Skip to content

ACTUAL

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

Also at the Imagine festival: film fans become film financiers

In 1945, advanced rocket technology allowed a group of Nazis to escape to the moon. There they hid and soon they will return to take over again. At Imagine, Amsterdam's festival for fantastic film, there was a sneak preview of that. If the omens do not deceive, Iron Sky, as this Finnish production is called, promises to be a... 

"On your knees, governor!" David Byrne wins lawsuit against abuse 'Road to nowhere'

It was so nice, using the 1980s band Talking Heads' song 'Road to nowhere' to get your political message across. Now yes. Ex-Senator and Governor of Florida Charlie Crist thought he could get away with it, and he may have succeeded politically, financially he is going to lose out big time. The compensation amount has not been disclosed, but... 

You won't believe with your eyes what you hear with your ears with drum machine Savion Glover

"I don't care about the body, I make music," Savion Glover said last night, leaning against the doorframe of his dressing room after the performance Bare Soundz. The dance audience at Utrecht's Stadsschouwburg theatre struggled to master the mores of a jazz audience. As the concert progressed, it increasingly produced encouraging yells when the three tap dancers loosened up 

"It would be very weird if you weren't allowed to laugh at a performance"

A shy, unassuming man, who transforms on stage into a brilliant clown and artist at the same time. You can't get more typically British than choreographer and dancer Jonathan Burrows. He has achieved cult status in the dance world, and it is actually strange that his performances do not reach a wider audience. Although he himself says he has no shortage of audience members,... 

Dancers of Busy Rocks combine rigour with lightness and humour in 'Studium'

Studium by Busy Rocks - photo Teodora Mihai

It is nothing new that simple movements, close to the everyday, are given a place in dance performances. But the particular way they are constructed and highlighted in 'Studium' by Belgian group Busy Rocks makes you look at them with fresh wonder.
Three of the four dancers, darkly dressed, lie down on the floor against each other in carefully crafted poses. On this construction of bodies, a dancer, dressed bright white, takes her place in a horizontal position. The lighting makes the body lying above seem to float. The underlying figures push up the limbs in such a way that the white figure moves as if she is walking. The manipulation is done with great precision. Looking at it with tilted head, one sees perfectly natural steps.

Introducing: the Dodo team for Springdance

We gathered the cream of Dutch dance journalism for these ten days of dance innovation. Fransien van de Putt, well known in Belgium and the Netherlands, Maarten Baanders, well known in the wide surroundings of Leiden and Daniël Bertina, well known in the wide surroundings of Het Parool were ij the opening of Springdance and were actually happy with what they got to see. ... 

How do you bring a river on stage?

The opening of Springdance was a beautiful, continuous movement, from left to right across the stage of Utrecht's Stadsschouwburg theatre. Before the performance, Wijbrand Schaap spoke to choreographer Guilherme Botelho about this special dance piece.

Springdance opens with Botelho's Sideways Rain: fascinating intensity of dance, but lack of consistency


Scene from Sideways Rain by Botelho. Photo by Jean-Yves Genoud

From left to right, single people move across the stage, unceasingly and in droves sometimes, for an hour. It is addictive, this locomotion in Sideways Rain, the endless forward motion in one and the same direction of what appear to be ever-new people. Through subtle costume changes, a dark lighting scheme and Murcof's dramatic drones, it is very difficult at first to tell the 15 dancers apart. They become a fascinating stream of passers-by, on their way from somewhere to nowhere. Unlike the view along the public road, the dancers do not carry the usual bags, umbrellas and hats and, moreover, move mainly on four legs.

'I want to make the perpetrator relive the death of his victim.' Jens van Daele makes dance out of cruelly disturbed art project

Jens van Daele concludes his series of choreographies on the seven deadly sins with the performance Brides for Peace. The piece is based on the art performance Brides on Tour by Italian artists Pippa Bacca and Silvia Moro. Hitchhiking and dressed in wedding dresses, with a text 'Peace' on their chests, they travelled from Milan to Jerusalem in 2008. The journey went... 

Rutger Hauer goes crazy in opening film Imagine Festival and gets career award

Rutger Hauer must be a happy man, and not just because he is receiving a career award tonight on the opening night of the 27th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival Imagine. Once drawn to America more or less on good luck, now one of the few Dutch film actors with a broad and still expanding and insanely varied international career. Blonde robot in Blade... 

Dutch Orchestras Visiting Committee puts heels in: "Dear Mr Zijlstra, culture is an essential part of civilisation!"

"Dear Mr Zijlstra, culture is an essential part of civilisation. It contributes to social cohesion and economic growth. The Dutch orchestras can make a major contribution, which, by the way, is not synonymous with everything just staying as it was." Unlike the 'Table of Six', the talking shop of six arts bobos who, in their enthusiasm about an entrance at... 

"That of the other person being hell. I can get so worked up about that": Laura van Dolron makes theatrical mincemeat of Sartre.

