Category Archives: CLOUD

Presentation The Invisible Dancer by Eline van Ark

The Invisible Dancer started last year as a residency at CLOUD. After two weeks of researching sound-dance with Mojra Vogelnik Skerlj, together with a group of visually impaired people, choreographer Eline van Ark presented the research in the studio of CLOUD and during the CLOUD Winterfestival.

Now Eline is continuing her Invisible project in the studio Tugela85 in Amsterdam, where she creates a dance solo for Aida Guirro Salinas, that can’t be seen, but has to be listened to. The whole audience is blind / blindfolded. Eline researches the possibilities of this set-up, watching dance with closed eyes, together with visually impaired people, and this time also with people from the neighborhood and (dance) artists. By opening up the working process to perspectives and knowledge of others, she’ll get a glimpse into how people experience this audio-dance, what the possibilities are, and what is needed to hear the dancing body.

The first results of this second phase of the project will be shared the 22nd of February. Aida will show a sketch of the sound-dance, which we will exchange our experiences about. And Eline will talk about the process and discoveries until now. Why listen to dance? How can you hear the physicality of dance, the moving body? And how can you transmit the musicality of dance through sound, without it becoming a bodily concert? And what is the added value of listening to dance? All these questions were discussed during the research, and will now be shared with you.

And of course we’ll close off with a drink and a bite!

When: 22 February, 15:00
Entrance: €5,-
Location:  Lokaal85, Tugelaweg 85, Amsterdam Oost

Visit the website and like the facebook page for more info and to stay updated about the project.

Tensegrity: Structures & Movement | Residency of Florencia Reznik

Florencia Reznik from Buenos Aires, Argentina will have a residency in CLOUD from 18 till 23 december 2014 and from 5 till 11 january 2015 and she is looking for people to participate.

The idea is open to anyone. There is no need to commit to the whole time, you can drop by the days that are convenient for you. Please an email her some days in advance so she knows how many people are coming.

The residency includes yoga practice every morning from 10 to 11:30 – a warm up and mind-set for the rest of the day’s research. Feel free to take a class and “pay” by staying afterwards for a few hours as a participant in the research group, or pay 5€ from 10 am – 11:30 am (afternoon varies in time)

Contact: florenciareznik@gmail.com

Florencia will work on Tensegrity, proved to be a precise instantiation of the failure of the doctrine of functionalism and the triumph, instead, of a non-instrumentalized mode of invention.

What started as a marginal idea in the art field, was many years later used in architecture, medicine and biology. We are now putting this structural principle in movement through dance experimentation.

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From *biotensegrity*, we pay attention to what connects all the parts of the body. We see the body as a whole. This approach considers the *fascia* essential to understand the body structure and its capacity to move.

Imagine that fascia is something similar to a fabric that covers our whole body. The tensegrity model posits that a single force in one part of the body will have an effect throughout the body. What would happen if that fabric covers not one but two bodies? Or more?

My interest is in how we (dancers, people) can enhance our experience of our body in connection to other bodies. In order to connect with others, we need to reach out, to move.

Trust is our relation with the unknown. Our body is physiologically prepared to be alert when it has to deal with something new, and this is translated into tension in the body. But there is something about letting go that allows us to move, to adapt, to be creative, and to connect with others. I think that *contact improvisation technique* can be a very useful tool to explore this.

I like to think of this residency as a research space-time. My background is in yoga, more precisely *Iyengar yoga*. Every morning we will start with a yoga practice that will bring consciousness to our body. With this starting point, the challenge will be to connect with other people through movement and contact. I am not a dance teacher. I will not teach how to do this. This is a challenge for me too. I hope that together we come up with creative strategies to do so.

After the yoga class, it comes lunch time (remember it is not advisable to eat two hours before yoga practice!). I suggest that during this time, we study *what is tensegrity, what is fascia, how is the body built*. I have reading material to share, and we can talk and discuss it.

Finally, during the afternoons, we will develop a series of exercises to put all this into practice. We will move with elastics, harnesses, fabrics and each others bodies. How does this movement feel? What can I do from here?* Let’s forget about the thoughts and the shapes, and focus on the joints, the mechanisms, the fluids that make strange noises inside us.

Last but not least, these topics are my main concern. But I am open to other things to come up as well. If someone has an interest that is somehow related to this, is more than welcome to share it!

— Flor Reznik

See Facebook event 

UZAZU: New class with Ilse Haastrecht

Morning practice.
Your body, a source of energy
A new body-mind methodology has been developed by Dylan Newcomb, who is also one of the founders of Danslab, the predecessor of CLOUD.

