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Maarten Baanders

Free-lance arts journalist Leidsch Dagblad. Until June 2012 employee Marketing and PR at the LAKtheater in Leiden.

Why couldn't shocking art also be endearing?

Vlindertje Smit and the service of what is dead It is an orderly, clean space, not unsociable, despite the pieces of horse bone that dominate the studio in their showcases. Visual artist Butterfly Smit prepares animals and parts of animals. Thinking back to the publicity storm that British artist Damien Hirst stirred up with his preserved-animal artworks, you might expect Butterfly Smit to... 

Gertrud Leistikow: So are the real roots of modern dance in the Netherlands after all?

In the first half of the 20th century, dance did not represent much in the Netherlands. There was some interest, but it exclusively concerned classical ballet. The successful dance performances all came from abroad.

It has all but disappeared from the history books that a remarkably creative and original dancer and choreographer settled in our country during those years: Gertrud Leistikow (1885 - 1948).

Doesn't 'The Returns' exclude you as much as the art snobs parodied by Forsythe?

When someone speaks in sentences with words that repeatedly rhyme with 'art' or in which the syllable 'art' keeps popping up, you have to adjust to a different logic than that of everyday communication. If it is also a woman dressed in bright red who pronounces those words elatedly and with many mannerisms, suggesting that she is hyper-sensitive to anything to do with art, your thoughts balance between: 'how awful' and 'how funny'.

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How it feels to single-handedly make a decision that turns the world upside down

That Serbian Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Austrian crown prince in 1914, thus triggering World War I, was until recently in the Netherlands no more than a dry historical fact. But now that it has been a century since this attack, this young freedom fighter is still getting a face in our country. But what De Warme Winkel is doing in the performance 'Gavrilo Princip' is much more than 'giving a face'.

7 ½ times: looking surprised at 'Playing Cards: Spades'

1. Gene-shifting theatre doesn't have to be difficult.

Breaking new ground in theatre is the aim of Canadian director Robert Lepage and his group Ex Machina. It seems like everything is unusual about 'Playing Cards: Spades': playing floor, lighting, seating around the stage, the stories, the acting and the surprising denouement.

Only submarine shed is big enough for 'Mirror Mirror'

It will be a total experience, as if you were briefly in another world. 'Mirror Mirror' by Conny Janssen Danst is set in a former submarine hangar of the Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM). The audience is taken there by boat.

The imposing hall is a great source of inspiration for the choreographer. On the video accompanying this article, Conny Janssen talks about it. She is attracted to unusual locations. Each time, she looks for the unique possibilities that the r...

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4 reasons why De Stijl is handicapped without Hendrik Valk

Straight lines, single-coloured surfaces. Red, yellow, blue and white. Representing the essence of reality. That was the aim of the painters of De Stijl in the first half of the last century. At the same time, Hendrik Valk also had this ideal. Consequently, he was asked to join De Stijl by Theo van Doesburg in 1916. He did not. Yet the similarities between Valk and the Stijl artists are great. The Mondriaanhuis in Amersfoort presents the exhibition 'Hendrik Valk in de stij...

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New choreographer award from BNG Culture Fund

The Netherlands has added a new award for young choreographic talent. The BNG Culture Fund, in collaboration with Korzo in The Hague, has established the BNG Bank Excellent Talent Dance Award, provisionally for a period of three years. Dance in the Netherlands is a thriving sector, in which many beautiful and surprising things happen. Due to budget cuts, much of this is in danger of being lost. One production house after another is dying or its very existence is threatened. The new award, which offers production e...

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'The Dutch themselves do not realise what has been built up in this country.'

The cuts to arts have prompted many people to stress that art should be socially and politically relevant. For Samuel Wuersten, artistic director of the Holland Dance Festival, social and political relevance is a broad concept. It does not have to mean that art takes a stand against current issues. The way dance is rooted in society is much more important to Wuersten. This is reflected in Holland Dance Festival ...

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Boukje Schweigman's wordless philosophy

Even before she graduated from mime school, Boukje Schweigman swore off language. She worked out a wordless philosophy in her performances. She seeks the mystery of life. However vast and elusive her starting points may be, her performances give the audience the most direct, immediate, skin-tight sensation imaginable in a theatre.

