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ACTUAL

All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.

Gergiev comes to Rotterdam with a top orchestra and top repertoire, but audiences are used to that from him

Russian conductor Valeri Gergjev was back in Rotterdam for a while, for one concert. He conducted his own orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), in de Doelen. The famous orchestra played repertoire that we in our country know inside out: Gustav Mahler's 1st symphony and Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st piano concerto. A now historic combination: because the Netherlands has become fused... 

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Dutch ministry of OC&W bases vision 'renewal' cultural funding system on British example

There is an interesting 'drone' underneath, and that may strike someone as menacing. In any case, the video at the end of this article has more meaning than many culture lovers might think. The fact is that the sweeping cuts made by the UK government through their 'Arts Council' have met with hardly any protests in retrospect, while the disproportionality in the cut... 

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Utrecht Visual Arts Centre gets visit from Salman Rushdie, George Soros and Johnny Depp in Ventia

It's easy to cycle past it as a Utrechter, the Basis voor Actuele Kunst (BAK) in Lange Nieuwstraat, but internationally few can ignore it. BAK is big. Under the leadership of artistic director Maria Hlavajova, who is as ineffable as she is sympathetic, the centre has become a leading centre in the world of contemporary art. A few years ago,... 

Read More "Utrecht Visual Arts Centre gets visit from Salman Rushdie, George Soros and Johnny Depp in Ventia

Tomoko Mukaiyama sprinkles nuts and high heels

Although the announcement of 'sonic tapestry: Shoes, part V' by Tomoko Mukaiyama can be read as a variant of Sex and the City on classical music, Sarah Jessica Parker would forever look at her Manolo Blahniks differently after seeing Mukaiyama's performance. This very special piano recital was Saturday 7 May at LP2 (Room 2 of the Rotterdam... 

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Sara Tavares understands better than anyone that you have to hang back in rhythm to make it work

About a decade ago, on the main stage of Rotterdam's De Doelen concert hall, there stood a frail and still searching young woman, a singer-songwriter in a language other than English. Sometimes in Portuguese but mostly in the criollo of the Cape Verde islands, this Sara Tavares presented, with minimal accompaniment, her CD 'Mi ma bô' that would later give her international... 

Read More "Sara Tavares understands better than anyone that you have to hang back in rhythm to make it work

Opinion: 'Let Joop van den Ende take classical ballet under his wing, merge Nederlands Dans Theater, Nationale Ballet and Scapino Ballet.'

It was predictable. Now that the Culture Council has given the secretary of state a go-ahead for massive and very deep cuts in dance, the first press releases are appearing with the outraged reactions. The National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater are aggrieved: 'How

Read More "Opinion: 'Let Joop van den Ende take classical ballet under his wing, merge Nederlands Dans Theater, Nationale Ballet and Scapino Ballet.'

The umpire strikes back: Culture Council denies use of 'cheese slicer'

We at culture press did not use the word cheese slicer, so it is not about us, but still. Today, the Council for Culture is reacting rather furiously to the many negative reactions to its advice issued last week. Of course, it is also kind of unfortunate that the Council has to issue an opinion that it itself does not support at all, and then the... 

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Booksellers are reluctantly starting to embrace the digital age

On Wednesday 27 April 2011, we reported on the annual symposium of the Royal Association of Booksellers. Interesting bi9jeen meeting, we can say, but of course not every speaker was as brilliant as Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaar, the director of the Collective Propaganda of the Dutch Book Foundation, whom from now on we will call the John and Jesus of the storytelling industry... 

Read More "Booksellers are reluctantly starting to embrace the digital age

Fascinating canon with 24 dancers by Boris Charmatz as bouncer and finale of Springdance 2011

Boris Charmatz's dancers in ''Levée des conflits'' Photo Caroline Ablain.

Nothing is more uplifting than singing a canon together. French choreographer Boris Charmatz's Frère Jacques, seen as the bouncer on the final night of Springdance, is a special case, though. 'Levée des conflits' has no recurring refrain, but it has no fewer than 25 stanzas, which are danced by each of the 24 dancers. The insane polyphony that rises from this monster canon of dancing bodies slowly rattles the viewer apart over 1 hour and 40 minutes, at least if they keep following the multitude of movements and manipulations. 'Levée des conflits' presents the audience with a dilemma: does it surrender to the inimitability of interlocking phases and versions of a composition that it cannot possibly oversee? Or does it frantically search for structure, something to hold on to, something to orientate itself in this hall of mirrors of repetition and multiplication?

Read More "Fascinating canon with 24 dancers by Boris Charmatz as bouncer and finale of Springdance 2011

Reviewers look back at Springdance 2011

The Springdance Festival in Utrecht is coming to an end. Today, the last performances take place. Three reviewers from the Cultureel Persbureau look back on the festival, in an interview with Jeroen Stout. Reviewer Fransien van der Putt does get spring fever from Springdance, she says in the interview: 'This festival exceeded my expectations.' Daniël Bertina (also a critic) also found it a particularly... 

