Usually without lyrics, often with music, always with movement
On 9 February, the groundbreaking performance WAKA comes to the Netherlands. WAKA offers a vivid portrait of the Ugandan youth of "Waka Starz" who are determined to be part of the march of the world. During the performance, you will be taken to Wakaliga, a poor neighbourhood in Uganda's capital, where the Waka Starz grew up. Racheal M, rising...
On Sunday 14 January at 3pm, the dance and music performance Tegenwind will premiere at the Chassé theatre in Breda, a family performance for everyone aged 7 and above. Tegenwind is the sequel to the successful collaboration of dance company de Stilte and Artvark saxophone quartet in the production Bosch in Bed. Anyone listening to Blowin' in the wind by Bob Dylan will hear a song...
I used the word 'revolutionary' when a camera crew from Theatre Rotterdam asked me what I thought of Closed Eyes. I don't know if my otherwise extraordinarily enthusiastic response will make it to the final edit, but a day later, that feeling is not gone. What Alida Dors, artistic director of Theatre Rotterdam, has shown is a revolution in the world of...
The Artists Are Present is ICK Dance Amsterdam's festival in which a new generation of artists present themselves to the public and share the floor with each other. From 13 to 15 December, young dance and performance makers take you on an exciting voyage of discovery in a dynamic programme of performances, unexpected pop-up presentations and conversations. .The short December days...
The counter stood at 8 minutes and 45 seconds when it went wrong. Pretty fast for a three-hour interview programme like Zomergasten, but Theo Maassen grabbed the record with verve. His guest Alida Dors, the woman who, as a self-taught dancer, grew into a forewoman of Dutch hip-hop culture, and who is now tasked with managing the mismanaged...
"I select dancers very carefully. I don't do auditions. I don't believe in anyone having to prove themselves in front of the others. So that's why I take quite a long time to choose who I want to work with. If I choose that person, we go for it 100%. No matter what." Corpus Criolla is a fascinating dance performance in which Caribbean...
A festival is still the best way to get acquainted with new art. Yesterday, after six days of persistent drizzle and torrential rain, the sun finally broke through over Bossche Zuiderpark. Bartenders who had spent the first few days getting used to quietly serving those few customers who braved the rain for a white wine (because it was summer...
Whereas in the West dragons are mythical creatures to be defeated, in the East they are the embodiment of joy, unlimited possibilities and destiny. People born in the year of the dragon (every 12 years with 2000 being the most recent adult generation) are proud, irresistible, vibrant and extroverted, according to Chinese astrology. Put seven on and...
Input from members: that's what drives this club. Just watch. Yesterday I wrote this piece: Jerome Bel is quite something. The man who identifies himself as a choreographer has banned himself from flying for sustainability reasons, which is why he could not come to Amsterdam from Paris to read his own autobiography. However noble the non-flying...
Dancing, from super amateur to world-class professional, involves boundary crossing, abuse of power, physical assaults and sexual misconduct perpetuated by a stubborn culture of silence. The long-awaited investigation by Marjan Olfers, 'Shadow Dancing', into boundary crossing in the dance world, had even more shocking results than anyone feared beforehand. The figures are now well enough known: a majority of dancers have shown transgressive behaviour to...
Sometimes the run-in to a performance is so pleasant that you hope everyone will continue to drone on for a bit. Make it last longer! It feels like you're at a rehearsal, or a private party, at a private event, where you can peek in. That is certainly the case with Prophétique (on est déjà né-es) by Nadia Beugré, which...
June 2023 marks the annual DOX auditions for young people aged 16 - 26 who want to further develop as a performer in the fields of dance, theatre, music, film and/or spoken word? At the DOX Club, you can spend a season exploring, creating and learning with various creators of the moment. Whether you have completed preliminary training or...
