. The endless learning process is the best part of it.”

Stefan Żeromski graduated from the State Ballet School in Poznań and began his career at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, where he became a soloist and received the prestigious Leon Wójcikowski Prize. He performed as a soloist with Ballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin, working with renowned choreographers like Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, and Lucinda Childs, before joining Nederlands Dans Theater. At NDT, he collaborated on groundbreaking works by Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, Paul Lightfoot & Sol León, and Ohad Naharin, among others. As a ballet master, Stefan has assisted choreographers such as Marco Goecke, Hofesh Shechter, and Mats Ek. He also stages works by Jiří Kylián and Lightfoot/León for leading companies, including the Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, and Teatro alla Scala. In addition to freelance teaching, he has been a guest teacher at prestigious institutions like the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Zurich Ballet Academy, and Czech National Ballet.

"Omarm elke uitdaging als een kans om te groeien, en laat je toewijding en passie je naar grootsheid leiden. Onthoud dat de reis van een danser niet alleen draait om het beheersen van techniek, maar ook om het ontdekken van de kunstenaar in jezelf."

"Embrace every challenge as an opportunity to grow, and let your dedication and passion guide you toward greatness. Remember, the journey of a dancer is not just about mastering technique but about discovering the artistry within yourself."

Photo credits @rahirezvani

Instagram: @stefanzeromski

Neel Verdoorn started her career as a dancer in the modern dance companies Reflex and Djazzex, where she worked with many guest choreographers. As a choreographer she created works for Djazzex, Company Budapest Tanzsinhas, Dansgroep Krisztina de Chatel,Aterballeto Italy, Korzo Producties, Ballet Company Pecs, Scapino Ballet, Holland Dance Festival and the International Dance Theatre in Amsterdam. She created full evening performances all with live music for the International Dance Theater - Men of the Tango, Crazy Blues (dance public prize 2015), Silent Songs, Tango/Mania, Hopper and Tin Pan Alley Parade. In co-production with the Doelen Ensemble and St. Neel Verdoorn Dance Projects she created the performance ‘Ballads’. Neel works as a choreographer, repetiteur and teacher of modern dance technique at Codarts (Academy of Arts Rotterdam). She created choreographies for various dance academies, among which Eifmann Academy St Petersburg and several choreographies for the Züricher Bachelor Contemporary Dance (BACD Zurich) and the taZ Zurich (classical Department), PALUCCA Hochshule for dance in Dresden and Iwanson international school for contemporary dance

In her modern classes Neel Verdoorn focuses on the dynamic relationship between space and the dancer as well as the dynamic alignment within the dancer’s body. The musicality, rhythm and the dynamic approach of the dance vocabulary is an important element in her dance style/technique. Neel creates work that’s full of dynamic movement- she searches for animalistic and instinctive movement vocabulary that is full of expression.

‘I believe dance expresses emotion in its purest form. Your body is the instrument, vulnerable and naked in its truth and expression. With your body, you can move to put feelings in a certain order and give space a specific meaning.’

More about Neel Verdoorn

Dutch artistic director, choreographer and contemporary teacher Didy Veldman was trained in Amsterdam. She danced with Scapino Ballet, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Rambert Dance Company and formed Alias Company with Guilherme Botelho in ’92. She began choreographing in ‘87, creating work for the repertoires of all four companies, as well as independently.

Didy left Rambert in 2000 to concentrate on her choreographic career. She has created a big variety of works for companies all over the world like; Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Cedarlake N-Y, Cullberg Ballet and Goteborg Ballet from Sweden, Royal New Zealand Ballet and recently with the Company in Lucern.

In 2016 she started her own Company ‘Umanoove’ with support from the Arts Council England, Quercus Trust, The Place, Dance East, South East Dance, Siobhan Davies, Rambert Dance Company and some private donors. Her first independent production ‘The Happiness Project’ premiered in Nov. ’16 and is touring in England and Scotland at the moment. She has recently been awarded a Dance East choreographic development award and was selected for the 8th rural retreat for future leaders in dance at The Jerwood Dance House.

Didy has been teaching professionals and students internationally since ’94. Currently she is working at the Royal Ballet School, London Contemporary Dance School, Rambert School as well as teaching her own dancers of Umanoove.

More about Didy Veldman

Photo by David Middendorp

Aya Misaki was born in Japan, a contemporary dancer and a repetiteur based in Den Haag.
She danced with Nederlands Dans Theater 2 in seasons 2015-2018 and has performed works from Leon & lightfoot, Johan Inger, Edward Clug, Medhi Walerski, Jiri Pokorny, Marina Mascarell and many more.
Since 2018 Aya works as a freelance artist and has performed for projects in the Netherlands with choreographer Samir Calixto, Wubkje Kuindersma and David Middendorp.
She has proven her great artistry and was nominated for Piket Kunstprijzen Dans 2019.
Aya also works as a repetiteur for Edward Clug and Jiri Pokorny, she has staged their work at Czech National Theater, Staats Theater Nuernberg, Slovene National Theater, National Moravian Silesian Theater in Ostrava , Aalto Ballett in Essen and Theater Osnabrück.
Beside all the work in Europe, she has also choreographed her own work in Japan.

Learning contemporary repertoire is a necessary path for all dancers to find out their own body language and artistry.”