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Eugénie Rebetez shows the alienating contrast of a woman who wants to be more and is also at peace with who she is

Eugénie Rebetez in 'Gina'. Photo: Augustin Rebetez.

Her full thighs clatter together. She shakes her bare arms, grinning at the trembling skin on her upper arms. She stomps furiously across the Theatre Kikker's playing floor, while her hefty body - dressed in a small, nondisguising black dress - emphatically bounces happily on all sides. You just have to dare. In her one-woman show 'Gina', Swiss theatre maker Eugénie Rebetez beyond all embarrassment. In the skin of Gina, Rebetez shows her own yearning for stardom, with plenty of self-mockery and absurdist humour. A quirky mishmash of mime, stand-up comedy, cabaret and contemporary dance.

Read More "Eugénie Rebetez shows the alienating contrast of a woman who wants to be more and is also at peace with who she is

But what about the goat?

Had we completely forgotten about the goat from sheer terror. Anyway. That goat, or at least its completely skinned carcass according to Dutch law, plays a role in the finale of Ishmael Houston-Jones' show Them. Afterwards, we saw the audience come out rather affected.

Music echoes in the heads of Emanuel Gat Dance's dancers and hangs over the stage like a secret

When music sounds, almost everyone tends to move with it. Music leads to dance. That link is crystal clear. But in modern dance, that obviousness is broken. Watching 'Silent Ballet' by Emanuel Gat Dance, this becomes poignantly clear. Without a single sound being sent into the auditorium, the eight dancers swarm across the stage.... 

Read More "Music echoes in the heads of Emanuel Gat Dance's dancers and hangs over the stage like a secret

'Talking about art always reaches a point where it all becomes too abstract.' - Clara García Fraile on 'Europe in Motion'

Clara García Fraile represents England in the international programme Europe in Motion. Young choreographers interacted during the festival and will present their own work at the end of this edition. Clara has nothing to show, she says, but that is also because, as a video artist, she is working on other things than dance. And those other things are... 

Read More "'Talking about art always reaches a point where it all becomes too abstract.' - Clara García Fraile on 'Europe in Motion'

Pure contact improvisation and martial arts in confrontational performance by Japanese dance group contact Gonzo

Contact Gonzo

 

With their name, the five Japanese of contact Gonzo refer to the gonzo journalism by the late Hunter S. Thompson. Raw, harsh and subjective. Thomspon also showed how he worked in his pieces. Contact Gonzo warms up during the performance, taking snapshots of each other with disposable cameras and passing the water bottle. Gonzo-style: what you see is what you get.

Contact Gonzo adheres to simple rules. For example gravity: jumping and coming down. Or attracting and repelling: pushing, pulling, like a rugby scrum. In doing so, they touch on minimal art that adhered to a set of parameters; one thinks of Sol LeWitt.

Read More "Pure contact improvisation and martial arts in confrontational performance by Japanese dance group contact Gonzo

Yasmeen Godder lets contrast between frightened individual and roaring group animal linger too much in dancers' minds

Dancers by Yasmeen Godder - photo Itzik Giuli

She is on her knees. Shaking and trembling, she jerks backwards. With clawed fingers that seem to grasp at the void. Like a frightened cat. Shuffling, the dancer moves backwards in a semicircle on the white stage floor of Theatre Frog. One by one, the five others step onto the empty open stage, while the first dancer keeps looking anxiously at the audience. Thus begins 'Storm end come'. With this performance, Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder shows the overwhelming effects of fear on the bodies of her dancers. But it doesn't really get scary.

Read More "Yasmeen Godder lets contrast between frightened individual and roaring group animal linger too much in dancers' minds

Think thinking, watch looking, and feel feeling by Jana Unmussig

The performance 'Ast im auge' is an extremely hushed show that focuses on the viewing of viewing, the feeling of feeling, the experiencing of experiencing. Anyone who recognises the thinking of philosopher Immanuel Kant in this is right. Yet the result is also - unintentionally - sensual. This is evident from the conversation with choreographer Jana Unmussig.... 

Read More "Think thinking, watch looking, and feel feeling by Jana Unmussig

The Dodo reports on the 27th edition of Springdance

The 27th edition of Springdance in Utrecht is in full swing. Cultural Press Agency reviewers are there, attending dance performances from all corners of the world. For instance, Fransien van der Putt visited the opening performance Sideways Rain by Brazilian Guilhermo Botelho and the jazzy tap dance performance by Broadway star Savion Glover. Maarten Baanders attended Studium by Belgian dance collective... 

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Parade prepares for new summer tour in glorious weather

Terts Brinkhoff , founder of De Parade, has a set of sheds on the frayed edge of Weesp in which all the travelling festival's tents are stored, when not rented out. In April, the management (now Ray van Santen and Nicole van Vessum) gathers all the artists from the upcoming summer tour there for an introduction. Press time, of course. And with the weather like... 

Read More "Parade prepares for new summer tour in glorious weather

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