Yondering around the World

From its very inception, Yondering began to be performed around the world. While Neumeier was creating Yondering for the students of NBS, there had been some expressions of discontent from the faculty of the Hamburg Ballet School. They questioned how Neumeier could have created a ballet for the students of NBS when he had never created a ballet for the students of his own school.  A compromise was reached. Shortly after it was completed, Yondering was taught to the students of the Hamburg Ballet School who were given the honour of presenting its world premiere there. A few weeks later, the ballet was given its North American premier in Toronto by the students of NBS. Since then, Neumeier has allowed the ballet to be performed by a number of other professional ballet schools, though never by professional companies. 

Today, in addition to Canada’s National Ballet School and the Hamburg Ballet School, Yondering is performed by the Paris Opera Ballet School, the San Francisco Ballet School, the Royal Ballet School, the Houston Ballet Academy and the Dutch National Ballet School.

Recently, students from Canada’s National Ballet School performed an excerpt from Yondering at the Holland Dance Festival. 

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the creation of Yondering, NBS will once again be performing the work as part of NBS’ Spring Showcase from May 25th to 28th. 

The 20th anniversary of Yondering will also be celebrated this summer in Hamburg, Germany, from June 29th to July 4th, at which time six NBS students will participate in a joint performance with students from six of the seven international schools permitted to perform Yondering. This gathering will culminate in a gala performance on the stage of the Hamburg Opera House in the presence of Thomas Hampson who will perform the Stephen Foster songs live, accompanied by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra.