Noortje Willemse

Born in Holland, Noortje grew up in Norway and here at the age of 6, she started learning dance privately. This led to her professional training at the Norwegian National Ballet School and later to the Dutch National Ballet Academy from which she recently graduated.
Looking to the future, she auditioned and was accepted for the JBA training program which she was attracted to because of the emphasis on many varied styles of dance and because she learnt that David Dawson, whom she admires tremendously, was Artistic Patron.

Noortje: “Even at the (JBA) audition I felt immediately at home. The artistic team, the repertoire and the individual care taken with each dancer made me realize this was where I wanted to be.
It’s so important to me to be working with such open and artistically charged people – I feel that here at JBA i will not only develop my technique but I will have the chance to explore and be creative. I also hope to further develop choreography which I have since learnt, is encouraged.”

In the future Noortje would love to dance works by many different choreographers such as William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite and Wayne McGregor.
Above all my dream would be to work with David Dawson.

Her favorite ballets are ANIMA ANIMUS by David Dawson – which made a huge impact on her and THE SEASON’S CANON by Crystal Pite, in particular for the way she creates for large groups of dancers.

Apart from dance, she loves to spend time baking, drawing and listening to a lot of music.