News and agenda
Collective Writing Machines is the final presentation by Diego Gil of his studies at the Amsterdam Master of Choreography. The performance will take place in Het Veem Theater on 27 May 2012. Singing and signing words in a paper as they emerge in and out from mouth to paper (and back), non-stop and when stopping, feeling the momentum of the next impulse to start again.
De Theaterschool is increasingly initiating ‘fieldwork investigations’ in order to open up to new artistic developments and to relate more closely to social and political changes. As a result, the meeting SITE, LANDSCAPE, THEATRE was organized on the 27th and 28th of April at DasArts.
Three host organizations – DasArts (which will take a group to the Berlin Biennale), the Brussels Kunstenfestivaldesarts and the Göteborgs Dans & Teater Festival – have invited thirty young performing artists to participate in working visits in May 2012. DasArts and the festivals have joined forces, and generously shared their previous experiences, to invent a format for encounter and discussion. Each working visit will conclude with a public presentation.
The energy she radiates is just as impressive as her C.V. Having recently turned 65, jazz dance pioneer Henny Kamerman who since 1976 has meant so much to the Theaterschool is retiring. What does she regard as the highlights of her time here? And…what does she plan to do with her passion for dance after her retirement?
The farewell party held for student counselor, Pauline Beran on 19 April, also saw the festive launch of the Jan Kassies Fund. In the last months before her retirement, Pauline took the initiative for establishing the Fund, which was set up to help talented students complete their study.
The current political climate in The Netherlands has led, once more, to a fundamental dispute about the value of art and culture. Fresh public support must be won for this topic. By hosting two symposia, CREATIVE PRODUCING and LOCATION, LANDSCAPE, THEATRE, de Theaterschool hopes to stimulate a debate about new forms of cultural enterprise and art practices in the public domain. The symposia target not only students, alumni and teachers but also colleagues from the professional field.
Information about projects and performances that our current students and recently graduated alumni are presenting in April/May 2012. All projects are shown outside DasArts, in (inter)national venues and festivals. Some have arisen from the study programme at DasArts, others have been developed autonomously.
The history of the AHK covers some 140 years, when the predecessors of the Theatre School, the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Academy of Fine Art in Education were established. In 2012 we celebrate that 25 years ago, the study programmes in the field of arts and culture in Amsterdam were joined in the Amsterdam School of the Arts.
From 16 to 27 July 2012, the second edition of the Amsterdam International Summer School, an in-depth summer course for ballet dancers, will take place. This intensive two-week course is organized by the National Ballet Academy in collaboration with the Dutch National Ballet. This year for the first time a special programme for the youngest dance students (13 and 14 years) will be organized parallel to the course for professional and advanced students (15-21 years).
The state of the state is an art project about creating a portrait of society. For the Festival a/d Werf, Julian Hetzel (D) has developed a concept to generate a snapshot of the Netherlands. His concept is based on the idea of creating a portrait through collective authorship, in which many different sources form a bigger image. This collage will be a self-portrait of reality, taken by anyone who would like to participate. People are invited to take a picture of themselves, and articulate a statement in order to define and rethink their reality.
Ntando Cele, Maria Kefirova and Luca Andrea Stappers present work that finalizes their studies at DasArts.
Mobile Counter: January 26th at 18.00h-19.30 in Bar brut deluxe in brut Künstlerhaus. DasArts managing director Barbara Van Lindt will present the Master programme and its dramaturgy of learning and will be happy to answer your questions. She may be joined by Riina Maidre.
From 23 January to 18 February 2012, the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) will host the renowned Canadian choreographer Benoît Lachambre as its Artist in Residence (AIR). Together with 37 SNDO students, Benoît Lachambre will be creating a work based on 37 solos, entitled 37 Solos/Snake Charmers’ Ball.
Since 1 April 2011 Herma Hofmeijer is interim director of de Theaterschool. Together with assistant director Aafje Terwey and the team of artistic directors, she is developing plans to steer de Theaterschool in a new direction. “We are looking for links between the study programmes. What added value does de Theaterschool offer? This fantastic institute as a whole can be more than a sum of its parts. I see many opportunities and possibilities in this idea”. During the past months the basis has been laid for a broadly supported vision and mission of de Theaterschool.
On 24 November Margot Rijven retired as coordinator Dans & Gezondheid (Dance and Health). Margot worked at the Theaterschool for more than thirty years, twenty of which she devoted to the programme Dans & Gezondheid. The symposium ‘Dansgezondheid verbeter(t/d)’ was organized to mark Rijven’s departure from the Theaterschool.
On 7 December 2011, SNDO alumnus and ITs Choreography Award winner William Collins' new choreography Exclamations will be presented in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. It is shown during the programme Generations, produced by Dansgroep Amsterdam.
Sinds het begin van dit seizoen biedt de dependance van de Nationale Balletacademie aan de Agamemnonstraat in Amsterdam Zuid onderdak aan de gerenommeerde Amsterdamse balletschool Balletstudio Marieke van der Heijden.
DasArts student Nadia Tsulukidze was selected for the prestigious NEU/NOW festival with her performance Ready for Love or Seven Fragments of Identity. The festival was hosted from 17 to 20 November by the City of Tallinn in Estonia.
The current DasArts block is entitled The Soul at Work: Climates of Attention and has recently started. The Block is mentored by Joe Kelleher.