Jérôme Meyer is a former dancer with Nederland Dans Theater, Scapino Ballet and the Bathseva dance company. He teaches contemporary dance classes that are based on authentic movement exploration, improvisation and repertoire. He currently teaches the 'create your own solo' module, guiding students in the development of their own work.

He has taught at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, AHK Amsterdam, NBA Amsterdam, Codarts Rotterdam, Artez Arnhem, Ballet Junior Geneva, University in Cape Town South Africa, VIC academy in Italy, ZHDK Zurich.

"Learning to dance means consciously accessing your own source of vitality and enjoying playing with your body in an infinite combination of movements"

Artistic director, choreographer, artistic coach with a demonstrated history of working in the Performing Art Industry at the highest level.

After her final education in the Conservatoire National Superieur de Lyon (88), Isabelle worked during 9 years in acclaimed dance companies before becoming a freelance dancer. She started by the Grand Theater de Genève (under Gradimir Pankov direction), joined Ohad Naharin in Batsheva Dance Company and was invited by Jiri Kylian to join Nederlands Dans Theater I. Beside the works of the main choreographers, she also worked and created with guest choreographers E.g. William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Johan Inger, Wim Vandekeybus, Saburo Teshigawara to name a few.
When starting her freelance carrier, she followed S. Teshigawara for a few years as a guest dancer in Ja

pan and internationally and developed a close artistic collaboration with her partner Jérôme Meyer. Their dance company MEYER-CHAFFAUD is based in The Hague, NL and their productions tour nationally and internationally. In 2017 they launched their first biannual multidisciplinary HUBS Immersive festival.
Isabelle is Co-founder of CLOUD/Danslab, a choreographic research center that supports multidisciplinary works by providing: premises, human resources and exchanges with the public.

As a teacher, her knowledge, genuine physical approach together with her pedagogic skills led her to teach contemporary master classes and workshops internationally (Switzerland, Russia, China, Italy, South Africa, USA…) and on a regular bases with higher schools such as Codarts (NL), ZHDK (CH), Koninklijk Conservatorium (NL) as a teacher, choreographer and coach.

Her contemporary class is based on developing acute awareness on how to articulate the movements, bringing the participants to a deeper knowledge on how the body organizes itself for more efficiency. Emphasize is made on textures, own sense of musicality and association of ideas to reach the different tasks (such as explosion, going beyond the range of body limb...)
Participants also observe the knowledge of their body in reaction to clear intentions.

Since 2015 Isabelle coaches and mentors around 30 students per year.
(E.g. Codarts Rotterdam, the apprentices of the Pole National Superiors of Cannes, Marseille and Aix en Provence)

The importance for young dancers today is gaining tools to anchor deeply the relation between your “physical” body with your intentions, your sensations, your boundary… your unique self and artistry.”

Marjolein studied at the Nationale Ballet Academy Amsterdam. Continued her career in Israel. She danced with the Israel Ballet in Tel Aviv, Manhattan Ballet in New York. She danced in several projects in the Netherlands and had her own studio in The Hague. She was head of the dance department at Katzir Highschool, and a regular guest teacher at Kamea Dance Company and the Maslool-Professional Dance Program TLV.She is currently Ballet and Progressing Ballet Technique teacher at Royal Conservatoire Dance.

“One of the most important things is to encourage the dancers to reach their maximum potential and to pass on my passion for classical ballet.”

Dansvakopleiding Esther Protzman

Esther Protzman received her ballet training at the Royal Conservatoire and at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp, Belgium. In 1979 she won a scholarship in Lausanne and studied at the Académie de Danse 'Princesse Grace' in Monte Carlo in the same year.

Her dance career has a span of nearly 20 years, first at the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Antwerp and later as a soloist with the National Ballet, Amsterdam. She danced many leading roles in the Balanchine repertoire and choreography of (among others) Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen and Toer van Schayk, and the classical repertoire such as Giselle, Odette / Odile in Swan Lake, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, for which she received the Dansersfonds prize in 1989.

Boris Akimov, Christine Anthony, Mary Aradi, Marika Besobrasova, Panchita the Peri, Konstantin Chatilov, Nanette Glushak, Michael Soames, Olga Evreinoff and many choreographers including Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen, Toer van Schayk, Jiri Kilian and Ashley Page have been of great influence on her dance career.

After her active career she studied nutrition and she is a certified foot reflexologist.

In 1998 Esther completed an intensive teacher training ‘Classical Ballet Vaganova Methodology’ at the Hungarian Ballet Academy, Budapest and attended several courses for teachers, such as the National Ballet School Toronto, Canada in 1999 and theBournonville summer courses in Biarritz in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. She has worked with ballet masters such as David Howard in New York, Frank Andersen from Denmark and Kalina Bogoeva from Bulgaria.

Besides teaching and studying classical repertoire at the Royal Conservatoire, she taught as a guest teacher at the Dutch National Ballet, The National Ballet Academy, Ballet du Capitole, The Hungarian Dance Academy, Scapino Ballet, Montessori Infant Community and Formazione Tersicore, and other companies and institutions.

Esther guided students during student exchanges to Barcelona in 2005 and Prague in 2012, and supported our students during the cooperation with the National Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty in 2003, 2006, and 2010 and La Sylphide in 2005. In 2010 she made a choreography for Herman van Veen’s successful project Margot for the Royal Conservatoire.