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Gratis: Festivaldagboek Writers Unlimited 2012

Het waren mooie dagen, de vier dagen dat we verslag deden van Writers Unlimited (v/h Winternachten) in Den Haag. We zagen een nieuwe zelfbewuste generatie schrijvers uit Afrika, maakten debatten mee en speelden – in de foyer van het Haagse Theater a/h Spui – voor VJ tijdens de salsadansles. Daniël Bertina en Wijbrand Schaap deden hun best om zoveel mogelijk… 

Holland Festival: diary of the 2011 edition

Op 28 februari presenteert Pierre Audi in de stadsschouwburg het programma van het Holland Festival 2012. Wij zullen dat festival, net als in 2010 en 2011, op de voet volgen met onze online festivaldagkrant op www.dedodo.nl.  Die dagkrant heeft inmiddels zijn bestaanrecht bewezen, nu steeds meer festivals met het Cultureel Persbureau willen samenwerken aan dit unieke initiatief. Aan de ‘product-range’… 

Berlin 2012 - Dutch debut Hemel wins Critics Award

Dutch film Hemel was chosen as best film in the Forum section for young cinema by the jury of international critics at the Berlin festival. This is a fine success for director Sacha Polak who delivers her first feature-length film with this drama about a young woman who has lost her way in search of love. Heaven, after a... 

Sports sponsor pays top price, culture sponsor sits front row for a pittance and expects no less

The smallest opera company in the Netherlands beats the biggest. Not in visitor numbers, not in subsidy received, but in bringing in sponsorship money. On closer inspection, however, it becomes painfully clear once again that there is no giving culture in the Netherlands and sponsorship is limited to a pittance. A rattling giving law will not change that.

Argentine lives inexorably turn to destruction at Mariano Pensotti's hands

Turntables and theatre have something in common. Especially in recent years, theatre-goers increasingly run the risk of facing a so-called rotating stage. After Johan Simons made use of this technical style figure in his direction of Hiob at the Munich Kammerspiele and Christoph Schlingensief made the stage turn spectacularly in his swan song Mea Culpa, it is now... 

Delft opens with fewer chamber music surprises than other years

For another 15 years, the Delft Chamber Music Festival, so named to reflect its international character, has encompassed 15 years. Violinist Isabelle van Keulen handled the chamber music festival's programming for the first ten years, Lisa Ferschtmann - also a violinist - took over from her five years ago. But even this already successful festival fears the upcoming budget cuts. A pity, because what... 

Eszter Salamon and Daniel Linehan gems of highly diverse Julidans

Holland Festival, Julidans, IT's, Over 't IJ. End-of-season theatre is always strewn across Amsterdam. Between April and September, international performance offerings migrate from Utrecht (Springdance and Festival aan de Werf) via Amsterdam to Rotterdam (Internationale Keuze). If you want to experience something of contemporary, international dance, Springdance, HF and Julidans are the places to be. [For... 

#HF11: They're going to make another big cut to the Russians at Toneelgroep Amsterdam

Cologne and Paris may not have been built in a day, but it took less than three days to fly to the moon. A warped comparison to say that a show that rattles three days before its premiere can turn out to be an unimaginable hit on the premiere itself. So something like that could happen with The Russians, the latest show 

Week two of the Holland Festival (#HF11) brings a nice mix of highlights and questionable choices.

Dat de Off Broadway-musical Fela! Een succes was, konden we eigenlijk wel verwachten. Voor De Dodo hebben we er daarom ook niemand heen gestuurd: er zijn al genoeg kranten en andere bloggers die graag bij de New Yorkse publiekslievelingen op de eerste rang willen zitten. Dat ze een goede tijd hadden, leest u elders op deze site, via de blogstream… 

#HF11: As grand, as extreme and as haunting as Schlingensief's 'Mea Culpa' you rarely see theatre

Dying young turns out to be advantageous not only for skywalkers like Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke or Jesus. Even in a rather elitist world like that of German theatre, you can achieve star status through an early death. At least that happened to Christoph Schlingensief, the man who died of lung cancer in 2010. The man had already achieved stardom throughout the German-speaking world,... 

