Dance is made by and for everyone. Holland Dance Festival has conveyed that opinion for years. We organize lessons and activities for older people and produce performances that touch, move, surprise, and entertain their audiences. One of those performances is the biannual Good [old] Times production, in which we invite a different professional choreographer (or choreographers) to work with a group of seniors – selected through an audition – to offer the audience a unique experience.
Wistfulness
This time, the Good [old] Times production is created by choreographers Thom Stuart and Rinus Sprong from De Dutch Don’t Dance Division (The Hague). The duo has a rich, very successful track record and is very experienced in working with highly diverse groups of dancers. In their new production, titled Tableau de la Troupe, we follow a number of older dancers in a backstage setting. In the dressing room, where the group is getting ready for a new show, their lived experience as well as their dreams for the future come up. Some can look back at illustrious careers, others wistfully think of missed opportunities and unfulfilled dreams. But things can change! Stuart and Sprong: “Think of Lotti Huber, who started her illustrious acting career when she was already 80 years old and 87 when she published her writing debut, Diese Zitrone hat noch viel Saft!“
The ‘Song of life’ as a guiding principle
The expressive and energetic movement idiom of Stuart and Sprong is used to its full advantage in this vibrant new production. Music is the guiding principle in Tableau de la Troupe, and the ‘Song of life’ in particular. Through classic compositions and songs by, among others, Nina Hagen, Bette Midler, and Hildegard Knef, the dancers relive their past and their dreams come into being.