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"The government is demanding that we only show artists from our own region. That would be a huge loss for us, as we are an international art space. But we have found a way around it. We now invite top international artists who live here, or we offer them a residency, so they live in the city temporarily. That way, ...
"We firmly believe that a well-developed and widely implemented Culture, Climate & Environment Code helps the worlds of art, culture and creation to take up their role within the most pressing issue of our time. That role is one of social innovation and creativity in the service of the arts, but also in the service of society and a liveable...
"That we find today's culture of memory uncomfortable finds its cause already in the concept of 'remembering'. After all, in the strict sense of the word, we can only remember something we have experienced ourselves. But what should 16-year-old schoolchildren remember when they visit the Buchenwald memorial site? Upon them comes the call to remember something that even...
Paul McCartney - according to Philip Norman's biography (2016) - had discovered a nice extra source of income as an enterprising musician: the music rights of colleagues. He bought up the rights of others and the money flowed in. Friendly and naive, he tipped Michael Jackson to do the same and yes, to his shock, a few years later, music rights of The Beatles were...
It could be because of the weather, or my mood, but 2022 was one of the best editions of Theatre Festival Boulevard I have experienced in decades. From the interesting, and also a little disruptive opening to the final night, which I experienced yesterday, I saw guts, passion and pushed boundaries. Not everywhere all at once, but...
John Buijsman and Helmert Woudenberg make a very funny duo. Buijsman the archetypal Rotterdammer, certainly also in terms of tone of voice, but also the actor who is role-steady, playing distinct characters. In De Recreanten, a play he made for and about his own holiday resort in Hoek van Holland, he plays together with Helmert Woudenberg. The creator of continuous improvisation has a...
We take stock halfway through this edition of Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Host Wijbrand Schaap does so together with Dana Kibbelaar, since this year a member of the two-headed management (with Tessa Smeulers), writer and journalist Jowi Schmitz, dance critic Helen Westerik, and makers Oscar Kocken and Jellie Schippers. We talk about what is so special about...
After nearly 30 editions, I finally had my Boulevard baptism of fire. And what a breath of fresh air it was. Audiences from 2 to 80, a festival terrain you can just stroll across without a ticket. Even better: a festival area where you can also watch acrobatics and dance on an outdoor stage without a ticket! I saw people walking their dogs and checking to see if there were any...
It was a bit much of a good thing, but the proximity of so many happy people in a small room, with no air conditioning but enthusiastically sweating dancers, was nice to experience. It's called 'Out of the Box' and is being danced and acrobatched together by The100hands from Breda during the Bossche Theatre Festival Boulevard. A performance for people from...
For a while it looked like we had walked into a live version of The Square, but it was just the official opening performance of Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. Now, that festival is miles away from the self-absorbed elitist art world that is rocked by a human gorilla act completely out of control in that Danish film, but uncomfortable was...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: artists' interests. Above the children's circus The ground floor of the building on Passeerdersgracht in Amsterdam housed children's circus Elleboog. On the second floor were the chess federations: the national federation and Max Euwe's international federation FIDE, which you could sometimes see in person....
'We are used to thinking in extremes. It is still the only way to be heard. Loud action is the only thing that matters anymore, it seems. Therefore, we have to be careful to remain curious about where that action comes from, what desire there is. That personal attention is needed, to crawl under that actionism
Let's start yesterday with a fundamental dialogue with the entire arts sector, using the vitality and creativity of the arts as inspiration, both for the sector itself and for society as a whole. Our sector talking, thinking, participating, deciding! in good times and in bad times. Never be silent again ...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: providence for artists. The office at Noordeinde in The Hague. At the meeting table, all board members had a fixed place. At that spot was a packet of cigarettes of the right brand ready for everyone. The meetings started at the stroke of two o'clock. Around half past...
A dance concert with a standing audience promises to be something new. Because how often does it happen that in the audience, whipped up by music and dance, you have to sit on your hands. This sounds like the outcome! We get to watch and move ourselves to Krautrock, mixed with trance-like repetitive parts. Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten van Cauwenberghe invite us...
Amare hosted for the first time the final performances of one of the new residents of The Hague's cultural colossus: the dance department of the Royal Conservatoire. What stands out. The pandemic over Last year, in the old conservatory, a maximum of 50 visitors could attend the final performance, with mouth caps on and with two chairs away from each other. The new dance theatre in Amare...
In the series In Perspective, Erik Akkermans looks back and ahead at developments in cultural policy and practice. Today: media art. Aan het Haagse Spui It were tough negotiations. The battle for the meter cupboard symbolised that. The chairman of the Hague Filmhuis, a former alderman, went hard at it. And the board of the World Wide Video Centre & Festival...
Expectations are high for Stations, the latest work by dancer and choreographer Louise Lecavalier. She has been a household name in the dance world for decades, first as dancer and muse of Edouard Lockes La La La Human Steps, and since 2006 with her own Fou Glorieux. Her intensity and athletic abilities are impressive, she terrifies the limits of her body. Also.
Nice scoop from the Noord Hollands Dagblad today. Rick Engelkes, the perpetually wobbly soap opera actor who learnt the trade as a successful producer at Joop van den Ende, devised a musical that was never performed because of coronasteun. It earned him millions. Read the story here. Tl;dr: Engelkes announced in 2020 that he was working on a musical to...
There has been quite a lot going on around Rotterdam's Arts and Culture Council recently. For instance, based on a ramshackle investigation, to say the least, the alderman had rather bluntly decided to abolish the independent advisory body. It is too self-serving for his officials. His decision was debated at length at a City Council meeting in late June. Redundant debate...
Voguing and religion in Yishun is Burning at Julidans Joke: A policeman from the US says he once got three armed drug dealers in handcuffs at the same time. A firefighter from England brags that he rescued 10 people from a burning flat. A Singaporean says he lives in Yishun. Everyone claps for the Singaporean. Yishun is the dystopian suburb...
Seven new, very different animated films coming to cinemas this summer showcase the richness and power of this genre.
It was announced today that the great theatre innovator Peter Brook has died. He was 97 years old. In those years, he became one of the world's most influential directors and theatre innovators. He sought world-wide stories and told them through actors who were as diverse as the stories he told. I visited his theatre a few times,...
"Miss, please give me the minister!". Henk Vonhoff's voice sounded as commanding as it was eloquent as he addressed his secretary over the intercom. Vonhoff was commissioner of the Queen in Groningen, but also chairman of the supervisory committee of the Groningen State University of Applied Sciences, the only college still directly under the minister. We, faculty directors, were at... for the umpteenth time.
Actually, it was too bad to persevere. Perhaps I should indeed have followed my impulse to walk away hard, but I stayed with Kein Licht. Indeed, this play, written by Elfriede Jelinek, composed by Philippe Manoury and directed by Nicolas Stemann, was technically quite good. Only that little dog, I so did not like that. Animals and...
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