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De Volkskrant

Meppelgate! (1) Actress talks up Melle Daamen from New York: Thank God not to Meppel!

What does the canalside have against Drenthe anyway? Now Marieke Heebink again. It started with Yvonne Kroonenberg who, after a visit to Assen, spoke of "Simple people with those classic Drenthe heads, but with expressionless eyes. I walked around there and tried to understand those people in the same way I try to immerse myself in the spiritual life of animals." Afterwards, Kroonenberg rushed to... 

3 wonders in Bussemaker's letter: Culture sector is wiser than ministry

A small miracle did happen, in recent months. The result of that miracle can now be found in letter Jet Bussemaker, minister of OCW, sent to the chamber yesterday. And actually, it is not one miracle, but three. We list them for you. 1: The art world pulls together. Artists often find actors... 

8 essential lessons Dutch theatres can learn from festivals - and vice versa

Declining visitor numbers, shrinking subsidies, impoverished programming: most Dutch theatres are struggling, research by NRC Handelsblad recently showed. Theatres welcomed 12 million visitors in 2012, according to NRC figures, a quarter less than in 2008. Festivals, on the other hand, are on the rise. More and more are being organised, and they are attracting more and more people - in total... 

Newspapers kick in massive 'research' into more expensive cultural outings.

This is startling. On Friday, De Volkskrant reported that prices for cultural activities in Amsterdam have risen by a whopping 37.3% since 2009. Nu.nl picks it up immediately, soon followed by TROS Radar. Then it must be true. The news taken over unquestioningly by everyone refers to a report on the BBC site. That post... 

Johan Simons to Ruhr, Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Vienna, Ghent. And Varik.

He is the greatest director in the Netherlands. But also the least honourable theatre-maker we know: Johan Simons. The man whose star has been rising since the 1980s is now in Munich. But he is not staying there. After putting the local company Kammerspiele even more firmly on the map internationally, he is looking for new challenges. Den Bosch earlier reported... 

Director sues own orchestra to death

It was big news. One orchestra is seizing the instruments of another. Only it doesn't add up. Just as much does not appear to be right in conductor Jan Willem de Vriend's letter in last Thursday's Volkskrant.

Because we have been closely following the orchestral feud between the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Netherlands Symphonic for some time, we already knew that De Vriend was not telling the truth with his statement that, legally speaking, it was now 2-2 between the two orchestras. It st...

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Orchestra war escalates: Enschede's star orchestra has to hand in instruments

Seizure of the instruments of the former Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is imminent. The orchestra, which has been banned from using the word "Dutch" since a lost legal battle with Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, is thus not allowed to sell instruments or take them abroad. Pending a countermove from the former Orchestra of the East, they changed the name there to ***** Symphony Orchestra.

Jan Willem De Vriend, conductor of the troubled Enschede-based orchestra, wrote this morning in ...

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Collection shuffling, Rutte II's new hobby

The Money Museum will close in a month, but its collection (as far as important) will go to De Nederlandsche Bank. The Tropenmuseum has been disbanded, but the collection will be housed elsewhere. However, only half of the library will be saved: everything from after 1950 is not interesting enough to preserve, according to minister Bussemaker. This is evident from the answers given by Culture Minister Bussemaker to questions by the SP.

'Ann Goldstein's departure signals Ann Goldstein's departure'

Wonderful quote in the Volkskrant, which was also copied by the ANP in the news coverage of Ann Goldstein's departure as artistic director of hert Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Or vice versa. Just read carefully:

"With her resignation, Goldstein has indicated that, in her view, her work for the museum is complete and that the museum is ready for a new artistic director to lead it into the future."

How could it be otherwise. This is called 'stating...

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ellen edinoff

Dance pioneer Ellen Edinoff matured the dance world

Dancer Ellen Edinoff died in her hometown of Amsterdam on Tuesday at the age of 70. Together with her husband Koert Stuyf, Ellen formed a unique dance couple in the 1960s-'70s that evoked reactions in extremes. Thanks in part to them, the Dutch dance world came of age. Ellen battled her illness for the last three years. She was still able to make a comeback on stage in 2012.

American Ellen Edinoff met Koert Stuyf in New York. They settled in the Netherlands where they worked on...

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No work by Kylián at NDT: a masterstroke?

The announced change of direction at NDT is keeping minds busy. Starting with Den Haag Centraal, to the Volkskrant to Cultureel Persbureau and today Theatererkrant.nl.

@tmtheatrenews: At the request v Jirí Kylián, Ned. Dans Theater will no longer perform choreographies v him for 3 years from Sept 2014." Huh, what?

