The Advisory Multi-Year Policy Plan Arts and Culture 2021-2024 for The Hague was presented online on Friday 24 April. What stands out for dance in this City of Dance? Inclusion and diversity What at least stands out is that in the plan, the word 'inclusion' appears 110 times and 'diversity' 96 times. Then you know what time it is. Yet the Advisory Committee also gives...
'The world around us is changing, after this period we will speak about a period BC and AC'. Words from a wise dance maker from the Hofstad, referring to the period before and after the Coronavirus. However, you can also relate it to the news from the Hague dance world. What is the news? Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot decided that...
Emerging fascism is becoming increasingly parlous. Especially among young people, I discovered recently at a concert by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw. A reading club of twenty-somethings said they enjoyed James MacMillan's Second Percussion Concerto. They joined me in denouncing the draconian cuts to culture. But suddenly it sounded carefree: 'We are all voting for Thierry.' When I was dismayed...
You have those performances where, as an unsuspecting spectator, you are invited on stage and, once there, get completely blocked. SOUL #3 Co-Creation is not one of those. Well almost. Indeed, in this work, dancer Claire Hermans explains that fear is a blockade to creativity. The four performers therefore do not urge you to take to the floor to...
'I have broken every bone on the left side of my body at least once. My knee ten years ago, my elbow five years later, a toe, a finger, and under my left eye I have a scar from a stone someone threw at me when I was a kid.' Jesús de Vega, dancer, choreographer, videographer and teremin player, has had the requisite...
Peaks and valleys right from the opening night of CaDance, the festival of contemporary dance. From toe-curlingly long dance to sky-high drama. Highlights: dancer Sammie Hermans and the entire Mom:Me. Crushing New artistic director Stacz Wilhelm, in the presence of the minister during his opening speech, names the harsh years of austerity since 2013. The so-called obviousness of art he wants to...
The name of Sedje Hémon (1923-2011) will not immediately ring a bell with everyone. She was one of the first artists to work in a multidisciplinary way, basing compositions on her own paintings. Her painting scores were recently shown at Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens, but her music has not been performed for almost four decades. The Hague-based ensemble Modelo62 puts Hémon...
On Saturday 2 December, Australian-Dutch composer Kate Moore (b 1979) will receive the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for her composition The Dam. The prize money is €20,000, made available by the Performing Arts Fund. The prize was established in 1972 and named after the Dutch composer and critic Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967). Until now, it invariably went to men, some even getting it two...
A field littered with landmines. This is what life feels like sometimes. In waiting rooms, for example. Uncomfortable situations. What should you say to each other? Timorous glances shoot past each other. Hidden tension pounds against your muscles. Everyone is afraid of everyone else. And of themselves. Fobia by Davide Bellotta is one of three works with which young choreographers present themselves in the programme
Even abroad, it is noticeable that Jiří Kylián's work is not showing at NDT. Even though the so-called embargo is expiring and this is his anniversary year. No Kylián past three years The Financial Times reported. Laura Cappelle describes a fine performance by Nederlands Dans Theater in Paris and concludes that Kylián's work is not among the...
'Thanks to a radio presenter, my grandfather found an entrance to classical music. With my new piece, I, in turn, am paving a path to him.' On Thursday 30 March, Elements by Brechtje (1993) will have its world premiere in the fifth episode of An Evening of Today at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. In this series by the Nieuw Ensemble, conservatory students are given ample opportunity....
In contemporary dance, artistic leaders are often in place for decades, at least in the Netherlands. This week, Leo Spreksel announced his departure from Korzo, as of September 2017. After 29 years, the director and programmer of dance at the theatre and production house in The Hague is calling it a day, because "in the Netherlands, commercialisation pushes away the voice of artists: procedures and formats are...
In turbulent times, an evening of dance works therapeutically. Especially when three former Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) dancers show new work in Here we live and now. Only, anyone expecting a sharp look at current affairs by the programme title will be disappointed. Here we live and now refers mainly to choreographers who live or work in The Hague and shows a snapshot of their...
Go ahead and express Nietzsche's book Also sprach Zarathustra in dance. But Brazilian choreographer Samir Calixto can do it. By focusing on a poem from the complex book: the Song of Midnight. This is immediately the reason for the title M: Midnight. Or Mensch, or Myth. Or Mahler. Or Metaphysical. You...
With Free Fall, Jiří Kylián shows his photographic works for the first time. He talks enthusiastically about his discoveries, his inspiration, and Sabine. The house in The Hague where Jiří Kylián has lived for more than 30 years radiates joy of life. Warm colour tones, fragrant flowers, classicist furnishings yet cosy. Unmistakably the 'touch of a woman.' That woman is Sabine Kupferberg, the life partner and...
This write-up may begin somewhat strangely, but the end is going to evoke very different images: All sorts of things are set in motion internally when I find myself in the smallest room of my house. This is because - besides nice, sweet cards from friends and family - there are clippings hanging on the door, theatre guides, newspaper sections and smart magazines lying around. So...
Mrs Cornelys' Entertainments. Under that remarkable title, baroque company New Dutch Academy presented a concert in a theatrical setting. The Hague's Korzo Theatre turned into a society evening. Visiting a much-discussed lady from 18th-century London. It was a feast for the eyes and ears. New Dutch Academy has a changing line-up in addition to some permanent members. The Academy keeps itself - the name...
No war scares or torturous refugee issues tonight 5 November, but getting unexpectedly intimate on stage with a strange woman. That could happen to you during Dancing on the Edge. The congenial, biennial festival featuring artists from the Middle East and North Africa can be seen in several cities until 14 November. Once started by race entrepreneur and dancer Gary Feingold, the...
The India Dance Festival received just a little less attention from the national media this weekend than the Amsterdam Dance Event. Something that theatre director Leo Spreksel of The Hague-based Korzo Theatre was a bit worried about on Sunday. Because for three days now, his halls have been so muddy that he even turned away visitors who came all the way from Switzerland....
It's dance, but not as we know it. That's the best way to describe the current edition of Korzo and Nederlands Dans Theater's dance festival Spring Awakening. With two wonderful standouts, by choreographers Tom Weinberger and Kenzo Kusuda.
Ukraine, Boko Haram, IS, the economic crisis. The world resembles a borderline patient, as Ricardo Semler states. Dance festival CaDance also likes to hold a mirror up to politicians and power. With Exhausting Space by Spanish choreographer Iván Pérez succeeds just fine.
More than 10,000 lines of verse comprise Englishman John Milton's poem Paradise Lost (1667). It cannot be easy to capture that in an hour-long dance performance and yet that is what choreographer Samir Calixto set out to do. Earlier, the young Brazilian cut his teeth on Schubert's Winterreise and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. On Friday, he opened with Paradise Lost the...
The Official Nominations for the 2014 Dance Audience Award have been announced. Check out the 10 favourite dance performances and 10 favourite dancers of 2014. You can also vote for them. Varied entries For the Dance Audience Award, almost 800 dance performance visitors sent in nominations of no fewer than 105 dancers and 65 dance performances. From Igone de Jongh of the Dutch National Ballet to the young Carlos Puts in...
Among the audience at Korzo theatre in The Hague at the performance 'Here We Live And Now' are a striking number of dancers from Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT). No wonder, as many of their colleagues are involved in this performance. This annual programme featuring young choreographic talent is a co-production of NDT and Korzo. The addition 'Hague' talent, by the way, may be taken with...
At Bare choreographer Kenzo Kusuda shows portraits of six musicians of the New European Ensemble as in a choreographic documentary. These come at you in the dark and finally climb over your seat. You can't make your message any clearer.
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