Some think dance has nothing to do with politics. German theatre maker Helena Waldmann clearly thinks otherwise. Waldmann makes socially engaged dance theatre and uses her work to point out the 'social sore spots' of different cultures and sees transcultural similarities in them. Made in Bangladesh is a haunting and poignant performance that draws a parallel between the poor working conditions...
Het gebeurt niet vaak dat een film over een gebeurtenis in 1992 zo schrijnend actueel is. Toen stak een groep van zo’n driehonderd rechts-radikalen in Rostock een asielzoekerscentrum in brand. Wonder boven wonder is toen niemand overleden. Maar het tekende wel velen voor het leven. Onder meer de regisseur van Wir Sind Jung, Wir Sind Stark. Filmmaker en zoon van…
10 years ago, it all started. A group of recent graduates of Leiden University found that their dear Alma Mater [hints]Latin for nurturing or caring mother. Alma mater refers to the university or sometimes the school where someone received their education. In ancient Rome, the term Alma Mater was used for the mother goddess; in the Middle Ages, Alma Mater referred to...
Once in a while it resurfaces, the next idea. An ideal of the future: if some public talker were to eavesdrop a little more on musicians. What would take place? In the clay The same thing that has been audible in the Dutch musical landscape for a while now would happen: shuffling cultures. Taking inspiration from the rest of the...
Op 20 november 1961 werd Michael Rockefeller opgegeten door Peppie de kannibaal. Het gebeurde op een modderige rivierbank in de Asmat, een moerasgebied aan de zuidkust van het huidige Papoea Nieuw Guinea. Schokkend genoeg, dat feit. Schokkend is ook dat niemand er officieel van op de hoogte is. Er zijn nooit daders aangewezen, niemand heeft bekend, maar er zijn wel…
"It's all right." In how many songs of the Top 2000 does that phrase appear? Too many to mention. So now the task is to sing all those different "It's all right"'s in the melody in which every audience will recognise them. The four actors in 'Total Eclipse of The Heart' by Theatre Group Kassys fill a thick hour in this way....
Eddy De Clercq, the Godfather of Dutch house and dance culture, wrote his autobiography, Let the Night Never End, together with Martijn Haas. A story about the birth of the DJ scene in the Low Countries, the rise of house music and nightlife with raging parties full of sex, dance, art, booze, swag and snuff. Against the backdrop of the advancing...
From today, the documentary performance Tagfish tours the Netherlands. The Belgian theatre collective Berlin has been making finely crafted theatre installations since 2004, playing on the border of documentary and fiction, television and theatre, current affairs and eternity. Tagfish is ostensibly about the perils surrounding the redevelopment of a piece of wasteland near Essen. Die Zeche Zollverein already had a monumental...
Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games... Would young people still be interested in history? Writer Anke Manschot believes so. On the eve of Children's Book Week, which starts today, her exciting and gripping historical book The Leap of Normandy was published, the world's first children's novel about D-Day. Five questions for the author. Historical children's novel During a holiday in Normandy,...
From confrontational brutalism to the flowing lines of Frank Gehry and from timeless London to the Paris of Eric Rohmer. Some of the selections from the Architecture film festival that starts on 8 October in Rotterdam. We take a dive into the programme in advance. In its existence, the AFFR has managed to hold its own against other thematic...
Not many directors have become very iconic very young. Chantal Akerman was, both for experimental film and feminist. She broke through in 1975 with Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a film that is as disruptive as it is understated. It is her most important work, and also her most radical. The protagonist leads an existence of...
Opera2Day, Mariken in de tuin der lusten (opera) The young The Hague company Opera2Day produces one splendid performance after another. But at the same time it does not rest on all its laurels, opting for adventure by presenting an entirely new opera together with the Nationale Toneel. At the centre is Mariken van Nieumeghen, the girl "who lived with the devil for seven years", the music is by Calliope Tsoupaki and...
