The Happier the Hotelier, The Happier the Guest
22:51 hr
22:51.15 hr
22:51.30 hr
22:52 hr
Think about this installation: Man makes the clock, or the time. As various lapses of time cost more work to establish, you can better understand how it comes that one minute seems to last much longer than another minute.
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I attended the opening. First, as a Happy Father, I would like to introduce DanceGirl, my daughter number 2 with her TimberBoy, lead singer of the band “New Vera” (unfortunately not featured at the venue). DanceGirl was responsible for the dance part of 2008 Todays Art. I’m sure she doesn’t like to be featured. But may I be a bit proud?
The opening was at The Hague Central Station. First there were drinks with the unavoidable (?) mess after drinks.
Then after some speaches, pictures of which I will add at a later stage, the The Hague Alderman for Culture, Jette Klijnsma, gave the opening signal.
BB (Be Back) L8ter.
And this is the impression of the openings concert.
The 2008 (4th) edition of TodaysArt, the international festival for adventurous creativity in The Hague, The Netherlands, will take place on 26 – 27 September 2008.
You have to come to The Hague if you’re interested in:
Come and see!
About:
Every year, for one weekend, the TodaysArt Festival transforms the city centre of The Hague into an inspiring stronghold of creativity and audiovisual experiences. This year, over 200 artists will contribute to the festival, where many different art disciplines are represented, such as film, modern dance, visual art, photography and music. The fourth edition of the TodaysArt Festival will take place on the 26th and 27th of September, at 20 in- and outdoor locations. The title of the festival is Blue Light District, referring to the trademark blue artwork of the festival.
For the first time in TodaysArt-history, the Dr. Anton Philipszaal will be a part of the festival terrain next to annual venuas such as the Paard van Troje, De Nieuwe Kerk, Theater ah Spui and the Atrium (city hall). 1.890 Chairs will be removed to make this impressive concert hall fit for a large amount of festival visitors.
The Blue Light District, is the name of the festival area, in which a variety of art projects and installations are presented in interaction or confrontation with the urban infrastructure and architectural spaces. Consequently, there is the opening concert Station to Station from Staalplaat Soundsystem, Erik Hobijn en Mike Rijnierse, including trains as musical instruments and using the environmental sounds to create a sound composition. Even the thousands of bicycles in front of the station will be integrated in this sound piece. In addition there are several project anchored around the spectrum of artificial light producing stunning visual effects at various locations around the festival terrain. Many of the festivals activities take place in the public space where we created an infrastructure of large transparent greenhouses sheltering temporary galleries, project spaces, bars and restaurants.
Another highlight is the presence of State of Sabotage, an internationally recognized micronation in the city hall of The Hague. 1,000 official passports will be printed for visitors who bring a photograph. Also LAb[au], the meta designers from Brussels that transformed the Dexia tower in Brussels into an interactive canvas, will be presenting several special projects, including EOD02. An installation containing fishes that communicate with electrical signals, which are collected and transmitted into sound.
I have been invited to have a look at the Cinedans premiere in Amsterdam tonight. Cinedans is an International Dance Filmfestival, dedicated solely to films that have a connection with Dance and held simultaneously in three Dutch cities: Amsterdam, Den Haag and Utrecht.
Find more videos like this on Cinedans
The opening film is quite interesting. It is a film about the South African Dance for All project started 17 years ago to bring dance to Cape Town Townships. An amazing tale of white dancers from the Capetown Ballet Company who started this project long before Apartheid was abolished.
Philip Boyd, a former principal dancer with CAPAB (now Cape Town City Ballet), founded Dance for All in 1991 as Ballet for All. This was to build on the legacy of Cape Town ballet chief David Poole, who started teaching ballet in the townships of Cape Town in the mid-80s. Ballet for All began its life in a classroom in Gugulethu with 34 children participating. These numbers quickly multiplied and with the recruitment of more dance teachers, Boyd expanded the programme to include a diverse range of dance forms and in 1995, Ballet for All became Dance for All.
Today DFA runs an Outreach Programme of daily dance classes in ballet, African, contemporary, musical theatre and Spanish dance for over 700 children and youth in the historically disadvantaged communities of Gugulethu, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Samora, Athlone and the rural areas of Barrydale and Montagu. Beyond teaching dance, these classes promote the personal development of the children by encouraging their creativity, self-discipline and confidence. DFA’s students receive first-class training from a talented and diverse teaching team.
The film showed lessons by Philip and Phyllis Spira and their students and how the students gradually grew to professionally trained dancers culminating in the formation of DFA’s own profesional youth dance company, creating full-time employment for six of the previous year`s Senior Training Programme graduates in November 2005, that has toured several countries already.
Unfortunately Phyllis Spira died a few months ago. We were happy to learn at the after party that one of their senior students who had left DFA to take dance lessons in Switserland and had been offered a second year of now sponsored training in Switserland had decided to return to DFA to take over Phyliss’ position as a teacher.
About Phyllis Spira:
Phyllis was accepted into London’s Royal School of Ballet when she was just 16. Within months she was a soloist with the Royal Ballet Touring Company. She returned to South Africa in 1964, having turned down an invitation to dance with the legendary Rudolph Nureyev and, a year later, joined Capab (later the Cape Town City Ballet), where she remained for 28 years.
After retiring from performance, Phyllis devoted her time and energy to Dance for All, which was founded by her husband Philip Boyd. Her understanding of young people, her sense of values and her wisdom made her contribution immeasurable. A pragmatist and a realist, she was often both a voice of reason and a pillar of strength. A remarkably humble and caring woman, Phyllis was a wonderful role model and inspiration to so many of the children whose lives she touched. Dance for All will strive in its daily work to live up to her extraordinary legacy.
Phyllis received South Africa’s highest civilian award for excellence, the Order of Meritorius Service Gold (1991). She twice received the Nederburg Award for Ballet, while she also won the Lilian Solomon Award and the Bellarte Woman of the Year Award for the Cape (1979) and was named a member of the Order of Disa (2003) for her contribution to ballet and its development.
Why I was invited? Not as Happy Hotelier. It was closer to home: as proud and happy father of DanceGirl who helps with organizing Cinedans.