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Contemporary dance

Dancing in times of Corona: all you need is yourself and a chair and a closet.

We are now a good month after the start of the intelligent lockdown. Slowly, a new normal is beginning to emerge, where we are no longer exclusively fanatically following all the tweets about corona. The concerns are still there and certainly where the cultural sector is concerned. The entire sector, nationally and internationally, is engaged in the titanic task of keeping the public... 

A great 2020 with the Holland Festival, vacancies and aus LICHT Opera of the Year

The Holland Festival wishes you a happy 2020! The full programme of the 73rd festival edition will be announced on 11 February. You can already order tickets for the five productions below. Also in this newsletter: vacancies for a head of operations/controller, an employee development and interns for the communication & marketing and production departments; and aus LICHT named Opera of the Year 2019.... 

Antony and Cleopatra, Tiago Rodrigues. Photo: Magda Bizarro.

'I have no problem at all if spectators want to see Anthony and Cleopatra. But for me, it's about something else.' Tiago Rodrigues writes theatre for dancers.

Anthony and Cleopatra is exactly the kind of repertory piece that people look forward to during the Holland Festival, or any other prestigious stage. Director and writer Tiago Rodrigues manages not so much to deflate that grandiose expectation as to reduce it to the intimacy of a duet and a play with extremely basic theatrical gestures. His two actors are dancers, an experienced choreographer duo 

Minister Van Engelshoven: 'CaDance is a gift'. Blame her.

Peaks and valleys right from the opening night of CaDance, the festival of contemporary dance. From toe-curlingly long dance to sky-high drama. Highlights: dancer Sammie Hermans and the entire Mom:Me. Crushing New artistic director Stacz Wilhelm, in the presence of the minister during his opening speech, names the harsh years of austerity since 2013. The so-called obviousness of art he wants to... 

Dimitris Papaioannou turns heritage Pina Bausch to his will with Neues Stück 1 Seit sie for Tanztheater Wuppertal, Holland Festival #HF2018

Neues Stück 1 Seit sie - Ein Stück von Dimitris Papaioannou is a long title for an overwhelming piece, which Tanztheater Wuppertal is bringing to the Holland Festival this year. Nine years ago, on 30 June 2009, a month before she was to turn sixty-nine, Pina Bausch died suddenly. The world-famous and highly influential choreographer of experimental, haunting and unparalleled dance theatre left behind a... 

Moving Futures festival seeks new audience for modern dance

'Many people find contemporary dance difficult. Especially performances by young makers who experiment and seek new ways. At the Moving Futures festival, everyone can discover how dance can touch you. We do this not only by showing good performances by young makers. We also offer activities around it, context programmes. By doing so, we give the audience tools to make a connection with... 

Garry Feingold and Ger Jager, Dance Makers, 2012. Photo: Jean-Pierre Jans.

Extremely rare landslide possible in contemporary dance in the Netherlands.

In contemporary dance, artistic leaders are often in place for decades, at least in the Netherlands. This week, Leo Spreksel announced his departure from Korzo, as of September 2017. After 29 years, the director and programmer of dance at the theatre and production house in The Hague is calling it a day, because "in the Netherlands, commercialisation pushes away the voice of artists: procedures and formats are... 

Tefer, Itamar Serussi, Balletto di Roma, photo: Matteo Carratoni

Julidans double bill with Levi and Serussi mostly raises questions

It is a new and important trend within the programming of international dance and performance festivals in the Netherlands: not only showing relevant work by international choreographers, but also paying explicit attention to dance makers connected to Dutch dance practice. Spring Utrecht opened in May with Nicole Beutler and closed with Jan Martens, while during Julidans Pere Faura was allowed to kick off with sin baile no hay paraíso (no dance, no paradise).

Sex elevated to art at SPRING

Tongue kissing, pole dancing, strap-on dildos and anal penetration I do not usually associate with the art of dance and do not expect in a city theatre, but for Florentina Holzinger and Vincent Riebeek nothing seems too crazy. "Europe's most provocative performance duo" - in the words of Rainer Hofmann, artistic director of Spring festival - drew inspiration for 'Schönheitsabend' from their predecessors, who reinvented dance with taboo-breaking choreographies in the early 20th century. In three a...

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Choreographer Jan Martens on Spring: 'I hold my heart every time, how it turns out'

Choreographer Jan Martens' new performance, The Common People, is on show in Utrecht this weekend during Spring. Dozens of volunteer performers have a blind date on the stage of the Stadsschouwburg's main auditorium. The audience can walk in and out between performances, drink a beer for the duration of one or more duets or browse on the back stage and... 

Sensorium: see, hear, feel, smell and dance!

How do you get children moving? How do you stimulate their creativity? How do children learn to dance if they have little experience with dance, or other expressive artistic expressions? ICKamsterdam is developing a toolkit for dance teachers in primary education: Sensorium. By stimulating the various senses - eyes, ears, touch and nose - the body is invited to respond with movement. I am in a... 

