Notes artistic vision 2020

"I am inspired by the little things in the world around me, such as a feeling, a movement or an image. The invisible is made visible through theater. I want to place the body in the moment and as a maker I like not to be in total control. I like to leave parts of the overall picture and the total experience up to the dancer, the audience and fate. I work with choreographic scores and combine created dance material with improvisation. No performance is the same. This keeps it exciting, spontaneous, alive and human. It ensures that it never becomes a routine. In this way I can let every dancer be in their own strength, within my material. This is something that I find very important within my transcultural vision. 

As a choreographer, I choose to use multisensory stimulation in dance performances, based on the importance of making dance and dance performances accessible to a varied audience. As a teacher and maker, I approach myself and the people around me as what they all are in essence, human. With this I also want to touch the audience personally, not as a dance connoisseur or not.

Through sensibility I look for a total experience of the performance. I am interested in how images, feelings, sounds and sensations are experienced differently by everyone and what your role as a maker can be. I like to create situations in which the audience feels vulnerable and surrenders to the situation, the physical experience and the imagination, by intensifying sensations. I let the audience influence the performance from within or through (unconscious) participation.
 

In this way the audience is actively involved. You do not think about what you think of it, while you sit back in your chair for the performance to entertain you, but you experience what you perceive and what that does to you. The audience does not see the world of the performance from a distance, but is in the middle of it. I think it is important for people to listen to their body more and to re-appreciate how fascinating the body and the gut feeling can be. The performance is a moment of attention and concentration for the audience, without judgment. This is something that is not common in daily life anymore and will be different for everyone. The performance visit does not take place in a bubble that is located in another world away from reality, but takes place in the here and now. It invites you to rethink how you relate to yourself and the performance. It touches you on a personal level and is actually a reflection of yourself. You get closer to yourself.

What I appreciate in working with non- and semi-professionals is the way in which they can be on stage as human beings and dare to expose themselves from the moment they trust you. I believe that non- and (semi-) professionals can inspire each other when they come into contact with each other. Non-professionals seem free in their dance and have no rules, while (semi-) professionals are aware of their physical capabilities and are (partly) trained to apply them. My role as maker in this is to create a safe environment in which everyone has the space to develop. I pay a lot of attention to how I can make my conceptual way of thinking tangible and relevant."