Among the dozens of film festivals in this country, there is one that forms a small island of tranquillity and contemplation. The Buddhist Film Festival Europe, now in its 10th year, is a multi-day festival with, about and by Buddhists, or Buddhist-inspired. Now that everyone is all mindful, we go back to the source with festival director
Stop met repeteren, adviseert Yorick van Wageningen Nederlandse makers op de Nationale Film Conferentie. Het hoeft ook niet altijd verstaanbaar te zijn.
Terwijl in Nederland haatblog GeenStijl de stemmen van 400.000 bezorgde Nederlanders naar eigen anti-Europese hand zette, kwam Vlaanderen met iets nieuws: het burgerkabinet. Duizend gewone Vlamingen hebben drie maanden on- en offline gewerkt aan aanbevelingen voor het cultuurbeleid van cultuurminister Sven Gatz. Uiteindelijk werd een groep van honderdvijftig burgers uitgekozen om met een tekst te komen. Die is gisteren aan de…
Always wanted to learn Old Irish or Sranan Tongo? Still prefer to learn to rap with Nitrogen? Do you wonder how aid workers communicate when they are deployed? In a couple of days, the Drongo Festival will start, two days covering all facets of language. You can take crash courses in Chinese, as well as listen to all kinds of lectures. We take a sneak preview with...
Early this year, alt.country darling Ryan Adams posted a short snippet of a Taylor Swift cover on twitter and facebook. More was said to be on the way. A joke? A clever ploy to get the tens of millions of 'swifties' as Taylor's fans call themselves to listen to his music too? Neither, it turns out, now that Ryan Adams' 1989 is on the digital shelves: there will be...
How is Dutch film doing beyond its borders? Just before the Dutch Film Festival breaks loose, its big international brother in Toronto (TIFF) kicked off. Red carpets, big stars and ditto premieres. It may be slightly less well-known here than Cannes, but TIFF is at least as important. For example, in the run-up to the Oscars. Not a bad thing, then...
Listening to a short poem is sometimes hard work. This was evident during the Night of Poetry, held for the 33rd time on Saturday 19 September. At a poem that ends in brief toneless silence from the poet after four short sentences, the experts separate themselves from the amateurs in the audience. Clap quickly, before the next poem is over. Or.
Eating on stage. That's the standard 'Theatre Dinner', but more exciting. Especially if Shakespeare's Richard III is played during dessert. Toneelgroep Oostpool, the Arnhem-based company that has been going strong in recent years with striking performances, goes one step further again in exploring the ultimate audience experience. Sjim Hendrix, not only a chef but also an artist and...
Those who do not want to open the theatre season in 'Black Tie' and with a gala would do well to go to the Fringe Festival. Already in its tenth year, the festival is bouncing in all directions, this year with 80 performances. Unselected, untamed and unjudged, as they call it themselves. In other words, sometimes you see something wonderful and sometimes you...
Actually, Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was a bit of an oddity, an anachronism. He bit into the composition style of his great example Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893. When contrasting Rachmaninov with some of his contemporaries (Dmitri Shostakowich, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Strawinsky and overseas Charles Ives, George Antheil and Edgard Varèse), it is only right to notice...
Nederlandse Reisopera, Madama Butterfly (opera), 3 September to 10 October Dutch sopranos are like footballers. They fly halfway around the world, but are only rarely seen in their own country. Take Annemarie Kremer, nominated in Germany as 'Sängerin des Jahres'. The Nederlandse Reisopera is taking her all over the Netherlands in the role that brought her world fame: the title role of Madama ...
She welcomes the audience to her small wedding chapel in juicy American. 'My name is Joe,' she says with a mischievous smile, 'I can't help it, my father was having a good time when he chose my name.' Today, in The Long and Winding Road by the Volksoperahuis, Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld will play a couple plucked from the audience 'in the...
If anyone can give a good picture of cultural development in Albania, it is Vincent van Gerven Oei. This Dutch philosopher and artist has lived in the country for five years and, as an insider and outsider, therefore has a strong opinion. I meet him at café Bukowski in a hip entertainment district of Tirana. When the embassy told me about Van Gerven Oei...
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