What is the relevance of contemporary dance?

Last weekend's workshop The Relevance of Dance, organised by Dansmakers Amsterdam and the European Dance House Network, sought to answer the question: What is the relevance of contemporary dance art for audiences? Suzy Blok, general director of Dansmakers Amsterdam, opened the atelier by talking about the desire of production houses to bring dance more to the... 

Manger by Boris Charmatz: spectators remain spectators

Manger, the new performance by Boris Charmatz and Musée de la Danse, gives spectators all the space they need. Where you line up to watch or just to listen, who or what you watch and for how long, is up to you. The Purification Hall on the Westergasfabriek site, majestically empty and echoing, creates a wondrous atmosphere in this for Charmatz'... 

Radical vulnerability and listening with eyes open - Vanrunxt stages Morton Feldman

Festival Rumor 80, an irregular regular in Utrecht at three different locations each time, will show choreographer Marc Vanrunxt's new work Real, So Real this Friday at Theater Kikker. Starting point is Three Voices, a 1982 composition by Morton Feldman. A wonderful Flemish collaboration by Kunst/Werk and ChampdAction. Dancer Marie De Corte and singer Els Mondelaers shine in Real, So Real. The... 

photo Filip Van Roe

Appointment of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui turns ballet world upside down  

Contemporary choreographer Sibi Larbi becomes the new director of Ballet Flanders in Antwerp. A striking and unorthodox choice. Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, meanwhile, may stay away from De Munt in Brussels. What's up Belgium?

Money is what runs out in Belgium. The latest developments, initiated partly because of budget cuts, are raising dust in the Belgian dance sector. Protest by de Keersmaeker on the one hand and fear by pure ballet lovers on the other. The change would be translated for the Netherlands z...

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On M2M and genius theatre makers who completely miss the mark

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 fantastic, or dies of its own pretensions. With Judson church is ringing in Harlem (made to measure) / twenty looks of paris is burning at the judson church (m2m), the latter is the case.

In 2012, I saw an earlier performance by dancer/choreographer Trajal Harrell, titled (M)imosa. A fascinating, disruptive and be...

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Pierre Audi's latest Holland Festival opens with sublime ensemble playing of Rosas and Ictus: Vortex Temporum

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.

Ballet gala Dancers' Fund '79 photo Antoinette Mooy

6 Tips for a successful gala. (Ballet gala of the Dancers' Fund '79)

A gala should be festive. So the Ballet Gala of the Dancers' Fund '79 Foundation was festive. On Monday 20 January 2014, the fund's 17th gala took place at the DeLaMar theatre in Amsterdam, Joop van den Ende's glamorous ballroom.

A few tips for a successful gala.

1: Know who is giving you an award
The fund set up by Han Ebbelaar and Alexandra Radius thirty-five years ago is doing a huge service to the dance world. Almost every Dutch talent can be on...

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Zwischenfälle is a breathtaking barrage of 54 hilarious, short scenes about clumsy humans. You rarely see it this virtuoso #hf12

Two men are sitting together at a table eating spaghetti. One is wolfing down the plate of pasta in no time, while at the same time telling an amusing anecdote - just barely intelligible - with fierce gestures and self-righteous grunts. The other, an elderly guy, is totally ignored. Despite frantic attempts, the poor man just cannot manage to... 

Pure camp with tremendous theatrical intelligence in (M)IMOSA, in which four flamboyant drag queens vie for attention

Maniacally, she gallops across the stage, stomping like Michael Flatley on crack. Gravely thin and bare-chested, Marlene Monteiro Freitas tap-dances around. She squeezes her tits and pulls handfuls of (fake) hair from her scalp. "My name is Mimosa Ferrara," she panted menacingly, as her black leggings sag off her ass and linger just above the pubic area.... 

Two young female choreographers fulfil promise with Batsheva Dance Company at Springdance Festival

With two performances, "The Toxic Exotic Disappearance Act" and "House", Batsheva Dance Company shows impressive, sublime dance mastery and fresh dynamics. But also restlessness, searching and confusion. The era of happy, harmonious dance is over. A lecture on dance, prior to the performance, emphasises that contemporary dance need not compulsively oppose other dance movements. This artistic... 

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'. Photo: Augustin Rebetez.

Her full thighs clatter together. She shakes her bare arms, grinning at the trembling skin on her upper arms. She stomps furiously across the Theatre Kikker's playing floor, while her hefty body - dressed in a small, nondiscreet black dress - emphatically bounces happily on all sides. You just have to dare. In h...

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Springdance 2011 presents programme. The Dodo is there.

On Thursday 14 April, the Springdance festival 2011 opens with the opening performance Sideways Rain by choreographer Guilherme Botelho and his company Alias in the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht. Springdance 2011 presents innovative and high-profile contemporary dance from around the world. Besides many premieres, the festival has an extensive fringe programme including street performances, lectures, an introduction to contemporary dance for those starting... 

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