This class is an introduction to UZAZU and intended to be an energizing start of the day. You are welcome for an hour of easy to follow movement play, combined with breathing and sound. The archetypal movements of UZAZU offer a way into the variety of qualities we are capable of feeling and using in our life. Listening to how your body-mind moves with these ways of being can help to feel more secure, calm, vitalized and happy.

Friday mornings
: 9.30-10.30
Contribution: € 9

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Ilse van Haastrecht is a dancer and movement teacher based in Den Haag. Specialized in conscious movement and dance improvisation, she is always looking for ways to invite people to listen into the present moment. Ilse has worked together with Dylan Newcomb, founder of UZAZU and founding member of Danslab. Since their research in 2008, she keeps exploring the ways in which UZAZU can help to unlock more of her potential. Ilse is a certified group facilitator and coach for UZAZU and is passionate about helping others to listen more deeply to what wants to emerge.
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CLOUD: officially a non-profit association

On 14th October 2014, in Amsterdam, we signed our status of Verenigingen. We officially became a non-profit association.

For almost three years now, CLOUD has been facilitating artistic research, classes, workshops and much, much more in the Danslab studio in Den Haag. Under the wings of Stichting Danslab, CLOUD was able to grow to a stable and independent platform for dance and performance, self-organized and self-supported. Next to developing and exchanging on movement, dance and performance practices, CLOUD is also researching alternative ways of organizing; CLOUD’s aim is to empower artists by working together and creating an open and flexible structure that gives space for individual needs and encourages entrepreneurship.

In the next newsletters we’ll inform you more about the people behind CLOUD, what a CLOUD-association means concretely, and how you can become a member.
As an answer to changing times, in 2011 danslab decided to change course and to invest in a new organisational surrounding. It was the aim of the danslab artists to open up to fellow artists and to build an open, flexibel and sustainable selforganisation led by artists. In this way Danslab generously provided the base and freedom needed for CLOUD to start their ideas and experiment different ways of organizing themselves. Now, after almost three years of experience, CLOUD has enough know-how and a stable base of enthusiastic people who run the initiative to leave the Danslab-nest and become fully independent. For the past months CLOUD has been working to become an association, since this provides the flexibility and bottom-up support we need. Last month the board members signed the contract, and now it is official: CLOUD is an association!! CLOUD will stay in the (ex)Danslab studio, and is from now on even more self-supportive, independent and community-driven.

Contemporary Cuban Dance Workshop by Faizah Grootens

Contemporary Cuban dance is big, rhythmical, powerful, flexible and full of passion. Undulating movements from Cuban folklore are combined with flow, grounding and conscious use of breath. This creates a Modern style in which Afro-Cuban hip and back movements are fused with flowing turns and powerful jumps.

The workshop by Faizah Grootens was on Sunday, 30th November, from 14:00-16:00.

Faizah studied at the Amsterdam School of the Arts, and went to Havana’s University of Arts to specialize in Cuban Contemporary dance. She also trained with the internationally renowned dance company “Havana Rakatan.” Faizah has worked as a dance teacher at the Amsterdam School of the Arts, the Arts and Entertainment College Amsterdam, University of the Arts in Havana, Cuba and various schools in the Netherlands and abroad. Faizah has performed as an actor and dancer in a variety of projects and companies including Laleget Danza (Mexico), ISADANZA (Cuba), Harlekijn Danstheater with Herman van Veen for “Man Go,” “Cremat,” and “Blackout.”

 

In the Contemporary Cuban dance workshop you will learn how to use your full range of motion while still remaining strong and in control of your body. You’ll feel the energy and dance with your whole body: Hips, butt, arms, back, head…. EVERYTHING MOVES!!

Level: Intermediate/advanced

Workshop: Contemporary Cuban Dance
Location: CLOUD, De Constant Rebecqueplein 20b, The Hague
Date and time: Sunday 30 November from 14:00 – 16:00
Price: €15

Please register by sending an e-mail to Damani Leidsman (dleidsman@gmail.com)
See event on Facebook

Residency Kenneth Flak and Külli Roosna

In November we will host Kenneth Flak and Külli Roosna among others from Korzo Productions. They will be developing: The Wild Places, a trilogy performance on humanity’s relationship to an environment in a deep crisis. They will be working with a Lithuanian dancer Petras Lisauskas, the Swedish light designer Thomas Dotzler and English composer Joseph Hyde. Embodying chaos, complexity and interdependent systems, using cutting-edge performance technologies. The first part ‘Mountain’ will be premiered in the CaDance festival 6-7 February 2015.

