Charlotta Öfverholm and Anders Larsson have been producing films together since 2013. Anders has created three documentaries following the work of Charlotta’s project Age on Stage. Checking Out, a detective story, was their first dance film released in 2021.
Photo: Danny Willems
“There is an entire universe that exists outside the walls of the theatre that has been denied access to dance and theatre,” says Seppe Baeyens. With Birds he ventures outside the theatre walls to organise the public space as a dramatic space. How do participants, onlookers and passers-by relate in this generous, social choreography?
Following the success of Tornar (2015) and INVITED (2018), dancer and choreographer Seppe Baeyens builds upon his exploration of shaping a temporary community in Birds. For this new creation, he steps outside the theatre walls and ventures into the public space with a group of performers and musicians. There the normal course of events is interrupted – sometimes invisibly and sometimes plainly. Time and time again, unexpected compositions arise from playful interactions between onlookers, participants and coincidental passers-by, in which everyone appears to influence the outcome. Birds is a generous, social choreography that seeks out connection and imagination.
In Birds Seppe Baeyens also wanted to broaden and diversify the creation process itself. He invited Martha Balthazar and Yassin Mrabtifi to create and accompany the performance with him.
Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage presents Longevity in Dance, an eclectic mix of bold, playful and poignant films that challenge perceptions of dance and age.
The programme features commissions by internationally acclaimed artists, Charlotta Öfverholm, Nahid Siddiqui, José Losada Santiago and showcases new films by award-winning choreographer and director Eleesha Drennan, Sadler’s Wells Company of Elders and a fly on the wall documentary about iconic dancers Malou Airaudo and Germaine Acogny.
This beautiful collection looks at what makes us spark, the passing of time, our connection with nature, and the legacy we pass on. It’s a celebration of life through dance, and the inherent desire to keep on dancing.
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.
Dance has an essential role to play in positive health, more than ever in this era of chronic physical and mental health challenges. Dance for health activities are supported by evidence-based research. The Holland Dance Festival and the Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation present ‘A Roadmap for Dance in Healthcare’ – a 3 hour deep dive into the necessary conditions for making a sustainable, valuable and community based dance proposition. A proposition that covers the requirements of diverse publics, dancers, teachers, teaching artists, health care practitioners and policy makers. A proposition for delivering effective, functional dance-based approaches to enhance health and wellbeing.
Focus Day Content
10” minute break
Silver Gold is a project and a creative process involving several generations of dancers and artists, professionals and non-professionals. We share knowledge, experiences, memories and at the same time create new shared memories. We are engaged in with questions of time and passing, with what’s left, what is spectacular in everyday life, and our multifaceted relationships.
Photo and video: Jubal Battisti
The Power (of) The Fragile is a meeting of two worlds, two bodies, two minds. Latifa always dreamt of being a dancer, Mohamed made it his profession. The borders of their bodies blur, making it hard to decipher where one ends and the other starts. Their lives and dreams start to merge, and only time claims its space between mother and son.
The Power (of) The Fragile is a collection of images, reflections on what the relation between mother and son can look like, on what it means to be home and to go away. It is a performance about movement, of bodies and people, about weight and what it means to carry weight, about being together and being apart. It is a tender portrait of a close relationship, and a pamphlet for our right to go wherever we want to go.
What does it mean to relive a memory?
During lockdown, Company of Elders have been working remotely with choreographer Eleesha Drennan to explore their relationships to memory and time. Relive is a poignant short dance film borne from this collaboration with our resident dance company for over 60s. A yearn for human connection. It looks at how the process of reliving memories and experiences can tell a story of what matters most in life: the people we share it with.
With the piece 99 and a little sea
Concept & choreography: Jordy Dik
Music & composition: Vincent Dankelman
Camera: Dammes Kieft
Edit: Jordy Dik
Production: Ine Dubois
Students of Codarts University of the Arts:
Laura Carvalho da Costa, Gentle Schuyffel, Renata Cidra Labiano, Rochella Prinsen, Anita Giannini, Amber Franssen, Danique Beijer, Dylan Kap, Fien Voorspools
Participants of Aafje Meerweide:
Mrs Schuyer, Mr Koedood, Mrs den Ouden, Mrs Prince, Mrs van Gilst, Mr Wiekeraad
