Rudi van Dantzig

Who was Rudi van Dantzig?

Rudi van Dantzig was a Dutch choreographer, ballet dancer and writer. From 1965 until his death he was the artistic co-leader of the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam.

Van Dantzig was born in Amsterdam. After Sonia Gaskell and his other colleague left the Dutch National Ballet in 1971, he was the only artistic leader until 1991. In 1986 he wrote an autobiographical novel, Voor een verloren soldaat, about his love affair while a young boy with a Canadian soldier, which became a great success, receiving several awards; a film was made of it. An English translation, For a Lost Soldier, was published in 1991. Van Dantzig published a biography of the Dutch artist and resistance fighter Willem Arondeus in 2003.

Van Dantzig died in 2012, aged 78 from lymphoma and male breast cancer