The works are inspired by Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss’ deep ecology as well as James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, a theoretical framework that is investigated, questioned and translated into artistic praxis in three different performances: Mountain, City and Body. The pieces will premiere in the period 2015-2017,

According to Næss and Lovelock we can no longer consider the world a bottomless resource we can freely tap without consequences. The survival of all parts of an ecosystem depends on the overall health of the whole. Humanity has, due to its intelligence and capacity for planning and reflections, a special responsibility to take care of nature. Næss believed that this responsibility is not necessarily limiting, but will lead to individuals identifying themselves with the environment and all living beings. From a small, limited ego grows a large, inclusive self. According to Næss this leads to a richer life: If I identify with others and the nature surrounding me, I partake directly in the greatness of nature.
It seems, unfortunately, very difficult for humanity to take this responsibility, or even to agree that there is a problem. This suggests that the issue is very complex, with few clear-cut and simple answers. These complexities are taken into account when creating performance spaces that function as ecosystems in their own right, where light, sound, video, movement and audience interact and influence each other, giving the audience direct experiences of collaboration, competition, parasitism and all the other elements that make up our weird and wonderful world.

 

Wild Places : : MOUNTAIN
The first performance of the trilogy is Wild Places : : MOUNTAIN. During an extended rehearsal period in the Norwegian mountains, the three performers and the light designer immerse themselves in the highlands, using the experiences of a wild, often brutal nature to inform the work. The piece brings an echo of the mountain to the stage: an extreme no-mans land, a place of harsh beauty and desolation where a human being is completely at the mercy of the forces of nature. This is realized through a complex system of interdependent choreography, music, visuals and light. The interactive technology to make this possible is designed by composer Joseph Hyde in close collaboration with the choreographers and light designer Thomas Dotzler.
Supported by The Norwegian Arts Council, Fund for Sound and Image (Norway), Dutch Ministry of Culture and Education.
Produced by Korzo productions, co-produced by Sõltumatu Tantsu Ühendus.

‘Body Language’ Workshop

Based on the physical system developed and created by choreographer Edan Gorlicki and the dancer Mayke van Kruchten, the ‘Body Language’ workshop leads up to the creation of performance-installation ‘Body Language’.

Location: CLOUD Studio, Den Haag
When: 15/11/2014 from 12:00 to 16:30 (with a 30 minute lunch break)
Costs: 35

Registration before 12th of November:

The ‘Body Language’ physical system is the second part of an ongoing study on power and control. The goal while creating the system was to try to give the body full control of what the body does and then to discover the bodies choices. To find this out, Edan, together with Mayke, searched for a way to minimize or even eliminate mental judgement, choices and creativity from the movement vocabulary; giving power to the body. This way everything the body does would come from the body itself and not from a mental command; An impossible task perhaps, none the less, an interesting one.

This workshop will take you through the steps of this physical system and lead you through a path of letting go mentally, discovering your body’s physicality.

How do we do that:
First we will limit our physical possibilities to a very minimal range, challenging your mind to the maximum. Once we have practiced that and become more comfortable with the limitations, we will start to delayer the rules; opening up the possibilities within the structure. Eventually, giving the body full freedom of moving possibilities but maintaining the concentration level of listening and discovering as things happen.

Finally, you will experience a very active physical experience of movement fully choreographed by your own body, taking you on a fascinating journey and leading you to places and situations you would otherwise not bring yourself to.

About Edan Gorlicki
Born in Haifa, Israel, Edan Gorlicki is a choreographer, teacher and movement research artist based between Heidelberg, Germany and Groningen, the Netherlands. Edan has performed the works of may choreographers such as: Ohad Naharin,  Itzik Galili, Guy Weizman & Roni Haver (Club Guy and Roni) and many more.

Edan is familiar to many of us because as the creator of LAMA movement research.He will share more of this during the morning classes and movement class at our friends in Dansateliers (Rotterdam) from 10th till 15th of November.

In 2007 Edan co-founded Random Collision, Groningen – a platform developing and bridging between young makers and their audiences. There he also initiated the first movement classes in the Netherlands, which inspired Dansateliers (Rotterdam) and Korzo (the Hague) to follow this formula that develops a bridge between makers and their audience.

Visit from Dr. Raftis, President of the International Dance Council (CID)

Visit-of-DrRaftis

Dr. Alkis Raftis, President of the International Dance Council at UNESCO, visited CLOUD on October 10th. This was part of a major visit to The Netherlands, he performed, between 09-13 October, to obtain a picture of the dance scenario in the country and to propose international cooperation.

Everyone was invited and many people took the opportunity to represent dance in Holland.

The visit of Dr. Alkis Raftis was organized by Laura Maria De Gaspari, Member of the International Dance Council (CID), the official umbrella organization for all forms of dance in all countries of the world. CID is recognized by UNESCO, national and local governments, international organizations and institutions. It brings together the most important international, national and local organizations, as well as select individuals active in dance. It is a non-governmental organization founded in 1973 within the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where it is based.