She is a 'stand-up philosopher'. With that self-coined term, she created a new form of theatre, halfway between cabaret, a lecture and theatre. She plays with her own role, deploys actors as if they were puppets, but ultimately turns out to be their plaything, as good as that of fate. In short: Laura van Dolron is a case apart. She makes... 

So up close, and so small occupied as at La Petite Bande, Bach's St John Passion comes in in a very distinctive way.

I am not a connoisseur of the performance practice of Bach's St John Passion and know that other piece, the St Matthew Passion, mainly from a few TV excerpts and far-flung arrangements like the one by Platel's Pitié. So don't expect me to pass judgment on how good the version, which was seen and heard at the Concertgebouw on 5 April 2011, was, comparatively... 

'Yay! Subsidy delivers more subsidy!' Flemish researchers lose themselves in figures on cultural subsidies

We could say something derogatory about Belgians and arithmetic, but we won't. Firstly, because the Belgians have disbanded themselves and, secondly, because there is nothing wrong with the Flemings' ability to calculate. At least, those Flemings who have calculated at the Flemish Theatre Institute how the subsidy money for the arts is spent. In Flanders. And it turns out that. 

Current 93 survives music industry malaise on a diet of lots of love and dog-eared fans

Reports of the collapsing music industry have been rife. Apparently, as a musician, you no longer survive on the basis of record sales (alone). In niche genres, however, it is easy to survive. So proves the band Current 93, which performed in Stadtgarten, Cologne, last week. Playing live a lot and selling merchandise seems to be the golden rule for... 

In the Empire, a man always writes the same book and others wear the same shirt

We were deep in Amsterdam's canal belt for a while. After all, prominent resident of this city Rudi Fuchs was presented with a new booklet, written by himself together in the pages of De Groene Amsterdammer. This weekly magazine, by all accounts the oldest in the country, hosts the art connoisseur and former museum director in its pages. On it, he stomach writing about artworks that... 

Arts sector comes up with its own interpretation of culture cuts: more money to venues and assessment by 'professionals' on 'objective grounds'.

After the cry, now the official piece. With a fitting, tad Den Uyl/Van Agt-like title: 'Less where it can be done, better where it must be done.' But let's not laugh too hard. It is quite brave what they have done. Gitta Luyten, Marianne Versteegh, Joke Hubert, Henk Scholten, Siebe Weide and Ben Holvast, together as bosses of arts umbrellas and cultural sector institutes also... 

Death Horse puts on bold shoes and waves goodbye to Shakespeare in 'Bye Bye'

Amsterdam-based company Dood Paard itself translated Shakespeare's 'Othello' and waves goodbye to the bard with 'Bye Bye'. The quirky collective performs a one-and-a-half-hour topical comedy of manners and soul mirror, in which pointing at 'The Other' is central. Shakespeare's plays are quite often performed quite reverently. . Moreover, the adored 'bard' from Stratford-upon-Avon has bestowed on the English language countless expressions that have come to... 

Prize winners Go Short: Swedish Incident by a Bank best short fiction

The festival for short film Go Short in Nijmegen is not quite over yet, but last night the winners of the various competitions were announced at the Award Show in LUX. The award for best short fiction went to Incident by a Bank by Swedish director Ruben Östlund. He took a failed 2006 bank robbery as the starting point for... 

After You with Monic Hendrickx and Jaap Spijkers opens third edition of Go Short

To protest against the cuts in culture, you can of course shout loudly, but as an artist you can also just do what you are good at - make something really beautiful. Dutch film director Danyael Sugawara (Alles stroomt) opted for the latter and in a day and a half he and the best Dutch actors shot Na U, a small drama about unconditional love and... 

Meanwhile in Damascus (Syria): theatre project Adelheid Roosen postponed 'due to student protest'

Dutch theatre-maker Adelheid Roosen, who is currently working with director Merel de Groot on a theatre project with Syrian art students, sees her project hindered because of student protests, although we are not entirely sure in the totalitarian country, from which we rarely receive news. The University of Damascus, where she is working on the project To tell You I call... 

Rutteleaks 4 on orchestras: 'Mergers Brabants Orkest and Limburg Symphony Orchestra, Gelders Orkest and Orkest v.h. Oosten, Residentie Orkest and RphO'

Of course we are being horribly abused. By the coughing chain-smoker with his trench coat in that Hague car park. Is there a bigger plan behind it. Which again we know nothing about, but which will become clear on 23 May. So be it. Until then, we can do nothing but slavishly write down what the coughing oracle coughs at us. Well: We already knew that... 

Taboo perpetuates health problems in music industry

Trouble with your voice? You don't talk about that. Because competition is so high in the music industry, there is a taboo on showing weaknesses. While the consequences would be much smaller if attention was given to it sooner. Time for the Muziek Centrum Nederland to ask the question at its music café on 3 March where... 

Small Membership
175 / 12 Months
Especially for organisations with a turnover or grant of less than 250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
5 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Cultural Membership
360 / Year
For cultural organisations
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
10 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Participate
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Collaboration
Private Membership
50 / Year
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Own mastodon account on our instance
en_GBEnglish (UK)