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Enfant terrible Boris Charmatz puts finger on sore spot with confrontational choreography about the elusive child

 With enfant, choreographer Boris Charmatz broaches a difficult topic: how do we as adults deal with ourselves, and how do we deal with children? Charmatz draws on the French philosopher Lyotard, who pondered the "inhumanity" of adults and saw real people in children. The current image about physical contact with children is distorted and it is... 

Micha Hamel's Requiem is beautifully spatial but lacks substantive urgency #hf12

In his Requiem for tenor, narrator and ensemble, Micha Hamel makes the most of the space of Amsterdam's De Duif church. Musicians play on the altar, from the balconies, mingle among the audience and push out a piano. - But what does Hamel really want to say? In front of a sold-out house, Micha Hamel's Requiem premiered last night. He ... 

Actors' award for Theatre Institute threatened with dissolution

Mail from Actors' Interests, the actors' 'union'. Whether we want to abide by the embargo. Of course we do. We do. Butreh: so the Theatre Institute Netherlands, to be dissolved by Halbe Zijlstra together with the Netherlands Music Centre, is getting an award. And that seems to be a sculpture, which in turn makes us wonder where the thing should be after 1 January 2013.... 

Opening Holland Festival on twitter and facebook: tenue de wtf, ns-#fail, sublime dance theatre and mozzarella sticks #hf12

[View the story "Opening Holland Festival 2012" on Storify]Opening Holland Festival 2012On 1 June, the Holland Festival opened at Theater Carré. We were there, saw Platel's C(h)oeurs and tasted the atmosphere. Although it almost went wrong. Here's what to make of it on social mediaStorified by Cultureel Persbureau - Sat, Jun 02 2012 08:37:18The Dodo goes... 

Halbe Zijlstra has made history.

After the presentation of the Rotterdam and The Hague arts advisories, and a few days to weeks before the harsh judgements of the Culture Council, and a few months before the scathing reports of the Performing Arts Fund, it is starting to become clear how drastically the Dutch cultural sector is being hit by the Rutte administration's cuts. Halbe Zijlstra has ensured that his cut of 25% to the entire sector, and up to 50% to the performing arts, has become law.

A personal o...

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EYE on the IJ - a spaceship with allure

Tonight the queen may officially open the new home of the EYE Film Institute Netherlands, last night director Sandra den Hamer did it herself in advance at an opening party for relations. In doing so, she spoke of a historic moment for film culture in the Netherlands. Seen from a distance, the building, conveniently referred to as "the new film museum", is most reminiscent of a... 

'No shit, everybody rich', but also: 'alarm, alarm, all poor'

Art subsidies are better abolished if artists have to reach large audiences. Because then, after all, you distort the market. Logical. You could also decide to subsidise everyone. And that sounds stranger than it is.
In recent months, there have been a couple of theatre performances that did very well with the general public. Because these were performances made with subsidies, it stirred up pens in a few newspapers. Hein Jansen of De Volkskrant argued i...

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Tjitske Reidinga launched as star of new summer programming Amsterdam Delamartheater

The general public knows her as the rock-hard lawyer Claire from Gooise Vrouwen. Tone lovers have known her longer as that actress with the striking voice. A diplomat's daughter, born in Africa, later raised in Bussum. Tjitske Reidinga now dares to come forward:

Increase in 'wish headlines' in arts news around grant applications

The last opportunities for grant applications for 2013 and beyond closed today. Numerous mergers have been announced, new collaborations, high-profile relocations (Amsterdam in particular is emptying out). Many arts media now also carry news about those plans. News that is often presented as fact, while in almost all cases these are wishes. Applications are even fewer than ever... 

Amsterdam takes Netherlands Symphony Orchestra to court

We already wrote at length about the Orkest van het Oosten's name change to the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (NSO). The curious opera grant application based on a business plan that carries huge risks also had our full attention. Permanent partner the National Travel Opera was not amused.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is also fighting the NSO. In the capital city, they think the Enschede orchestra's new name is very much like its own n...

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Culture Council given little leeway

He barely showed his face in recent months, rarely engaging in debate with artists or the public. Now that the mega budget cut on culture is law, and nothing can be changed about it until 2016, we can follow Halbe Zijlstra's victory lap again. Also on twitter.