- Esther Kleuver (@estherkleuver) 10 May 2013
 
Oh dear. Read in Den Haag Centraal: the Nederlands Dans Theater may not accept any work by Jiri K...

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'Mogadishu' fits into zeitgeist of moral confusion

Once upon a time, subsidised theatre was a left-wing hobby. Now, two years on, subsidised theatre has effortlessly conformed to the prevailing, much more right-wing trend. Indeed, Toneelgroep Amsterdam has scheduled a stage adaptation of Ayn Rands rabidly anti-social novel and Tea Party bible The Fountainhead. And on Thursday 24 January, Utrecht-based city theatre company De Utrechtse Spelen announced a play in which for the content responsible for the...

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Jeroen Willems (1962 - 2012)

The Netherlands' greatest artist is dead. Can happen. But can I then also curse heartily? Because Jeroen Willems is irreplaceable. As a journalist, you know the drill: of actors over 60, or of otherwise fragile stature, you have a necrootje ready. If you are well-known and meet the requirements, count on your friends and acquaintances to... 

Halbe Zijlstra: 'nothing to do with local arts policy'

Halbe Zijlstra is proud of his policy, and keen to come and tell it in front of the entire cultural sector. So on Sunday 26 August, he appeared on stage during the annual 'Paradiso Debate' to reiterate how well things had gone with the 200 million cut in the arts sector. He praised the resilience of the affected art world, and would be happy to do the same again.

'Windfall cuts': bricks saved, people sacrificed

The major research and management consulting firm Berenschot has calculated that, on balance, the cuts to the arts turn out to be not too bad. Client of the study, De Volkskrant, then headlined that big. And indeed, it is kind of good news that the pile-up of cuts (the state 24% less, the provinces 20% less and the municipalities only 9 % less) is so low in net terms. We were surprised for a moment, but when we asked around, we found out

Volkskrant fails: not 'region' but Randstad suffers

This one I'd like to share with you. Quote from this morning's Volkskrant, where editor Harmen Bockma makes a valiant attempt to list all the figures of the cultural carnage, but fails a bit. It also remains difficult to add up the dropout in basic infrastructure to the dropout in the fund, but it turns out to be even more difficult to distinguish exactly what are 'regions' and what are 'cities'. At least, I can't figure it out.

I quote:
"By emphasising topin...

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Baldwin Live

On Wednesday 1 August 2012, the Performing Arts Fund will announce the results of the lottery that granting arts subsidies has now become. Huge cuts are looming: companies and makers that by now seemed to be a permanent part of the Dutch arts landscape will disappear. So what exactly it will look like, we will officially only know from 12:00 on Wednesday 1 August. To leak things in advance makes no sense, things are too dramatic for that.
What we do want ...

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Too full or not too full at subsidy theatre

Hein Janssen (Volkskrant) wrote a column in response to a couple of performances with BN stars in the subsidised circuit in which he argued that subsidy was not meant for that. The association for actors thought this was reason enough for a debate. We made a short film to go with it. We formatted it in storify, a feature that allows you to put tweets and other social media messages together and... 

'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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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... 

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... 

"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

Oerol arrives. Competition for Holland Festival on scarce arts pages in Festivalland #hf10

 The Marathon Effect is well known: put spectators together in a theatre for half a day or more, preferably on uncomfortable seats, and hand them over to a couple of actors with a play. Success seems assured, and the ancient Greeks already knew that. So that there would be no discord surrounding the monster project I Demoni, the Dostoevsky adaptation of Peter... 

Jelineks Rechnitz impresses Holland Festival visitors #hf10

Image by Andrew B47 via Flickr Photo: Chris Vanderburght It was time for a real theatrical hit at the Holland festival, after the rather lukewarmly received British-American Shakespeares of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project. And clap it did with Rechnitz by Elfriede Jelinek dooor the best actors of the Münchener Kammerspiele. Karin Veraart of De Volkskrant was deeply impressed: ...Not... 

Meanwhile at the Holland Festival: Press cheers over Dog's Heart and doubts Anne Therese de Keersemaeker #hf10

 Not all was negative around Sam Mendes' Bridge Project, which was received rather sparingly by us at The Dodo, and a few other media outlets. Apart from a few positive Twitter reactions, the performance of The Tempest also garnered a pretty nice review from Volkskrant reviewer Karin Veraart, who admired music, directorial discoveries and acting performances by Stephen Dillane in particular and the fresh couple... 

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