Holland Dance Festival 28 okt t/m 15 nov 2009

Holland Dance Festival celebrates 50th anniversary of the Nederlands Dans Theater

From 28 October thru 15 November, Dance City The Hague again shows itself as the international centre of dance at the 12th edition of the Holland Dance Festival, the largest biennial dance festival in the Netherlands. This year the festival boasts over sixty performances, more than one hundred workshops, and a dance parade with over 1200 amateur dancers. In addition, this years Festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Netherlands’ standard bearer of the dance: the Nederlands Dans Theater. Besides an international platform to present the diverse facets of the art of dance, the Holland Dance Festival will be a reunion of former dancers and choreographers of the Nederlands Dans Theater, gathering in The Hague from all over the world.

Since 1959, the Nederlands Dans Theater evolved into one of the worlds leading and innovative companies of modern dance. Therefore, fifty years of the Nederlands Dans Theater cannot easily be forgotten. The Nederlands Dans Theater and the Holland Dance Festival share a long history and find strength in this link to celebrate Dance as never before in Dancing capital of the Netherlands: The Hague.

International companies

For a period of nearly three weeks, The Holland Dance Festival invites dance companies and dance artists from all over the world onto the stage; from familiar faces to new initiatives, from undiscovered gems to the international top, new productions and established top performances, young talents and big-name artists. All flocking to The Hague from Israel, Australia, and the USA, from Spain to Sweden; all with their own link to the Nederlands Dans Theater. The festival will be opened by the Nederlands Dans Theater I en II at the Lucent Danstheater, the leading Dance theatre of The Hague. Also Jim Vincent, the new Artistic Director of the Nederlands Dans Theater, will be present with his (to be) former company the Hubbard Street Dance Company from Chicago. Hubbard Street Dance will present work by Vincent himself including new work of Alejandro Cerrudo, a world premiere by Jorma Elo and an early work of Duato, all ex-dancers and ex-choreographers of the Nederland Dans Theater.

In addition, old friends of the Holland Dance Festival like the Batsheva Dance Company from Israel and the Compania Nacional of Nacho Duato from Madrid, return to The Hague. The two grand masters of dance in the Netherlands, Jirí Kylián and Hans van Manen, will present own material executed by young dance talents of the Dance Academies of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague. Furthermore, an new duet will be presented by Sabine Kupferberg and Michael Schumacher. At the request of the Holland Dance Festival, Introdans will reprise two unique Works from the early days of the Nederlands Dans Theater. The two works that will be reconstructed are, ‘Rooms’ by Anna Sokolov (1960) and ‘De Anatomische Les’ by Glen Tetley (1964). Both works are a reflection of the wide range of works that the Nederlands Dans Theater represented in that period.

Workshops

The Holland Dance Festival 2009 programme also offers more than hundred workshops which are suitable for beginners as well as for more experienced dancers. Also especially noteworthy, the Holland Dance Specials: workshops wherein choreographers and dancers from the festival present their specific dance technique or method of working. This offers participants the opportunity to have a different kind of experience with the dance they have seen performed on stage.

Dansparade

On the first Sunday in November, the Dansparade will again be presented. Just as in 2005 and 2007, over a thousand of amateur performers will dance along a kilometer and a half long route through the centre of The Hague. As a celebratory finale, they will perform together at the Spuiplein, in a piece choreographed by Thom Stuart (The Dutch Don’t Dance Division).