Die Jahreszeiten, in OT's version, fits perfectly into the Flemish-Dutch Opera Days

In the Netherlands, the view of opera is mainly guided by concert practice. As such, the Dutch approach to this genre differs considerably from what is common in the rest of Euroa. This is evident from the fact that over the past century, investments have been made in concert halls that are among the best in the world: the Amsterdam... 

De Dodo herleeft voor Holland Festival editie 2011 #HF11

Deze week barst het Holland Festival los en wij zijn erbij. We maken met een flink team professionele journalisten een Dodo Festivaldagkrant, zoals we dat eerder ook deden voor bijvoorbeeld Springdance en De Internationale Keuze van de Rotterdamse Schouwburg. We volgen het festival op de voet om nieuws te brengen wanneer het zich voordoet. We gaan voorstellingen zien waar anderen… 

Rascals and heroes battle for power at Utrecht Festival a/d Werf

There is no such thing as the perfect human being. We are all crooks. Or is there a way to get it right? Ilay den Boer and the actors of De Utrechtse Spelen / De Warme Winkel each explore in their own way at the 26th edition of Festival aan de Werf. Wasn't my grandfather just an asshole? That... 

Gergiev comes to Rotterdam with a top orchestra and top repertoire, but audiences are used to that from him

Russian conductor Valeri Gergjev was back in Rotterdam for a while, for one concert. He conducted his own orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), in de Doelen. The famous orchestra played repertoire that we in our country know inside out: Gustav Mahler's 1st symphony and Dmitri Shostakowich's 1st piano concerto. A now historic combination: because the Netherlands has become fused... 

Tomoko Mukaiyama sprinkles nuts and high heels

Although the announcement of 'sonic tapestry: Shoes, part V' by Tomoko Mukaiyama can be read as a variant of Sex and the City on classical music, Sarah Jessica Parker would forever look at her Manolo Blahniks differently after seeing Mukaiyama's performance. This very special piano recital was Saturday 7 May at LP2 (Room 2 of the Rotterdam... 

Sara Tavares begrijpt als geen ander dat je achterover in het ritme moet gaan hangen om het te laten werken

Ongeveer tien jaar geleden stond er op het grote podium van de Rotterdamse concertzaal De Doelen een frêle en nog zoekende jonge vrouw, een singer-songwriter in een andere taal dan Engels. Soms in het Portugees maar meestal in het criollo van de Kaapverdische eilanden presenteerde deze Sara Tavares met minimale begeleiding haar cd ‘Mi ma bô’ die haar later internationale… 

Fascinating canon with 24 dancers by Boris Charmatz as bouncer and finale of Springdance 2011

Boris Charmatz's dancers in ''Levée des conflits'' Photo Caroline Ablain.

Nothing is more uplifting than singing a canon together. French choreographer Boris Charmatz's Frère Jacques, seen as the bouncer on the final night of Springdance, is a special case, though. 'Levée des conflits' has no recurring refrain, but has no fewer than 25 stanzas, which are danced by each of the 24 dancers. The insane polyphony that rises from this monster canon of dancing bodies slowly rattles the viewer apart over 1 hour and 40 minutes, at least if they keep following the multitude of movements and manipulations. 'Levée des conflits' presents the audience with a dilemma: does it surrender to the inimitability of interlocking phases and versions of a composition that it cannot possibly oversee? Or does it frantically search for structure, something to hold on to, something to orientate itself in this hall of mirrors of repetition and multiplication?

Eugénie Rebetez shows the alienating contrast of a woman who wants to be more and is also at peace with who she is

Eugénie Rebetez in 'Gina'. Foto: Augustin Rebetez.

