Amsterdam - Het National Ballet

On Thursday morning I caught the train from Paris to Amsterdam which was only 3 hours away by train. I have to say I wasn't that impressed with Amsterdam when I first arrived. I think I was just tired and in need of a good sleep so first thing I did when I got there was have a nap. At 4 pm I met my friend Jared, who used to dance with Australian Ballet and now dances with Het National, and we had a good catch up, seem as I haven't seem him in a couple of years. The next day I had class with Het Nattional at midday. This class was taken by a french guy called Guillame but he spoke english. This class was a mixed class so included students from the school (who were in the nutcracker season) through to principals. It was nice to be back on a flat floor although I wasn't able to wear my pointe shoes for allegro because my shoes were really noisy on the floor and I sounded like an elephant haha. They all wear Freed pointe shoes over here and must bash them a lot to get rid of noise. That night I saw the company do "Nutcracker and the Mouseking" at Het Muziektheater. I'm a bit undecided on what I think of this ballet. I like parts of it but some parts were just really naff. The sets were great and the dancing of the principals was good but I wasn't a fan of the corps group dances or the divertisements in act 2. The children did ALOT of dancing in it..almost more than what the corps did. I think a lot of the ballet related to the Dutch because the audience loved it. I appreciate the dancing but I think it's the choreography that I didn't like. On Saturday I did another class with the company and then I watched the matinee show but from the wings this time. My friend Jared was doing the nutcracker doll and I really wanted to see him dance but the show was sold out so he said I could watch side stage. It was good to see the show from another perspective and to see how the technical side of things worked for the show. I found that the stage tech crew were alot more relaxed here than they are in Aus Ballet. I was able to sit in the front wing and in Aus ballet you are not allowed to sit anywhere in the side stage area, but apart from that it was all the same deal as in Aus Ballet. I would like to return to Amsterdam at a different time fo the year when it isnt so crowded with tourists who were there for New Years and have more time to discover more of Amsterdam. I had New years eve here and that was fun. Fireworks had been going off all day and did not stop until the next day.