Porn, movement and politics seek each other at festival Something Raw

For over a decade, Something Raw has been one of the few places in the Netherlands where the question of artistic and social urgency of the body is explored on stage, with all the fun and risk involved. Many performances struggled with the 'impasse of display': have people then become mere things to look at? Porn is the... 

5-hour marathon Roman Tragedies favourite with spectators Toneelgroep Amsterdam

Photo: jan Versweyveld We were somewhat mildly ironic about it, but hats off, meanwhile, to Toneelgroep Amsterdam's PR department and the audience, who responded remarkably well to the 'choose the reprise' campaign the company launched a few weeks back. We have the hard numbers we feared we would never see. And they are credible. We quote the press release:.... 

'Ajax states' in sudden war between Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and National Travel Opera

This week, the National Travel Opera begins rehearsals of Mozart's Le nozze di figaro. In the bin, the brand-new Netherlands Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. Business as usual, as both companies have been working closely together for years and are united in the National Music Quarter Enschede. Only: orchestra and opera company have not been talking to each other since last week.

Fact-free journalism plunges into arts sector.

    According to the Volkskrant, Rick van der Ploeg was state secretary of culture in the early 1990s (in reality, he was at the end of those years), and in Het Parool columnist Gerard Mulder claims that the fact that he "thankfully knows nothing about art subsidies" need not deter him from some wild speculations... 

Top or flop: audience picks repertoire first theatre company in the Netherlands

We got another press release, and wondered: top or flop? How does idiosyncratic artistry rhyme with audience-determined repertoire choice? Andne: do all those people who chose the winning piece also get a free-or at least discounted-ticket to the performance of their choice? Andne: who checks the results, as there is no notary. Enne:. 

Henk Pröpper: 'Writers Unlimited has always opposed panting and short-term ambition.'

He is now a publisher, and the man who was director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature until last year will be quite happy with that. As director of the Bezige Bij, one of the country's largest publishing houses, he will surely never again have to submissively toast the sarcastic State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra. At least the relief was audible in Pröpper's... 

Miraculous play on age-old techniques mirrors Stravinky's music in 50,000 litres of water and 50 minutes

Thai and Vietnamese puppetry. Acrobats, Chinese shadow play and Japanese costumes. A Chinese conductor for a Dutch orchestra, a Canadian directing team and, as the main work, a scant 50-minute opera by a Russian composer, based on a fairy tale by a Danish writer who took his inspiration from China. Loosely.

That, and fifty thousand litres of water, are the ingredients for The Nightingale and Other Fables at Amsterdam's Muziektheater. A performance...

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Thunder or a minor storm in the Gouda Glasses? You may say

We received a letter on legs from Wim de Groot a while ago. Now we often get letters in paws, but here something seemed to be going on. Trouble of course because sorting it out takes time and money and that wasn't there for a while. (Look out for the donor campaign we are about to launch) But still. What's wrong with it? Wim de... 

Theatre photography in the limelight at small Amsterdam gallery

Theatre photographs are a profession in their own right. From an already staged subject, the professional photographer chooses the catchiest image. There are those who look down on them for that reason, there are those who admire the theatre photographer for that very reason. We are naturally more inclined towards the latter. But the profession is under pressure. From smartphones, from buyers who have no space and no money... 

Austerity year review 2011. Or how the PVV cry 'Arts subsidies we abolish' was widely heard

While 2010 was still the year of PVV positions on culture that were suddenly shared by other parties ("we are abolishing art subsidies"), the year 2011 fell under their implementation. What was striking was the ease with which regional and local administrators also wielded this same machete, as PVV spokesperson Bosma did not fail to testify. For instance, in the municipality of Almelo, 30 % went àff from... 

Europe wants to invest in culture. If it is allowed by the Netherlands.

It was Europe Day in cultural Amsterdam on Monday 12 December. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science officially opened the application procedure for cities wishing to become Europe's cultural capital in 2018. And the European commission presented and plan of 1.8 billion for culture. We reported via Twitter. And collected the results on 'storify'. View the story "Europe wants to invest in culture.... 

"The city's leading free spirits have discovered and embraced classical music, but on their own terms"

An alternative scene for classical events outside the ice palaces of classical music is growing. Last month, you could 'classical clubbing' at the Yellow Lounge at the Westergasfabriek venue. The club was sold out, indeed with a large

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