The famous choreographer Rudi van Dantzig (Amsterdam, 1933) has died. At the age of sixteen he started dancing with Ballet Recital, a group formed by the Russian Jew Sonia Gaskell. He produced his first choreography for the Dutch Nationale Ballet in 1955, later becoming their house choreographer. In 1965 he became one of the national ballet’s three artistic directors, with Hans van Manen and Toer van Schayk, each of whom had his own style.

In all Van Dantzig created more than fifty ballets that are still part of the world repertoire. He choreographed three for Rudolf Nureyev, including Monument for a dead boy (1965), portraying a boy who wants to free himself from the stifling, heterosexual norms and values of his environment.

Van Dantzig’s choreographies are often of a narrative and socially critical nature.

His most well-known choreographies also include Vier Letzte Lieder and his versions of the classical ballets Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake.

In 1986 he wrote the novel For a Lost Soldier, which has also been made into a film. His book is about his discovery of homosexuality with an American soldier at the end of the Second World War.