Open Space 2023

Maker Platform

Photos: Ennya Larmit

In May 2023, NDT 2 worked on Open Space: a two-week platform for talent development and research, organized by NDT and Korzo, that is fully committed to stimulating the artistic and creative capacities of its participants.

For this second edition of Open Space, we collaborated with renowned Dutch film and video artists Quirine Racké and Helena Muskens as program leads on a ‘Maker Platform‘. The ‘Maker Platform’ featured the dancers of NDT 2 taking on the role of the maker, inviting them to lead a creative process and be responsible to follow an idea from the incubation of a concept, researching it, and finally executing it into a short work for a site-specific location. Along the way, individual coaching sessions were offered to each maker.
The works placed attention on the body and movement as well as on examining choreography within a multidisciplinary approach. For this platform, we were delighted to be collaborating with students of the Royal Conservatoire (RC) and Royal Academy of Art The Hague (KABK).
The NDT 2 dancers were proud to share their process with colleagues, friends and family. View an impression below!
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Some of the creations

Sophie in her creation. Photo: Ennya Larmit

Sophie Whittome created a live performance installation titled Still Life. For this, she was inspired by “the theater of cruelty” by Antonin Artaud:

“Theater of Cruelty means a theater difficult and cruel for myself first of all. And, on the level of performance, it is not the cruelty we can exercise upon each other by hacking at each other’s bodies […], but the much more terrible and necessary cruelty which things can exercise against us. We are not free. And the sky can still fall on our heads. And the theater has been created to teach us that first of all.” (Antonin Artaud; The Theater and Its Double)

Ricardo Hartley III created a live performance installation including film. He named his work In 3 We Come Home and tells about it:

“Past/Present/Future all merge in order to create an order that is boundless, limitless. I go in the depths of my mind to discover what I already know, yet need to be reminded of. From my great-grandparents’, Willie Mae and John E. Sims, backyard they created a land that transcends all and offers a love too dense to comprehend. I am because of them. I am because of how they raised my mother and how my mother has raised me. It’s a cyclical journey yet my part is to defy generational curses and create my own narrative.”

Ricardo during his presentation. Photo: Ennya Larmit
Photo: Ennya Larmit

NDT 2 dancer Omani Ormskirk has been working on choreography for her fellow dancers Rui-Ting Yu and Ricardo Hartley III, collaborating with musician Miguel Varela. It was a work in progress with the working title Moments Between Then And Now.

Gabriele Rolle created Peace Piece, a live performance installation, for which he collaborated with Christian Zemp for the music.

“A piece about healing in a physically and energetically entangled environment.
A piece about peace.”

Gabriele in his creation. Photo: Ennya Larmit

With Pace Maker, Barry Gans made a live performance installation:

“In order to go forward, I must surrender to the direction and velocity. When my chest opens to reveal a soft and vulnerable center, I’m compelled to keep moving.”

For this, he collaborated with multiple students of RC and KABK: Zeynep Burça Oral, Karolina Rusak, Marie Eve Vedrines, Denis Ruksha, Dominika Badyla and Jakub Cerulik.

Online program

NDT 2 dancers got the opportunity to share their project during a presentation moment for family, friends and colleagues. For this purpose, NDT 2 dancer Samuel van der Veer and Rodrigo Ribeiro themselves have put together an online program book, in which all dancers briefly explain something about their creation.

Watch it here

Open the online program

Help and guidance

In addition to guidance in creating from Quirine Racké and Helena Muskens, the NDT 2 dancers also received help from the technical staff – Yuka Hisamatsu, Koos Planken, Daan de Boer and Ole Schaaff – and rehearsal directors Lydia Bustinduy and Ander Zabala.

Program leads: Quirine Racké and Helena Muskens
Quirine Racké & Helena Muskens direct and produce films, video installations, documentaries and virtual reality experiences exploring the interlocking themes of identity and community. Their work has been shown all over the world at film festivals, in museums and on streaming platforms and television. For example at Getty Center in Los Angeles, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Whitechapel Gallery London, New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center, IFFR Rotterdam and IDFA Amsterdam. Their films were shown on international streaming platforms like Amazon and HBO and broadcast by networks like Sundance USA, VPRO the Netherlands, Yle Finland, France 5 and Canvas Belgium. Quirine and Helena made the documentaries Celebration, Come Back Kate and I Love Venice. At the moment they are working on a feature film Floating, about two contemporary nomads, a documentary Crazy Amsterdam and a virtual reality experience Blurring Boundaries. Furthermore, they are developing the film Orlando about our ever-shifting fluid identity and reality.

About 'Open Space'

Open Space is a two-week-long professional development and research platform organized by NDT and Korzo, that is fully dedicated to stimulating the artistic and creative capacities of its participants. The project is designed as a space for young and established creators to explore their creativity by opening the doors to ideas from disciplines outside their traditional realm. It is a research lab, a place away from the stage and the process of production that allows for time to contemplate, exchange dialogue, research ideas and gather new tools.

The project includes three different components: in addition to the ‘Maker Platform’ explained above, a ‘Shared Platform’ and inspiration sessions also took place.

Shared Platform
The Shared Platform is an advanced education training platform for our artists designed to help them develop their practice and learn new tools. It is a multidisciplinary environment that focuses on the research of diverse ideas and approaches. This platform includes workshops with Kenzo Kusuda, Dalton Jansen and Astrid Boons, a research lab with Maxine Doyle related to her new work with NDT 2 premiering in March 2024, a theater workshop with Janni Goslinga (ITA) and an Acogny Technique workshop with Alesandra Seutin (co-artistic director of École des Sables).

Inspiration sessions
Several guests have been invited to the inspiration sessions including:
Robin Nimanong (Choreographer/Dancer/Maker)
Dennis van der Broeck (Performer, Designer, Visual Artist)
Gavin-Viano Fabri (Director, Dancer, Singer)
Karel van Laere (Performer, Visual Artist)
Davy Pieters (Director)

With special thanks to

NDT is very grateful to Edmée Muysken. Since 1980 she has been a loving and very committed Friend of the company. As a great lover of art and culture, she was married to artist Leo Muysken, she enjoyed the performances of NDT to the fullest and she often took part in friends’ trips abroad. Edmée thought it was a great idea and  for her it made perfect sense to pass on her love for NDT in the form of a legacy. Her bequest will benefit the first edition of Open Space in 2021 and the second edition in 2023. In doing so, she helps new generations of dancers to develop their artistic personality through research and innovation.