Paul Lightfoot cannot sit still. He stalks his jumbled office above Netherlands Dance Theatre studios: one moment sidling alongside his desk, the next luxuriating upon an effete L-shaped sofa, then balancing from the window to exhale clouds of cigarette smoke out across the grey cityscape.
Situated in central Den Haag (The Hague), the office and dance studios are within earshot of the royal palace where the Dutch sovereign, Queen Beatrix, has just announced her abdication and the end of a 33-year reign.
The political-come-theatrical spectacle that is the monarchy in flux makes a fitting parallel for NDT and the greater business of modern dance that Lightfoot has come to reluctantly inherit.
English-born Lightfoot is boyish and endearing. At 47 he retains the excitable energy and wicked charm of an upper-school prankster, qualities that cheerfully belie the weight of his responsibilities and the high-pressure year he has endured.
Since September, 2011, when he was heaped with the authority of artistic director in politically contentious circumstances (his predecessor, Jim Vincent, was stripped of his title less than three years into the job), Lightfoot has been charged with reasserting the value of one of the world’s most celebrated modern dance ensembles.
Ahead of the company’s first appearance in Sydney for almost two decades, his task has been to reconcile what he terms the NDT dual personality disorder.
“The fact is we have built an enviable international profile,” explains Lightfoot of the company’s annual touring schedule that regularly covers six of the seven continents. “But in focusing so much of our energy abroad we have been seen to neglect Holland. At home we have become part of the furniture, and targetable as a result.”
The reality is more complicated than a mere overlooking of domestic obligations. Damning criticism of NDT came at a time when sweeping funding cuts spurred by the Euro Crisis were threatening the very existence of culture in the Netherlands. Two hundred million euros were stripped from the arts budget, resulting in a nationwide re-evaluation of existing performance companies.
In January this year some 40 per cent of small- to medium-scale groups had part or all of their government subsidies axed and went into liquidation. NDT too was threatened with cuts that would have radically reduced its scale and output.
It was only through quick thinking and 11th hour negotiations that the 54-year-old organisation was able to remain intact. Key to this was Lightfoot’s willingness to take on the top job, a responsibility he long resisted despite its seeming inevitability in the eyes of his peers.
“It’s true,” says Lightfoot of an interview he did in 2006 when he stated that he was not the “mould” for a director. “I was first approached to take over in 2003, but back then I didn’t have a feeling to be a director. This time it felt different. I’d had time to think about how I would do the job and I was ready. It was a case of now or never.”
He was nonetheless apprehensive. Many warned him that the roles of creative artist and director were fundamentally incompatible, and he was reminded of Jirí Kylián (NDT’s most iconic leader and arguably one of the most successful choreographer-directors alive) who concluded his tenure as artistic director due to feelings of depression.
“We were actually on tour in Australia in 1996 when Jirí told the company how he was feeling about his position. I was still dancing then and it came as a shock to us all. He asked me if he’d done the right thing announcing his feelings like that. I said yes because I thought it was important he prepared us for what would be a gradual disengagement from the company over the next few years. It would have been so much worse if he’d thrown up his hands one day and left. He was a gentleman in that way.”
Despite his new title, Lightfoot opted to remain in the office he shares with his long-term partner Sol León, the other half of the award-winning Lightfoot-León choreographic duo. (“Instead of moving upstairs we stayed put and opened up the area where the artistic director’s office used to be. It now looks a bit like a Delhi call centre, but I like the energy that comes from everyone sharing one space like a studio.”)
Spanish León is the contemplative ying to Lightfoot’s restless yang, and in her presence he is a vision of reverence. In return she is his staunchest supporter.
“It became clear that this company needed a leader who was also a choreographer,” León declares. “We have had excellent directors since Jirí, but they were not creative artists, not choreographers. This is something that can work very well in other companies, but not NDT. Here we need a choreographer artistic director in order to move forward.”
She has a point. Historically NDT has been strongest when led by choreographers such as Hans van Manen and Kylián. Lightfoot has been attached to the company for 28 years, first as a dancer and then as resident choreographer with León, creating almost exclusively for NDT. Earmarking Lightfoot for ascension was logical.
Today Lightfoot’s favourite phrase is “look back without staring”, a maxim that sums up his desire to honour the company’s track record for nurturing new voices in choreography while seeking out a new kind of dance theatre.He repeatedly emphasises the “theatre” in Netherlands Dance Theatre to distinguish the future work he intends to cultivate and commission.
“I want to develop work that is more than just movement. NDT is the place for that, and for visionary artists capable of doing that. Recently the company has been very orientated towards dance, but I would like to open up the bigger, broader theatrical side of things. I believe it is NDT’s responsibility to enrich the form in this way.”
Lightfoot hints at his ambitions via the Sydney program: an evening designed to showcase some of the more theatrical, if lesser known, NDT repertoire. The Bach-scored Sarabande and very Czech Sweet Dreams are early Kylián and exhibit an equally rich sense of movement and dramaturgy.
Meanwhile Shoot the Moon and the London Olivier Award-nominated SH-BOOM! are vintage Lightfoot-León and show two contrasting periods in their choreographic chronology. The four works are linked by a common theme of romantic love.
“Jirí has many faces,” explains León. “Sarabande and Sweet Dreams are from his black-and-white period and coincide with the time Paul and I were still dancing. SH-BOOM! is a naïve, playful work from early in our career, whereas Shoot is more modern, more cerebral. They have a feminine quality and deal with love from different points of view, which makes them a good match for the Jirí repertoire.”
We move from the office to the bowels of the building, where Lightfoot and León have a last rehearsal with NDT2 ahead of its departure for Lyon and performances at the famous Maison de la Danse.
NDT2 is the apprentice company for young dancers who are fed through to the main ensemble after two or three years. The current group is aged between 21 and 26. The ballet in question, Studio 2, uses many of the Lightfoot-León signatures, such as meditative tempi and whetted outlines. It is ready for the stage and the dancers look quietly confident as they receive final notes.
Leon addresses the group whole: “You are a gifted generation of dancers. Not every generation has your gifts and we are very happy to have you here with us”.
Lightfoot gradually works the room, talking in hushed tones to individuals, sharing his pleased commentary on the finished dance as if it were a private love sonnet. Later he reflects on the quality of these dancers who will grow to one day inherit the company that he has acquired through an almost hereditary, if roundabout, way.
“It really is about the artists,” he muses. “NDT attracts a very specific type of artist, the type of artist who is hungry to try new things and change. Together we have the most potent tools for expression and are able to project what people are feeling. That is our power as well as our responsibility.”
NDT played at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, from June 12 to 15 2013.
This story was first published in the Dance Australia June-July 2013 issue.