From 12 November, Boukje Schweigman and her group Schweigman& will tour Dutch theatres with their own festival: H...

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EAR at the Fringe Festival: its own little world of music, dance and needle & thread

"I don't have a theatre background, but I know what I like." These words from Cammy Mai Tran are typical of a trend among young theatre-makers. They find the walls between different art disciplines to be oppressive. Increasingly, we see them walking right through those walls. And when the blow is over, new inspiration swirls richly over them.

Cammy Mai Tran started out in the visual arts. Now, several years later, she works with three musicians and two dancers/...

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Dutch Dance Days Prize nominations: Cecilia Moisio, Giulio d'Anna and Melissa Ellberger

Young choreographers Cecilia Moisio, Giulio d'Anna and Melissa Ellberger have been nominated for the Prize of the Netherlands Dance Days Maastricht 2013.

 

Cecilia Moisio - photo Jamain Brigitha

Cecilia Moisio gained fame as a dancer in works by Ann van den Broek and others. For some years now, she has also been creating her own work. Juxtapose, the choreography she was nominated for, is a witty but also biting performance....

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I Like To Watch Too is a must for keeping the performing arts in the Netherlands young and fresh

A man and a woman dance passionately in the hall of Paradiso. Such an experimental dance performance is unusual for the Amsterdam pop palace. Yet the festival I Like To Watch Too right here. Many people feel a barrier towards this kind of performance, but here there is just the right 'in and out' atmosphere to make avant-garde art something you can just look at and that always triggers something in you.

I Like To Watch Too throws open doors to experimental dance

Isn't avant garde dance too lofty? Is it still viable in these harsh cultural times? I Like To Watch Too aims to dispel this misconception. The festival brings experimental dance closer to the public than ever.

Suzy Blok put together I Like To Watch Too for the seventh time already. Throughout the year, she scouted performances by young dance makers. 'Apart from high dance quality, my criterion was that they should be physical performances with high performance quality. ...

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Zimmermann & De Perrot give circus genre creative tap at @hollandfestival

Holland Festival Holland Festival

Circus, tricks, clownery, spectacle: it has been a party for centuries. But roughly the same party every time.

Zimmermann & De Perrot, originally clown and DJ respectively, found each other in the brilliant insight that circus could be turned into beautifully absurd modern theatre.

Abou Lagraa: gender separation frustrates Arab man

'That men and women in the Islamic world live apart from each other, that is a big frustration,' says choreographer Abou Lagraa. 'That is what El Djoudour is about.'

 

Because of his background, Abou Lagraa has a particularly enlightening take on these issues. He was born in France, the son of Algerian parents. His family is Muslim. So is Abou Lagraa himself, though in practice he does nothing about it. But however Muslim his parents were, they brought him full...

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A chamber opera blown up to impressive proportions at @hollandfestival

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,,The special thing about Quartett is that an intimate story between two people is blown up to impressive proportions. The characters find themselves in a room, which seems to float. In this seclusion, an isolated game between a man and a woman plays out. Giant video projections

Minicourse Opening @HollandFestival, part 1: Total theatre on slippery communication

Holland Festival Holland Festival

This year's Holland Festival opens with a performance of the opera 'Quartett'. It is a piece with a story, which needs some explanation. Maarten Baanders gives a short course on this performance. Also interesting for those who toev...

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Dance group LeineRoebana breaks boundaries in Cello Biennale

Dance and music belong together. Yet there is always something new to discover in this combination. The Amsterdam Cello Biennale invited dance group LeineRoebana to create a dance and music performance with cellist Jakob Koranyi and CvA Percussion to music by composer Tan Dun: 'Snow in June'. In recent years, LeineRoebana has shown like no other group how enriching unconventional combinations between dance and music can be.

Of course, there was more frequent dancing to cello and ...

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New impetus by young dance talent at PUNCH! Festival

PUNCH! is a fantastic festival. It shows how much beauty, news and surprise emerge when the line between dance and performance is dissolved. PUNCH! promotes a refreshing view of the world and shakes loose entrenched interpretations. The young dance makers and performers show tremendous originality and creativity that you will not only enjoy watching, you will go... 

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