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Even the dancers didn't know it. Conny Janssen dances for Obama and 58 world leaders.

Dancing in front of 58 world leaders, and of course Obama himself. As a thread, as an opening act. Just imagine the assignment. For three months, Conny Janssen Danst secretly worked on this mission. Until Monday 24 March the happened.

Conny Janssen Danst spokesperson Ellen Geijs had a pain in her stomach during the performance. From nerves. The dancers had been screened, so safety was ok. But could they handle the pressure?

For a long time, no one was allowed to know about the real mission of the performance. Not even the dancers. During ten days of shooting in locations from the Rijksmuseum to the Binnenhof, they still did not know whether it was a music video or some big event.

By the editors of IDTV Live for the opening film and ceremony, it was soon clear that Conny Janssen should provide the choreography. She had shown pre-eminent ability to fill out location projects in a special way. In 2010 on the roof of a viaduct in Common Ground, the tram depot of HOW LONG IS NOW, in between preparations for the NSS summit the opening of the now famous Rotterdam Central Station and soon even a production in a submarine shed.

Yet it was also the diversity of the dancers, in character, appearance and movement style that was the deciding factor. After all, this was a performance for a world-class audience: the biggest political event ever organised in the Netherlands.

Was the performance successful? President Obama's reaction in the video speaks volumes. Nuff said. 

 

21 thoughts on "Even the dancers didn't know it. Conny Janssen dances for Obama and 58 world leaders."

  1. Funny enough, the first time I saw it I thought it was only mediocre, contrived, and now that I see it here, second time, I look at it with different eyes. Have yet to figure out what that's because of. Nice when you get to work on such a production! But it remains a mishmash and therefore not necessarily very strong.

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Ruben Brugman

writing ex-dancerView Author posts

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