Rachel Beaujean, born in Helmond, the Netherlands. Following her training at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, in 1977 she joined the Dutch National Ballet as a dancer. In 1981, she was promoted to soloist. As a dancer, she was known mainly for her interpretations of ballets by Hans van Manen, whose muse she was for many years. She also appeared often in ballets by Rudi van Dantzig, Toer van Schayk and George Balanchine, and danced striking roles in works choreographed by Martha Graham, William Forsythe, and Edouard Lock, among others. In the classical repertoire, she stood out i.e., for her interpretations of the roles of Myrtha in Giselle and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty. After exactly twenty years as a dancer, she said farewell to the stage in a performance of Hans van Manen’s Sarcasmen, which once had been created on her and Clint Farha. She was then appointed ballet mistress with Dutch National Ballet. In 2003, she became head of the artistic staff, and has been associate artistic director of the company since 2017. In the same year, at the celebration of her fortieth anniversary of artistic work, she was made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. In recent years, she has made for Dutch National Ballet several adaptations of major ballets from traditional repertory, for instance, her own versions of Les Sylphides and Giselle (this one along with Ricardo Bustamante) and a dazzling new production of signature divertissement from Paquita. In 2022, she created an entirely new version of Raymonda, a masterpiece by Marius Petipa. For her excellence as a dancer, the Dutch Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors (VSCD) awarded Beaujean the Golden Dance Theatre Award in 1993, and she received the Merit Award from Dansersfonds ’79 in 1995. She has previously been a member of the board of the Dutch Dance Days, the Hans van Manen Foundation and the Toer van Schayk Foundation. As an assistant to Hans van Manen, she now coordinates and organises the teaching of Van Manen’s works to international companies, some of which she teaches herself.
