Dancing in the cemetery? Should be possible, thinks choreographer Ann Van den Broek

It is a special year for Ann Van den Broek as she celebrates a 15-year anniversary as a choreographer. That the performance Q61 Cemetery of dance collective WArd/waRD would cause so much noise she probably did not foresee. 

All the newspapers are writing about it. And some just a little more unctuous than others: Ann Van den Broek would have dancers dance on graves. On the contrary, said the spokesperson of WArd/waRD: the performance actually highlights the role of death in our lives with great respect. However, Leen Spaans, chairman of the Historische Vereniging Alkmaar (Alkmaar Historical Society), thought otherwise. He thinks performances in cemeteries are unacceptable and initiated summary proceedings. A old taboo about graveyard dance was revived while on two sides lies personal grief. Ann Van den Broek created the performance after the death of her brother, Spaans did not want dancing to take place where his wife was buried.

My friend death
Often feared
By the poor in spirit

For he has a fresh perspective
He is adroit and resourceful
Now once he uses fast traffic
A loose stone and beast weather
Then another torpedo boat
My friend death
(from My friend death, by Jeroen van Meerwijk)

Death. How do you deal with it? Because everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. That is why people used to dance in cemeteries, to express the inability to understand death, or to emphasise that death does not distinguish between ranks and classes. In this case, Ann Van den Broek sees art and dance as a means of making social and sensitive issues tangible. And she is, of course, no softy. Does the Netherlands lack protest choreographers, she could also do something. Her pieces are intense and verging on aggressive. But whether any other choreographer, with wings and tutus, could have made it to the General Cemetery is doubtful.

So how can a performance at a cemetery go ahead? Ask all relatives for permission first? That's not our problem, says WArd/waRD. The municipality deals with permits and the festival that invites us is responsible.

The first images of Q61 Cemetery were at least impressive. The performance premiered back in 2011 but last year it was danced in a cemetery for the first time. At three different ones still in Belgium. But in the Netherlands, and Alkmaar in particular, things were different. After the judge dismissed summary proceedings and the performance was allowed to go ahead, others got wind of it. The result was a riot, vandalism, threats and an arrest. The police would not say much about it because of privacy. End of story is that festival Caravan all performances of Q61 Cemetery cancelled. It now remains to be seen what Den Bosch will do, wherever the production appears.

[Tweet "Karavaan cancels Q61 Cemetery: what does Den Bosch do?"]

In any case, Van den Broek will focus on a prestigious commission this summer at the Barbican Centre in London. That will be an immediate preview of a work that will premiere in the Netherlands in November. What that will be after The Red Piece and The Black Piece is not yet known.

Happy Pentecost.

 What do you think: should dancing in a graveyard be possible? 

Update 25 May:

@culturepress, a similar situation played out in Crooswijk in 2012. Again: mere presuppositions http://t.co/EkgFA9jMfO

- ArtMacBoyd (@ArtMacBoyd) May 25, 2015

(Header photo: Quirine Reijman)