The Board of Directors of Dutch National Opera & Ballet announced on 18th December 2024 that Ernst Meisner will become Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet.
“Following an international selection procedure Ernst Meisner (the Netherlands, 1982) will succeed Ted Brandsen as Director of Dutch National Ballet as of 1 August 2026,” the Dutch National Opera & Ballet said in a press release.
“In this capacity, he will join the management of Dutch National Opera & Ballet, which also comprises the Director of Dutch National Opera and the General Director of Dutch National Opera & Ballet.”
Meisner trained at the Nationale Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and The Royal Ballet School in London, the UK. He danced professionally with The Royal Ballet in London from 2000 to 2010. He joined the Dutch National Ballet in 2010 as Grand Sujet and danced until 2013. You can see him in The Royal Ballet’s Concerto in 2010 (subscription required). During this period, he started producing many choreography works and he is now widely referred to as a choreographer.
In 2013, Meisner was appointed as the artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company, which was founded in the same year. Simultaneously, he currently holds the positions of the associate director of Talent Development with Dutch National Ballet and the artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy. Looks like many positions to be filled.
In November, the Dutch National Ballet annouced that Artistic Director Ted Brandsen and Associate Artistic Director Rachel Beaujean would retire at the end of the 2025-2026 season. Beaujean’s succesor is not yet announced.
Here is the link for Meisner’s Practice ballet at home series on the Dutch National Ballet’s YouTube channel during the covid lockdown and it is still available. I joined the live class every single day to keep me sane. The below is Class 9 of the series. It is fabulous and still uplifting! Congratulations Ernst!