Dreaming, memories & meditation

Workshop and Concert by Zvuv String Trio

Maya-flyer-Daydreaming-oct2014b

Too often we ignore dreams. As if our awake reality would completely delete what happened during the dream state. Why does it have to be over when we wake up?

We invite you to a day where our main focus are dreams. We will explore them and make music with them and with your help. If you are a dreamer, either during the day or during the night, this is the right place to be. Read more.

Sat. 11/10/2014,
Cloud@danslab, The Hague
De Constant Rebecqueplein 20b,
2518 RA
The Hague

Prices
Workshop: 15 €
Concert: 8 €
Deal: Workshop + concert: 20 €
For students: concert: 5 €
For reservation and questions, please contact:  zvuvst@gmail.com

 

 

Come to CLOUD Club!

Once a month, you have the chance to move and groove at CLOUD Studio! It’s show time. It’s work out. It’s the best hang out in town! It’s CLOUD Club!

africa-faces
Come on show off your dance skills!

The forth edition (on September 20th) was hosted by the awesome Damani Leidsman, who gave a warm-up of 45 minutes, a journey through many faces of Africa, driving  flow, communication, rhythm, grounding, and most of all, a lot of fun!
We continued the evening vibrating freely on varied music styles.

 

 

 

Entrance Fee: € 5

CLOUD Studio in DCR:
De Constant Rebecqueplein 20b
2518 RA Den Haag

Beauty… Once… Then… Now

Research and presentation
Dance:
Manuela Tessi

Choreography:
Paul Estabrook

Music:
Alfredo Genovesi

A dialogue between past and present – memory and conjecture – what
was, what is, what may have been.

What is beauty?

Why is beauty so important?

Is it what we find most ugly that we find most beautiful?

Do we chase beauty – or does beauty chase us?

With these questions and this research we have been exploring the
iconography of beauty, dance, pain and joy and how we create,use and
portray those icons.

The showing is at 19.00 – (are we sharing the evening or not)?

Window, Yuri Bongers and Anja Reinhardt

3-16 maart & 26-30 mei

Het latijnse woord ‘persona’ betekent masker. het woord ‘persoon’ is hiervan afgeleid en betreft de totale bepaling van het zelf ten aanzien van de andere. in dat licht zo zou je kunnen zeggen: dat wat je van iemand ziet, is datgene wat hem ook in weze verbergt. dit dilemma leidt mij tot de essentiele en wellicht beladen vraag: wie is zichtbaar? wie is verborgen?

mijn fascinatie om te tonen en te verbergen wil ik vorm geven in een korte solo.

de zichtbaarheid van de ‘persoon’ wil ik onderzoeken door ermee te spelen. om dit te kunnen wil ik ook het ‘kijken’ te onderzoeken. de performance spreekt op een intrinsieke manier het kijken aan met de vraag hoe je eigenlijk kijkt naar de ander. want de vraag wie ben ik? kun je op talloze manieren vragen. wie vraagt? en in de context van performance: wie kijkt?

Het performen aan zich levert voor mij een interessante vraag op. omdat er iemand is die iets toont en de hoedanigheid van degene die performt allesbepalend is. de vorm van DAT lichaam, de uitdrukkig op DIT gezicht. het vertelt het verhaal. is dus medium en inhoud tegelijk. toen ik 10 jaar was voelde mijn lichaam als een soort gevangenis: de hoedagigheid hoe ik nou precies eruit zie, mijn stem, mijn gezicht: ik weet nog precies mijn gewaarwoording: zo woord je gezien. zo word je geïnterpreteerd en zo word je ook in een hokje geplaatst…nu ik bijna 40 ben is mijn perceptie over mezelf minder nauw, omdat ik niet meer op dezelfde urgente manier hecht aan mijn uiterlijk vertoon, mijn ‘persoon’. ik identificeer mij niet meer uitsluitend met mijn lichaam of persoon. dit hechten aan het zelfbeeld en onthechten ervan vind ik een zeer interessant gegeven.

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Vloeistof 

Anja Reinhardt vormt samen met Yuri Bongers het makersduo Vloeistof.

Hun werk geeft je als toeschouwer net een andere invalshoek op wat je ziet. Met een frisse blik brengen ze dans-concepten waarin de beleving een essentiële rol speelt. Je kijkt niet naar een vooraf geconstrueerd eindproduct, jouw ervaring en kijkgedrag creëren tevens de inhoud van de voorstelling.

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Schermafbeelding 2014-05-07 om 15.03.45

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