Het Centre National de Danse contemporaine in Angers organiseerde van 13-19 juni voor de tweede keer het evenement 'Schools', een uitwisseling van een week waarin studenten en docenten van verschillende dansscholen uit Europa en daarbuiten ervaringen en praktijken uitwisselen.
Maika Knoblich, student DasArts - Master of Theatre, en Hendrik Quast hebben met hun project Heide de Huis a/d Werf Pitch gewonnen. De Pitch is een competitie waarin wordt gezocht naar vormgevers, architecten en beeldend kunstenaars om een nieuw interdisciplinair werk te maken. Tijdens Festival a/d Werf 2012 wordt een theaterzaal tien dagen lang de locatie van een heidelandschap, waar schapen grazen en zorgen voor voedsel en wol.
DasArts organises a Mobile Counter, a travelling information desk where anyone who is interested gets the opportunity to meet us and discover DasArts. The Counter is hosted by the Antistatic Festival in Sofia.
From 18 to 29 July 2011, the first edition of the Amsterdam International Summer School, an in-depth summer course for ballet dancers between 15 and 21 years of age, will take place. This intensive two-week course is organized by the National Ballet Academy in collaboration with the Dutch National Ballet.
On Monday, October 11, Stichting Danserfonds’79 held an awards ceremony. Former students and Theaterschool employees were among the winners.
The National Ballet Academy and Het Nationale Ballet have together developed a training course for professionals who have the ambition to coach young children on their way to the top. Seven (ex) dancers of Het Nationale Ballet and the Nederlands Danstheater have enrolled to take the course. Petr Silkin, the internationally-renown teacher and methodologist of the Vaganova Institute in St. Petersburg, will come to Amsterdam specially for this project.
Theater maker Nicole Beutler, a graduate of the SNDO and guest teacher at the Theaterschool, was awarded the VSCD Mime Prize for her production 1: SONGS, a solo with missing choir.
William Collins, fourth year student at the School for New Dance Development, is this year's winner of ITs Choreography Award. Collins was awarded the prize for his production An exclamation of surprise or incredulity that was staged as part of the programme, The Makers Present Dance.
With their self-written and performed ‘Gerro, Minos & Him’, students Roger Sala Reyner and Simon Tanguy and graduate Aloun Marchal won second prize at the Danse Elargie Festival held on June 26 and 27 in Paris, France.
The directorate of de Theaterschool of the Amsterdam School of the Arts has appointed Christopher Powney, currently attached to the Dance Department of the Royal Conservatoire, Den Haag, to become the new artistic director of the Nationale Balletacademie (National Ballet Academy) from 1 September 2010.
On graduating, Dutch dancers are confronted with progressively higher admission requirements from dance companies and face stiff competition from foreign dancers. Consequently - since 2009 - de Theaterschool has worked to realize a first-class study programme for Classical Ballet: a new style ballet study programme that from the very beginning, aims to train students at a higher level and improve coordination of dance- and regular education. In this way our students will be better equipped to join the ranks of leading Dutch (and international) dance companies at a younger age.
In August, eight third year students of the School voor Nieuwe Dansontwikkeling (SNDO) will dance at the Operaestate, a leading festival for contemporary dance in Bassano, Italy. The students will work with eight young Italian choreographers on one special dance production to be premiered at the festival under the direction of SNDO teacher Katarina Bakatsaki.
From 23 through 26 June the graduation performance 'Eurydice Regained' of the Jazz- and Musical Dance study programme will be staged in the Theaterzaal of de Theaterschool. ‘Water, lots and lots of water!’, laughs choreographer Cecilia Moisio when quizzed on what makes this year’s production so special. Moisio has the honour of directing and devising a total concept for the annual spectacle scheduled for June. The theme? ‘Death.’
Patrick Acogny, dancer, choreographer and academic researcher was the guest of the Dance in Education study programme from 25 January through 6 February 2010. He is the son of Germaine Acogny and since 2007, artistic co-director of l’Ecole des Sables. Just like Germaine Acogny, he combines his knowledge and experience with African dance principles.
De Theaterschool celebrates the 40 year anniversary of its dance study programmes with the publication of a striking book, specially made for the young dancers. Springstof, danceclopedie voor jonge dansers is the brainchild of Petra Boers and Suzanne Hertogs, the makers of DUF, the successful literary magazine for the young people.
DasArts, the multidisciplinary master’s course in theatre, part of de Theaterschool of the Amsterdam School of the Arts (AHK) opens its doors for those interested on Saturday 9th of January 2010. This two years Master course is a training laboratory for professionals in the field of the performing arts. DasArts offers a question-based course of study that stimulates the development of individual artistic ambitions. Saturday 9 January 2010, 12.00 hrs, DasArts, Mauritskade 56
Mime artists use their body as an instrument. They use the power of body language as a source for acting and theatre making. The Mime School, part of the Theaterschool in Amsterdam, trains you to become a professional mime artist. If you are interested, please visit the open day on Saturday 30 January. Saturday 30 January 2010, 12.00 - 15.00 hrs., the Theaterschool
TALK is a book that describes the history of the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam: archived interviews and writings that have been produced over 30 years of the school's history. The book will be officially launched at the Springdance Festival in April 2009.
Barbara Van Lindt has been appointed managing director of the Master of Theatre / DasArts. In this function she will be in charge of the day-to-day management of the master's programme and responsible for the artistic and educational development of the DasArts study programme.
