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Shirokuro © Anja Beutler

Unmercifully gracious, 'Shirokuro' builds on hammered Ustvolskaya @HollandFestival

Holland Festival

The collaboration between pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama and choreographer Nicole Beutler in the performance 'Shirokuro', seen last week at the Holland Festival, provides a beautiful perspective on two piano sonatas by Galina Ustvolskaya. 'Shirokuro' means black and white in Japanese. Despite strong visuals and impressive co-protagonists on stage, the Russian composer's absolute music is never explained and therefore retains its sheer power.

Read More "Unmercifully gracious, 'Shirokuro' builds on hammered Ustvolskaya @HollandFestival

Marie on a string: Anja Röttgerkamp stars as an unknown soldier in Gisèle Vienne's The Pyre @HollandFestival

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'The Pyre', the latest show from internationally rising star Gisèle Vienne, initially seems less disturbing than her previous work. Pieces like 'Jerk' (2008), based on the true story of a young serial killer, and 'This is how you will disappear' (2010), starring a dark forest, were only seen in a few places in the Netherlands. Hopefully, this performance at the Holland Festival will change that. Gisèle Vienne once studied harp, then philosophy and eventually trained as a puppeteer. But Vienne sees herself primarily as a visual artist working with time, on a stage, where different rhythms, motifs and figures come together.

Read More "Marie on a string: Anja Röttgerkamp stars as an unknown soldier in Gisèle Vienne's The Pyre @HollandFestival

'El Djoudour' is interesting as a cultural-political project, but does not convince artistically @Holland Festival

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Men and women together on the dance floor, it is still forbidden in large parts of the Muslim world. Two years ago, the dance performance 'Nya' was at the Holland Festival, a piece written on the skin of nine Algerian dancers, mostly B-Boyz from the streets, but also the son of a ballet teacher from Algiers participated. This year, French choreographer Abou Lagraa, his wife Nawal Ait Benalla and much of the Algerian cast returned to the Holland Festival with a piece in which women also dance.

Read More "'El Djoudour' is interesting as a cultural-political project, but does not convince artistically @Holland Festival

Crushingly good: Nine Rivers by composer James Dillon, with conductor and percussionist Steven Schick @HollandFestival

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From the mild, everyday cacophony around the Muziekgebouw in the afternoon, on the terrace by the IJ, you'll get into the silence of the concert hall in a few steps. For three and a half hours (with over two hours of breaks in between), Asko|Schönberg, Slagwerk Den Haag and Capella Amsterdam will play and sing your ears off. Steven Schick (a.o. once Bang on a Can), not only conducts, but also takes charge of the middle part of the concert, at the Bimhuis, as a percussionist. Under his inspired direction, 'Nine Rivers' navigates between spectacle and purism: a battle between complex form and the simplicity of raw sound matter.

Read More "Crushingly good: Nine Rivers by composer James Dillon, with conductor and percussionist Steven Schick @HollandFestival

Sharp, comic and vulnerable: Kris Verdonck and A Two Dogs Company do Daniil Charms at Spring Utrecht

The fun of absurd gestures and everyday stupidity are very close to each other. Kris Verdonck performs the razor-sharp lyrics of Russian Daniil Charms (or Harms, as Verdonck says - hence the title 'H, an incident') as if it were cut cake. The

Read More "Sharp, comic and vulnerable: Kris Verdonck and A Two Dogs Company do Daniil Charms at Spring Utrecht
Steven Michel en Viktor Caudron in 'Victor'

Victor, beautiful duet about contemporary male danger

Putting a man and a boy on stage together - upper body bared; in today's times, that means asking for trouble. Our gaze, saturated by paedophilia scandals, leaves little in the way of intimacy between what could also be father and son, brothers or friends. But 'Victor' by choreographer Jan Martens and director Peter Seynaeve is no good, politically correct repartee. In their search for a loving look at the relationship between husband and child, they also consistently push the boundaries of what is permissible.

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NDT opens door to future without Kylián with 'School of Thought'

Programme V is NDT1's last programme this season. It seems to be a final chord in more ways than one.