Haar volle dijen kletsen tegen elkaar. Ze schudt met haar ontblote armen en kijkt grijnzend naar de trillende huid op haar bovenarmen. Ze stampt woest over de speelvloer van Theater Kikker, terwijl haar forse lijf – gekleed in een klein nietsverhullend zwart jurkje – nadrukkelijk aan alle kanten vrolijk meestuitert. Je moet maar durven. In haar one woman show ‘Gina’ gaat de Zwitserse theatermaker Eugénie Rebetez aan alle gêne voorbij.  In de huid van Gina toont Rebetez haar eigen hunkering naar het sterrendom, met veel zelfspot en absurdistische humor. Een eigenzinnige mengelmoes van mime, stand up comedy, kleinkunst en hedendaagse dans.

Music echoes in the heads of Emanuel Gat Dance's dancers and hangs over the stage like a secret

When music sounds, almost everyone tends to move with it. Music leads to dance. That link is crystal clear. But in modern dance, that obviousness is broken. Watching 'Silent Ballet' by Emanuel Gat Dance, this becomes poignantly clear. Without a single sound being sent into the auditorium, the eight dancers swarm across the stage.... 

Pure contact improvisation and martial arts in confrontational performance by Japanese dance group contact Gonzo

Contact Gonzo

 

Met hun naam verwijzen de vijf Japanners van contact Gonzo naar de gonzo-journalisitiek van wijlen Hunter S. Thompson. Rauw, hard en subjectief. Thomspon liet in zijn stukken ook zien hoe hij werkte. Contact Gonzo warmt op tijdens de voorstelling, maakt met wegwerpcamera’s kiekjes van elkaar en geeft de waterfles door. Gonzo-style: wat je ziet, is wat je krijgt.

Contact Gonzo houdt zich aan eenvoudige regels. Bijvoorbeeld zwaartekracht: springen en neerkomen. Of aantrekken en afstoten: duwen, trekken, zoals een rugbyscrum. Daarmee raken ze aan minimal art die zich hield aan een set parameters; men denke aan Sol LeWitt.

Yasmeen Godder lets contrast between frightened individual and roaring group animal linger too much in dancers' minds

Dancers by Yasmeen Godder - photo Itzik Giuli

She is on her knees. Shaking and trembling, she jerks backwards. With clawed fingers that seem to grasp at the void. Like a frightened cat. Shuffling, the dancer moves backwards in a semicircle on the white stage floor of Theatre Frog. One by one, the five others step onto the empty open stage, while the first dancer keeps looking anxiously at the audience. Thus begins 'Storm end come'. With this performance, Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder shows the overwhelming effects of fear on the bodies of her dancers. But it doesn't really get scary.

Even voorstellen: het Dodo-team voor Springdance

We hebben voor deze tien dagen dansvernieuwing het puikje van de Nederlandse Dansournalistiek verzameld. Fransien van de Putt, bekend in België en Nederland, Maarten Baanders, bekend in de wijde omgeving van Leiden en Daniël Bertina, bekend in de wijde omgeving van Het Parool waren ij de opening van Springdance en waren zowaar blij met wat ze te zien kregen.  … 

Springdance opens with Botelho's Sideways Rain: fascinating intensity of dance, but lack of consistency


Scene from Sideways Rain by Botelho. Photo by Jean-Yves Genoud

From left to right, single people move across the stage, unceasingly and in droves sometimes, for an hour. It is addictive, this locomotion in Sideways Rain, the endless forward motion in one and the same direction of what appear to be ever-new people. Through subtle costume changes, a dark lighting scheme and Murcof's dramatic drones, it is very difficult at first to tell the 15 dancers apart. They become a fascinating stream of passers-by, on their way from somewhere to nowhere. Unlike the view along the public road, the dancers do not carry the usual bags, umbrellas and hats and, moreover, they move mainly on four legs.

'I want to make the perpetrator relive the death of his victim.' Jens van Daele makes dance out of cruelly disturbed art project

Jens van Daele concludes his series of choreographies on the seven deadly sins with the performance Brides for Peace. The piece is based on the art performance Brides on Tour by Italian artists Pippa Bacca and Silvia Moro. Hitchhiking and dressed in wedding dresses, with a text 'Peace' on their chests, they travelled from Milan to Jerusalem in 2008. The journey went... 

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