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Without electric guitars, Bryce Dessner's orchestral music sounds best; Greenwood's 'There Will Be Blood' a highlight of #HF12

It is not usual, but it must be said: the Amsterdam Symfonietta is a tremendously beautiful ensemble. The musicians all look beautiful, they handle their instruments beautifully and they play beautifully. They look alert, active. That helps with being liked, we all know, and that active look is down to their formula: they usually play without a conductor and so have to be incredibly attentive to what is going on around them. Looking dully at the conductor makes you ugly.

Read More "Without electric guitars, Bryce Dessner's orchestral music sounds best; Greenwood's 'There Will Be Blood' a highlight of #HF12

How a Martian looks at opera

Or: the familiar becomes utterly alien here. Or: embracing meaninglessness as the first principle. One hundred years after his birth, John Cage takes centre stage in HF weekend.

Ever since Reinbert de Leeuw played it in the fastest talk show on Dutch television, John Cage's 4'33" has been a well-known composition in our country. For exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds, the musician does not play a single note and the audience hears nothing but the ambient sounds.

Read More "How a Martian looks at opera

No-nonsense audience does not care for tour de force of anti-pale dance in Révolution

Eleven poles are atmospherically lit like a nightclub. Dancers enter and make their way to their work stations. They will walk around their poles in a two-hour shift. They are not the only ones: audience members also start walking, towards the exit. Yet the dizzying repetitions of the hard-working ladies are effective. However, the transcendental minimalism will turn into a... 

Read More "No-nonsense audience does not care for tour de force of anti-pale dance in Révolution

Fedja van Huet's lost dinner jacket and other Toneelgroep Amsterdam mysteries #HF12

Anyone who might think that making a stage show is a simple one-two punch of a genius director with a good team of creatives and perfect actors is wrong. Only, as a spectator once attending the performance, you don't notice any of that. And that is just as well. You come for the performance and you won't care if... 

Read More "Fedja van Huet's lost dinner jacket and other Toneelgroep Amsterdam mysteries #HF12

Blood-soaked Macbeth fits festival theme perfectly but fails to touch #HF12

Imagine Arjan Robben. The much-troubled frontman of the Dutch national team has just seen a brilliant move rewarded with a penalty and he is ready to take it. Out comes a field hand with a new set of adhesive letters for his shirt because the numbers are no longer legible from the stands. Lots of lashing, shirt off, seconds glue. Circumstances, in short. After two minutes, the fielder is gone, the number readable and the referee's whistle sounds. Then try to hit the target.

Read More "Blood-soaked Macbeth fits festival theme perfectly but fails to touch #HF12

Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

 With enfant, choreographer Boris Charmatz broaches a difficult topic: how do we as adults deal with ourselves, and how do we deal with children? Charmatz draws on the French philosopher Lyotard, who pondered the "inhumanity" of adults and saw real people in children. The current image about physical contact with children is distorted and it is... 

Read More "Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

As gentle and intelligent as the very young dancers are handled, reactions to Boris Charmatz's 'Enfant' #HF12 are often wild.

Youth these days mostly evokes the thought of danger. Society suffers from a distorted ideal image that leaves real children little room to play. Eventually, therefore, they rebel in Enfant. But until then, the very young performers still mainly have the role of adjunct or capstone, complement or extension of the nine adult dancers. The new... 

Read More "As gentle and intelligent as the very young dancers are handled, reactions to Boris Charmatz's 'Enfant' #HF12 are often wild.

Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

 We've already had one episode on it, and it was obviously a huge success, but right at the climax you have to start something new. That's why tonight at 22:30 we have a new thing: The Dodo Holland Festival Hangout. Live, interactive and online. Innovative, in other words, as you know it from us. You know them: those reporter trucks with metres of spaghetti... 

Read More "Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

 We've already had one episode on it, and it was obviously a huge success, but right at the climax you have to start something new. That's why tonight at 22:30 we have a new thing: The Dodo Holland Festival Hangout. Live, interactive and online. Innovative, in other words, as you know it from us. You know them: those reporter trucks with metres of spaghetti... 

Read More "Dodo Holland Festival journal becomes Dodo Holland Festival Hangout #HF12

Micha Hamel's Requiem is beautifully spatial but lacks substantive urgency #hf12

In his Requiem for tenor, narrator and ensemble, Micha Hamel makes the most of the space of Amsterdam's De Duif church. Musicians play on the altar, from the balconies, mingle among the audience and push out a piano. - But what does Hamel really want to say? In front of a sold-out house, Micha Hamel's Requiem premiered last night. He ... 

Read More "Micha Hamel's Requiem is beautifully spatial but lacks substantive urgency #hf12

With Antony Hegarty and the Metropole Orchestra in a fairytale forest #hf12

Antony Hegarty gives away the layered and emotionally charged show Cut the World with his pianist and the Metropole Orchestra. He shows that it need not be an issue to present more of the same. Meanwhile, the audience imagines itself in the fairytale forest, eating out of his hand. It is not the first time the androgynous child-man Antony has... 

Read More "With Antony Hegarty and the Metropole Orchestra in a fairytale forest #hf12

Survive the carnage, smeared nudity and frenzied screams in Requiem 3, and note the moving lyrics #hf12

Vincent Macaigne strikes me as a director you shouldn't fight with. Right from the first seconds of Requiem 3, he rams full steam ahead with the most hysterical opening scene I have seen in ages, and keeps on hacking relentlessly for 80 minutes. It takes a while to get through. But suddenly, in this tsunami of... 

