Didy Veldman

Didy Veldman was born in the Netherlands and is passionate about creating innovative productions, using her ideas to stimulate institutions, dancers, composers, artistic directors, teachers, students and audiences. Using movement as a tool to connect and create dance performances, film, opera, and musical theatre. She has worked on large productions at international institutions with symphony orchestra as well as setting up her own UK based charity and connecting to the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society to inspire people to dance.

She was trained in numerous techniques at the Scapino Academy in Amsterdam. Following her training she went on to dance with Scapino Ballet, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Britain’s Rambert Dance Company. She began choreographing in 1987, creating work for the repertoire of all three companies, as well as independently.

In 1992, Didy Veldman started her own dance company Alias with Guilherme Botelho in Geneva. Their first work En Manqué was performed to great acclaim in London, Glasgow, Zurich and Lausanne. The production also won two major choreographic awards: the Dance Exchange International 1993 and the Prix Romand des Spectacles indépendants 1994. Didy Veldman left Alias after an invitation by Christopher Bruce to join Rambert Dance Company in 1994.

Whilst being a dancer with Rambert Dance Company, she created works for the repertory. She received a grant from the Choo-San Goh & Robert Magee Foundation for her third production with Rambert and this production won the Linbury Prize for Stage Design created by Miriam Buether.

Didy left Rambert in 2000 to concentrate on her choreographic career. She has 23 years of freelance experience and has created over 50 new works for 30 international companies, such as Cedarlake, Goteborg Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, Iceland Dance Company, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Lithuanian National Ballet, Leipzig Ballet, New Zealand Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Northern Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, Komische Oper Berlin and Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, creating full evening story-telling works with symphony orchestra to smaller works as part of a triple bill. Before Covid she created a new work for Birmingham Royal Ballet Sense of Time together with Composer Gabriel Prokofiev, which had its London premiere on 25 June 2019. She set up a project together with 6 international ballet schools, edited by The Ballet Boyz, a work choreographed through Zoom which involved over 100 international ballet students and was presented during World Ballet School day. She recently premiered a new full evening production of a re-imagined Carmen with Royal Ballet Principal, Natalia Osipova, and San Fransisco Ballet principal, Isaac Hernandez to great critical acclaim. London performances took place at the end of May ‘22 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at, The Acropolis in Athens and in April ‘23 in Tel Aviv.

In 2016 she was selected to be part of the 8th rural retreat of future leaders in dance, at The Jerwood Dancehouse in Ipswich. She is now directing her own dance company Humanoove in London, which she founded in 2016 with support from Arts Council England, DanceEast and several trusts and private donors. She recently premiered her third production @HOME. Humanoove performs nationally and internationally.

Didy also has a keen interest in teaching students, she is currently contemporary programme manager at the Royal Ballet School and travels the world teaching contemporary classes and workshops. She has an affiliation with Prix de Lausanne, as a contemporary teacher and choreographer, she created a new work for the Partner School Choreographic Project in 2019 called Is to B for 26 students. She works with the Dutch National Ballet Academy, The Royal Ballet School in London, Rosella Hightower PNSD, Codarts in Rotterdam, McDonald College in Sydney Australia, Rambert Dance Company and Rambert School and London School of Contemporary Dance amongst others and was invited in 2010, 2013 & 2018 as a Guest Artist Choreographer at the school of Jacob’s Pillow USA, for their Contemporary Program. Didy was Co-Director of the Contemporary Program of the School at Jacob’s Pillow together with Milton Myers from 2019-2021. She has been part of audition, exam and assessment committees as well as a judge for choreographic competitions.