writing ex-dancer
In Dance Around The World, ex-dancers Jan Kooijman and Ish Ait Hamou travel the world. Because dance connects. That makes for television that is more fun than you think. The programme, now being trialled in 3Lab, is a kind of cross between Top Gear and Looking for God. Were you already bombarded to death with celebrities looking for religion...
The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts would love a central 'vibrant dance venue' in Amsterdam. But surely such a Dance House has just been torpedoed? It was striking: in the Introduction to Dance to the grants awarded by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) for the 2017-2020 grant awards, they note an "ardent need" for a "dance house": a central place for development, production and the...
The Performing Arts Fund announced the awards for the 2017-2020 period. What does this mean for the dance sector? Pluralism and 'bleeding through'. While everyone is on holiday, the Performing Arts Fund announced the grant awards for the performing arts for the 2017-2020 period. And it was reiterated: the fund is facing a previously initiated budget cut of 30 per cent. That would...
Go ahead and express Nietzsche's book Also sprach Zarathustra in dance. But Brazilian choreographer Samir Calixto can do it. By focusing on a poem from the complex book: the Song of Midnight. This is immediately the reason for the title M: Midnight. Or Mensch, or Myth. Or Mahler. Or Metaphysical. You...
In the huge Zuiveringshal of Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek, musicians from jubilee Het Balletorkest live it up on stage in the creative dance performance Creatures. They even lie flat on the floor or swing loose in a small big band.
'Come and see that, Creatures: special show with fifty musicians and ten breakdancers," shouts the man at the door. The last tickets for the premiere must be sold. Creatures is at the Zuiveringshal in Amsterdam for a fortnight. Schools visit the show during the week, on weekends anyone can see it. But Creatures is such a
With Free Fall, Jiří Kylián shows his photographic works for the first time. He talks enthusiastically about his discoveries, his inspiration, and Sabine. The house in The Hague where Jiří Kylián has lived for more than 30 years radiates joy of life. Warm colour tones, fragrant flowers, classicist furnishings yet cosy. Unmistakably the 'touch of a woman.' That woman is Sabine Kupferberg, the life partner and...
The historic Doelenzaal in Amsterdam, home to Internationaal Danstheater, will have flats. Those currently sitting there will have to leave. Doelenzaal sold The users of the Doelenzaal can all leave: International Dance Theatre, Omscholingsfonds Dansers, Dancing on the Edge, Musicians without Borders and Windmill Film. Because the building's new owner wants flats. The Doelenzaal, a design by architects Beirer and Bekkers who...
It is quite a unique prize, this Dance Audience Award. You see, as a spectator and enthusiast, you can nominate a dancer or dance piece yourself. No jury decides that for you. You nominate it yourself. And you can do so until 1 February. What nominations are already coming in? Dans Publieksprijs 2015 The Dans Publieksprijs is a sought-after prize among dancers and companies, and it provides...
When the car park of the Zuiderstrandtheater is full at a pre-premiere, you know something exciting is happening inside. And that's right: Isabelle Beernaert and her ensemble present the new production Under My Skin. Dance like an Instagram account: popular, photogenic and ephemeral. Woman Actually, dance is like a Pinterest account. Because that seems to be mostly for women. And there is a lot of...
No war scares or torturous refugee issues tonight 5 November, but getting unexpectedly intimate on stage with a strange woman. That could happen to you during Dancing on the Edge. The congenial, biennial festival featuring artists from the Middle East and North Africa can be seen in several cities until 14 November. Once started by race entrepreneur and dancer Gary Feingold, the...
With Henry by Itamar Serussi, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam makes an exciting statement. After all, the kickoff of the anniversary season is not a corny look back at 70 years of dance history, but stands in the middle of the present and looks ahead. Scapino does so with a relatively unknown choreographer delivering his first full-length work, in an unusual dance style. Mars Not entirely unknown is Israeli Itamar Serrusi. He is...
During a festive dinner at Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, 'Zwanen' were awarded to dancer Jorge Nozal of NDT 1, Ann Van den Broek for The Black Piece and to Roel Voorintholt (Gouden Zwaan), artistic director of Introdans. The annual highlights festival De Nederlandse Dansdagen hosted this successful 'Swan Dinner': posh sponsors and stakeholders ate side by side with messy dance artists. This is how it should be...
Bodies are dragged away to loud applause and cheers: a more symbolic beginning Nederlands Dans Theater could not have imagined. With Start Again, the international ballet company highlights an exile until 2019 at the harbour in Scheveningen. A tricky location, because remote. But also a dynamic place. A Dutch choreographer would surely invent a choreography there with ferries, cutters and lifeboats. NDT, however, chooses the...
A Korean in a military suit singing karaoke, a crotchety dancer mewling with her knees kneading the floor, eight elderly people sweeping in and a son who turns out to be the father. Don't try to interpret this performance, the line of believability is miles behind you. Welcome to Father. 'Nothing is taken for granted anymore, boundaries blur, the old...
Today we reported on the opening in Utrecht Leidsche Rijn of the cultural park Castellum Hoge Woerd. In that Castellum is a new theatre: Podium Hoge Woerd. Explicitly, the theatre is not called Castellum. After all, there is already a Theatre Castellum in Alphen aan de Rijn that is 10 years old. Doesn't that bite? Yes, they do bite. Because the first visitors for...
Last Thursday, there was another consultation in The Hague about Jo Coenen's new cultural complex. Opponents wanted to get the plans off the table, which at this stage could no longer be done. But a striking argument was that this cultural palace would never be among the renowned concert halls because it lacks an organ. A fallacy or a major problem? The construction of the Education and Culture Complex...
From 22 November, the five-part NTR series ADO danst can be seen. This is not the first time football and dance have merged. Surely the most famous example of football and dance is Schijnbewegingen: an NOS film by Piet Erkelens and Pim Marks about the similarities between the two different worlds. They showed this through interviews with...
Olson Lamaj runs a gallery with three friends: from their own money and in their spare time. They have to because it is the only way to give young, contemporary Albanian artists a chance. Lamaj studied photography in Milan and fine art in Florence and now earns his money as a graphic designer. He speaks to me after working hours
If anyone can give a good picture of cultural development in Albania, it is Vincent van Gerven Oei. This Dutch philosopher and artist has lived in the country for five years and, as an insider and outsider, therefore has a strong opinion. I meet him at café Bukowski in a hip entertainment district of Tirana. When the embassy told me about Van Gerven Oei...
Europe's last cultural secret, is how Albania is also known. Mainly because the small Balkan country was shielded from the rest of Europe for a long time: until the communist totalitarian regime fell in 1991. How does such a change affect its culture? I become fascinated by this question during my holiday and speak to a number of people. Including our own ambassador, Dewi from the...
Watch Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by the Dutch Comedy in 1964, or Live, the 1979 video ballet by the Dutch National Ballet. You can now do so at the Theatre Encyclopaedia. Thanks to the crowdfunding campaign Being/Not Being. Theaterencyclopaedia had wanted for some time to put videos of a number of crown jewels from Dutch theatre performances on the internet. A nice start has now been made on that. Through a Voordekunst action, even more money has been raised...
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