On the premiere day, an official announcement went out that choreographer and former artistic director Jirí Kylián is washing his hands of NDT after 36 years of involvement. In addition, from September 2014 to 2017, no work by

Read More "NDT opens door to future without Kylián with 'School of Thought'

Thirty thousand euros for young top talents

The concentration is enormous, the mastery great. The boys and girls standing here dancing can do something. The apparent ease with which these 12-year-olds demonstrate their dance moves shows at the same time how difficult ballet is. After all, the movements have to be performed perfectly, and splashily. Moreover, of this group, only a few will make it to the world's top: The National Ballet. Students of the... 

Read More "Thirty thousand euros for young top talents

Fiction in dance films, (how) does it work? Good question at festival Cinedans

Fransien van der Putt, together with choreographer and dance film-maker Angelika Oei, saw five new Dutch dance films during Cinedans. Some of the results were promising. The films all transcended the level of visual gimmick. In its place is a struggle with fiction and physical credibility.

Read More "Fiction in dance films, (how) does it work? Good question at festival Cinedans

Writers Unlimited 2013: about writers and people with a story #wu13

Whether Tahmina Akefi is a good writer, I dare not say. The Afghan beauty can at least glue sentences together, and knows how to add an erotic layer on top. But whether this means she surpasses the average penny novel, or whether she has nothing to offer but oriental soft porn anyway? Tricky.

Read More "Writers Unlimited 2013: about writers and people with a story #wu13

'For me, only the text exists' - Alberto Manguel & Hans Goedkoop on black pages #wu13

With a jam-packed programme like Writers Unlimited 2013, it sometimes happens that, even as a professional journalist, despite everything, you end up dropping in somewhere too late, and then just catching a glimpse of something really great. In this case, after the tour de force of Amos Oz and Adriaan van Dis, was that Kenyan Ngwatilo Mawiyoo's spoken word performance. Mea culpa for that.

Read More "'For me, only the text exists' - Alberto Manguel & Hans Goedkoop on black pages #wu13
Chamber - Medhi Walerski

NDT in motion: on stage, the silver screen and behind it

Being active on social media like Facebook or Twitter is now a must for any dance company. But broadcasting a dance performance (live) via 600 cinemas worldwide is no mean feat either. NDT (The Hague) has been chosen by Pathé theatres to join the illustrious list of The Metropolitan Opera (New York), The National Theatre (London) and the Bolshoi Ballet (Moscow) as a partner in high-level performing arts.

Read More "NDT in motion: on stage, the silver screen and behind it

November Music focuses on multimedia

's Hertogenbosch 9-11-2012 - November Music was successfully kicked off last Wednesday and also focuses on multimedia in its twentieth edition. The duo Strijbos & Van Merwijk was a frequent guest there and that afternoon received the Prince Bernhardcultuurprijs Noord-Brabant, presented by former Concertgebouw director Martijn Sanders. In the evening, their pulled for the American string quartet ETHEL multimedia spectacle made Cross Avenue many audiences, the two performances of Cloud-Messenger By Fred Momotenko were even completely sold out.

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Death Grips is 20 min of breathtaking frenzy

The experimental hip-hop / noise band Death Grips plays frothy twang noise. But very exciting, interesting branch noise with paranoid, surreal lyrics. Live, it was a breath of fresh air. In their concert in Bittersweet (presented by Paradiso), vocalist MC Ride (Stefan Burnett) and drummer Zach Hill unleash a 20-minute hurricane of breathtaking fury.

Read More "Death Grips is 20 min of breathtaking frenzy

New impetus by young dance talent at PUNCH! Festival

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... 

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If you don't have Twitter in Egypt. Community Arts 'Mahatat' works from the bottom up. #vvu

The government has made little effort in recent decades to create a cultural scene  getting off the ground. There are no workspaces. No galleries. Only a very large library and a "cultural palace". Both of which opened only five years ago. There are also a few small independent initiatives. In public spaces.

Read More "If you don't have Twitter in Egypt. Community Arts 'Mahatat' works from the bottom up. #vvu

Odedra engages wide audience in Indian dance

Emerging British-Indian dance idol Aakash Odedra manages to hook top choreographers with the programme Rising. The dance diptych premiered in London earlier this year and was shown at the India Dance Festival at Korzo dance theatre in The Hague on 14 October 2012. Rising consists of four solos danced by Aakash Odedra himself. In the first choreographed Nritta (A. Odedra), the young dance prince starts inconspicuously with... 

Read More "Odedra engages wide audience in Indian dance

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