



Though his mother has sent him to Friesland for his own good, Jeroen feels abandoned by her. Smit and director Roeland Kerbosch do a good job of depicting Jeroen's multifold alienation. 12-year old Jeroen (Maarten Smit) goes to live with Hair (Feark Smink) and Mem (Elsje de Wijn). Jeroen's sentimental journey serves as the core of a lyrical and affecting film.ĭuring the Winter Hunger of 1944, children from the ravaged west of the country were taken in by farmers and fishermen in the northern province of Friesland, where food was plentiful and the German presence slight. However, the death of his wartime foster father forces Jeroen to confront what happened to him as a child during the liberation. In March and April 2023, Dutch National Ballet will perform Swan Lake again in the version by Rudi van Dantzig.At the beginning of the new Dutch film "For a Lost Soldier," Jeroen Boman (Jeroen Krabbe'), a famous choreographer, is having trouble with the creation of his new ballet based on the American liberation of the Netherlands. In May 2012, the company presented a homage to Van Dantzig to mark his death on 19 January 2012. On the occasion of his 75th birthday in 2009, Dutch National Ballet paid tribute to its former artistic leader with a programme dedicated to Van Dantzig and his work. Van Dantzig spent his last few years writing the book Memories of Sonia Gaskell, which was published posthumously in June 2013. Another well-known work is Olga de Haas: a memory. His debut novel was For a lost soldier, which was followed by The trail of a comet, a book about his memories of Rudolf Nureyev, in 1993, and The life of Willem Arondéus. Rudi van Dantzig has also become a well-known author.

Van Dantzig’s best-known works include Vier letzte Lieder, Monument for a dead boy, Onder mijne voeten and his versions of the full-length classics Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake. Some of his works are still in Dutch National Ballet’s repertoire and that of many companies abroad. In total, Van Dantzig created over fifty ballets, often in collaboration with Toer van Schayk as set and costume designer. Following the foundation of the Dutch National Ballet in 1961, he became resident choreographer of the company, and, after having been the artistic co-director from 1965 onwards, Van Dantzig became the sole artistic director in 1971, which position he held until 1991. He started his dancing career in 1952 with Sonia Gaskell’s company Ballet Recital, one of the forerunners of Dutch National Ballet. For twenty years Van Dantzig was the artistic leader of Dutch National Ballet and he made choreographies that demonstrated an enormous social involvement. Few people have left such a mark on Dutch National Ballet and the Dutch dance world as writer and choreographer Rudi van Dantzig (Amsterdam, 1933-2012).
