Berlin's Gorki Theatre won a prize this year: it was named the best theatre in the German language area by the German-language press. The company won the award partly because it employs many actors of immigrant origin. With its performance Der Untergang der Nibelungen, which can be seen in this year's Holland Festival, the group also thematises the...
No foreign performances at the sixth PopArts festival. Are the budget cuts making themselves felt? The festival programmes internationally every other year, and this year it is staying close to home. With Nicola Unger, there were the other Dutch 'usual suspects' like Duda Paiva and guest artists from the Ulrique Quade Company. But the De Krakeling and the Ostadetheater also featured young makers...
#1 Salzburger Festspiele / Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz / Katie Mitchell, The forbidden zone (theatre/performance) - Dutch premiere 11 February, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam British director Katie Mitchell is this month's 'arsonist' at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. With performances that are as scintillating as they are transgressive. The forbidden zone is about areas long off-limits to women: science and war. The...
The post on facebook that dominated my timeline today: the spontaneous concert at NS station Amsterdam Centraal, taken from the NRC's website (link: http://www.nrc.nl/muziek/2014/10/09/hoe-drie-artiesten-onverwacht-samen-optraden-op-adam-cs/ For several weeks, this station has had a piano on which anyone can play. A playful action by the NS to make waiting more fun. This leads to surprising situations. Like this one in which a pianist...
Forty roofless hotel rooms, and then hearing your own story back as you see yourself reflected in the distant ceiling. Or: walking behind a guide through the Lombok district of Utrecht, while being provided with an overload of extra information on your headphones. About your guide. Or not. About yourself. Welcome to the universe of Dries Verhoeven, since a small...
You really have to be a hardcore debate fan to want to voluntarily listen to a conversation about education. Still, this Thursday's Radio Futura broadcast will be interesting, as it is about Radical Education and brains. Brains are hot, thanks to Dick Swaab and insights from brain-based teaching.
Art has rapidly become unimportant. Artists have been effectively dismissed by populists as subsidy-addicted scum. Media leaves no opportunity to downplay the consequences of the ensuing cuts. Putin is about to bring a third world war to Europe. In Amsterdam on Saturday, September 6, three of the Netherlands' last daily newspaper critics talk to artists about...
One of the rules of thumb of contemporary theatre art reads as follows: There is no middle ground in a production with an insanely long title. Such a production is either fantastic or dies of its own pretensions. At Judson church is ringing in Harlem (made to measure) / twenty looks of paris is burning at the judson church (m2m) is the latter.
"You know ma'am, that big red painting? Turn right before that". A young attendant shows us the way. At first glance, it's nothing. A man in semi-uniform, black trousers, white shirt, slowly turns on his axis. Sol Lewitt's mural, number 1084 from 2003, lends him the necessary decorum. Around the corner hang Barnett Newman and Andy Warhol. Would the man care? In this 'hall of fame' of conceptual art, the man's spinning stands out a little timidly. Some visitors remain standing, leaning against white walls or sinking down on the polished wooden floor. Those who take their time watch the spinning of the man and his fellow dervishes slowly take possession of the Stedelijk.
Like many of my contemporaries, I have played Jeff Buckley's CDs grey, but know next to nothing about Pakistani Sufi music. Except that it's great. And that Abida Parveen is the queen of that genre. Tonight, this Voice of God and her ensemble are on stage at the National Opera & Ballet.
It seems like a statement, opening the latest Holland Festival under Pierre Audi's direction with 'Vortex Temporum'. The collaboration between the two top Belgian ensembles Rosas and Ictus does everything that is scarce in the present day.
Some art needs a story. Then a canvas on the wall with the caption 'Untitled' is not enough. The performance 'Laaroussa' (Bride) by French-Tunisian brother and sister Selma and Soufiane Ouissi falls into that category. As extraordinary as their physical presence on a dark stage is, without explanations beforehand and a Q&A afterwards, it all says precious little.
Is that bad?
Watching the emotional pulse of the world live, designed as a screen full of dancing dots. That was possible last night at IDFA during the live cinema event, presented by internet artist Jonathan Harris.
Way back when fast food had just been invented
The fact that it is difficult to get a job after graduation is also well known in the dance world. Therefore, partly at the government's insistence, companies are putting in on talent development. They also hope to A better connection with schools. Jun dancers are now more likely to be on the front line of ballet: the theatre, and that is good news for audiences. Because the energy is fresh and the level has shot up considerably.
Even before she graduated from mime school, Boukje Schweigman swore off language. She worked out a wordless philosophy in her performances. She seeks the mystery of life. However vast and elusive her starting points may be, her performances give the audience the most direct, immediate, skin-tight sensation imaginable in a theatre.
Young choreographers Cecilia Moisio, Giulio d'Anna and Melissa Ellberger have been nominated for the Prize of the Netherlands Dance Days Maastricht 2013.
A man and a woman dance passionately in the hall of Paradiso. Such an experimental dance performance is unusual for the Amsterdam pop palace. Yet the festival I Like To Watch Too right here. Many people feel a barrier towards this kind of performance, but here there is just the right 'in and out' atmosphere to make avant-garde art something you can just look at and that always triggers something in you.
Isn't avant garde dance too lofty? Is it still viable in these harsh cultural times? I Like To Watch Too aims to clear up this misunderstanding. The festival brings experimental dance closer to the public than ever.
Anyone suffering from the misconception that dance is about beauty is mercilessly disabused of the dream by Gisele Vienne. Her pieces are about pain. Sometimes gory and explicit, sometimes sublimated but no less powerful. The Pyre is an overwhelming piece that leaves the audience dizzy.
''You would think: women are emancipated. But people long for the clichés and prejudices about women from the 1950s again. If you dress super-feminine, you get whistled at like a dog. But how should
Anyway: while Amsterdam's city newspaper Parool was embarking on a campaign against the Dutch capital's city company at the behest of the Flemish publishing board, the same Toneelgroep Amsterdam was winning the hearts of New York audiences with a production of the already years-old 'Roman Tragedies', which a few here did not even like overall: http://www.wijbrandschaap.nl/2007/06/romeinse-tragedies-hf2007ta/
PUNCH! is a fantastic festival. It shows how much beauty, news and surprise emerge when the line between dance and performance is dissolved. PUNCH! promotes a refreshing view of the world and shakes loose entrenched interpretations. The young dance makers and performers show tremendous originality and creativity that you will not only enjoy watching, you will go...
I Like To Watch Too: abundance of performances shows that dance and performance are powerfully connected to modern society. The dance steps rain down on you even before you have entered Paradiso. Tim Boerlijst tap-dances on the pavement. This infectious welcome immediately draws visitors into the atmosphere of 'I Like To Watch Too'. This festival showcases dance and performance from...
With Black Box / Chambre Noire the Jewish Historical Museum presents the first exhibition by South African artist William Kentridge in the Netherlands. A multimedia artwork On the first genocide of the 20th century. Now on display at the Jewish Historical Museum.
Antony, Dafoe and Abramović together on one stage, directed by Robert Wilson - it promised to be the hit of the theatre season. But Abramović's private life does not really lend itself to a triumphant or compelling narrative.
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