You can see it right from the first portrait prominently displayed on the front screen during the prologue. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky looks towards the audience like a czar of ballet music, exactly as choreographer Rudi van Dantzig and master designer Toer van Schayk intended. Here is a man who struggled with his identity, his desires and the obligations that his...
When the difference between the performer during the performance and afterwards is at least a thick metre, you know you are dealing with a great artist. Australian dancer Olympia Kotopoulos is a great artist, because on stage she fills the space, while in real life she barely counts one and a half metres. Art is, literally, larger than life....
Sometimes a festival only really begins after the halls have emptied. Red threads become visible, themes buzz after, research continues, archives are unlocked. What struck me about the nineteenth, somewhat smaller edition of Cinedans is that there was a lot of work on the vulnerability of the body. Not surprising after a pandemic, during a war and with an even more...
'Carmina Burana is the first project in Ukraine where I had a free hand to really turn it into something completely different. I didn't have to adapt an existing production, but could create a whole new performance from scratch.' Gerard Mosterd (1964) has a long career behind him as a dancer and choreographer. Now he is also a producer of...
With Kaboom!, Movies that matter, the Pink Film Days and Cinedans all four at the same time, it will be hard to choose next weekend. Cinedans, dance on screen, is a festival very dear to my heart, which is where I will be found next weekend. Cinema is, after all, movement, in montage, découpage, action, mise en place. And slowly the realisation that dance and film are a...
The Utrecht company De Dansers received the Harm Lambers Bouwsteen for special art in Utrecht in 2022. The company received this award for their special contribution to the connection between art and the city of Utrecht. As part of the award, the company will be given the key to Theater Kikker in Utrecht for one day on Saturday 8 April and will present...
We, the Shameless, is the follow-up to the successful solo Shameless that looks forward: with the insights and experiences of the past. In this heated "solo for two", Eminem is explosively retorted by two dancers: two connected bodies that sometimes coincide but also have their own identity. Without embarrassment, they share this discord with the audience. Shameless means...
Audition professional dancers (M/F/X) on 7 April Are you academically trained as a performing dancer (HBO) with distinctive dance skills, a proactive attitude and affinity with our youthful target group? Apply by sending a short motivation + CV with photo to info@destilte.nl before Friday 24 March 2023. Audition dance trainees (M/F/X) on 7 April For the 2023/2024 season, we are looking for dance trainees for 36 hours....
Dancers are extraordinary creatures. Take Vlad Detiuchenko and Veronika Rakitina. Fled from Kyiv to The Hague last year, they are now both dancing in the performance of former prima ballerina of the Dutch National Ballet Igone de Jongh. They travel with it from Den Helder to Eindhoven, single-handedly organising the performance on 21 March Benefit Ukraine: Light in Darkness. I looked for the...
Het Houten Huis, a youth theatre company from Groningen, portrays the issue of bureaucracy in healthcare in a poetic and moving way with the performance 'If it goes differently'. This performance demonstrates that art is a powerful tool to raise important social issues and thus contribute to a more inclusive and just society.
Whether I was on champagne. Just a question from an acquaintance in the dance world. The occasion was Nederlands Dans Theater's announcement that it does not want to continue with top choreographer Marco Goecke until he really apologises for his assault on dance critic Wiebke Hüster of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. After all, the company had previously taken up the mantle of...
It was announced at a press conference at the Hanover State Opera this afternoon that the contract with choreographer Marco Goecke has been 'permanently terminated'. In addition, he has been denied access to the Opera's premises. This sanction follows a serious incident last Saturday at the premiere of a choreography by Goecke in Hanover, where he is ballet director. Because he behaved ...
The Hannoversche Allgemeine, a local Hanover newspaper, has just announced that Marco Goecke, the dog-eared top choreographer, has probably already been fired by the prestigious Hannover Staatsoper company. An announcement on website T-Online reads: 'The dismissal of Hannover's ballet director Marco Goecke at the Hannover State Theatre may already be a done deal. According to the newspaper "Hannoversche Allgemeine...
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