Read More "Survive the carnage, smeared nudity and frenzied screams in Requiem 3, and note the moving lyrics #hf12

Holland Festival news #HF12: Spectacle and emotion hand in hand in opening weekend

Claron Macfadden did it on her own, Alain Platel with 150 people and Andrea Breth in 54 scenes: touching. And convey a message. Dodo-reporters Mariska van der Meij, Daniël Bertina and Wijbrand Schaap look back at the first weekend of the Holland Festival 2012, and reviewer Maarten Baanders looks ahead to Emio Greco/PC's special performance. Kind of... 

Read More "Holland Festival news #HF12: Spectacle and emotion hand in hand in opening weekend

Hit in the heart by opening performance by Alain Platel, and then find solace. #hf12

At two-thirds, the lump shoots in to not go out until the end. It happens at every Alain Platèl performance. Heartfelt sobs from the audience, lots of swallowing around you and the inevitable tears welling up like a natural disaster. To call the Flemish choreographer's work predictable because of this is going too far. What he and his company Les... 

Read More "Hit in the heart by opening performance by Alain Platel, and then find solace. #hf12

Opening Holland Festival on twitter and facebook: tenue de wtf, ns-#fail, sublime dance theatre and mozzarella sticks #hf12

[View the story "Opening Holland Festival 2012" on Storify] Opening Holland Festival 2012 On 1 June, the Holland Festival opened at Theater Carré. We were there, saw Platel's C(h)oeurs and tasted the atmosphere. Although it almost went wrong. This is what of it was witnessed on social media Storified by Cultureel Persbureau - Sat, Jun 02 2012 08:37:18... 

Read More "Opening Holland Festival on twitter and facebook: tenue de wtf, ns-#fail, sublime dance theatre and mozzarella sticks #hf12

The Dodo goes out of its way to tell you all about the Holland Festival 2012 #hf12

 Top theatre from all corners of the world, big names we had never dared hope for, and a newsreel that we will broadcast at unexpected times. Festival day newspaper The Dodo, now a household name in festival land, is going all out at this year's Holland Festival. Of course. It is the dream of every blogger, professional or amateur, to be at the performances of the... 

Read More "The Dodo goes out of its way to tell you all about the Holland Festival 2012 #hf12

Unforgettable stage version of Man Without Qualities gets undeserved dessert from Yves Petry #hf12

Maybe it is also just the wrong choice to see part three immediately after the first two parts. Maybe after a day of you or some settling down you will be able to appreciate Petry's text, on its own merits. Imagine a three-star dinner. A sensuous succession of small and medium-sized dishes, prepared with the... 

Read More "Unforgettable stage version of Man Without Qualities gets undeserved dessert from Yves Petry #hf12

'Community Art is Slow Art': Margreet Bouwman and Eugene van Erven on the Community Arts Festival 2013 #vvu

 Young people from Guatemala, nightingales from Northern Ireland and theatre-makers from the interior of Peru. Just some of the guests at the Community Arts Festival to be held in Utrecht in June 2013. Music, film and theatre with ordinary people behind and in front of the scenes, accompanied by professional artists. What else do they have in common?

Read More "'Community Art is Slow Art': Margreet Bouwman and Eugene van Erven on the Community Arts Festival 2013 #vvu

Final edition of Springdance closes convincingly with premiere of nonstop intense concert by Meyers, Sehgal and the REDUX ORCHESTRA

For the second time during Springdance, artists and audience share the stage of Utrecht's Stadsschouwburg. REDUX ORCHESTRA, conducted by composer Ari Benjamin Meyers, plays his Symphony X, a pulsating, up-beat (120 p/m) minimal work. Spectators, conductor and musicians - can you just call them musicians? - merge into one big, extremely subtle, participatory choreography of... 

Read More "Final edition of Springdance closes convincingly with premiere of nonstop intense concert by Meyers, Sehgal and the REDUX ORCHESTRA

Newsflash: Symphony X is a spectacular finale to 34 years of Springdance

Summarising 34 years of Springdance festival is impossible. Nor can we actually evaluate. Mourning because this year was the last? Perhaps. The festival that sailed past lows and highs in its young adult life is merging into a new festival, and no one knows at this point, 28 April 2012, what that festival will be called, and what it will... 

Read More "Newsflash: Symphony X is a spectacular finale to 34 years of Springdance
SYLPHIDES

Imaginative artwork SYLPHIDES looks at what moves people, starting with the breath

Every festival begs for volunteers, and in the early days of Springdance, there were not even any paid staff at all. That's also saying something. As Springdance merges with Festival aan de Werf after 30 years, the theme of this latest edition is 'scupltured bodies & body sculptures'. At SYLPHIDES, this aptly applies. "How people move doesn't interest me, I want... 

Read More "Imaginative artwork SYLPHIDES looks at what moves people, starting with the breath

Two young female choreographers fulfil promise with Batsheva Dance Company at Springdance Festival

With two performances, "The Toxic Exotic Disappearance Act" and "House", Batsheva Dance Company shows impressive, sublime dance mastery and fresh dynamics. But also restlessness, searching and confusion. The era of happy, harmonious dance is over. A lecture on dance, prior to the performance, emphasises that contemporary dance need not compulsively oppose other dance movements. This artistic... 

Read More "Two young female choreographers fulfil promise with Batsheva Dance Company at Springdance Festival

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