WhyNot X Bimhuis:
Music Meets Dance
18 December 2025

Miri-Lee dance & Nora Mulder piano
C’Cesirhe Sedney dance & Harald Austbo cello
Ali Zanad dance & Kypski turntables
Elise Richards dance & Jamie Peet drums

Thu 18 December
20:30
Bimhuis
Tickets via Bimhuis.nl

Four duets, each with a dancer and a musician, improvising freely. Almost all of them will perform with one another for the very first time. This could well be the start of wonderful new collaborations. And a compelling experience for the audience. Together with Bimhuis we have linked up these renowned performers. They have all developed their own unique musical and physical language.

Miri-Lee & Nora Mulder Miri Lee

Miri Lee is a performer and choreographer who has left a distinct mark on Amsterdam’s artistic landscape. She’s known for her fearless cross-disciplinary collaborations with leading figures in visual art, music, science, poetry, theater, and film. Now she will team up with pianist Nora Mulder, a renowned performer of contemporary classical and improvised music, and a creator of absurdist sound installations. She was awarded the Willem Breuker Prize in 2019.

C’Cesirhe Sedney & Harald Austbø

C’Cesirhe Sedney is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer and director at the intersection of dance and theater. His work accumulates dreams and the human psyche with a playful undertone, offering alternative value to their role. Harald Austbø is active in the Amsterdam jazz scene as a cello player and composer. He also works in (music) theatre with renowned companies such as Orkater, De Nwe Tijd and Via Berlin.

Ali Zanad & Kypski Alias

Zanad AKA Dimozi was born Baghdad and moved to The Netherlands at the age of thirteen. Before he became acquainted with dance, he was a footballer and freerunner. Now he has built up experience as an actor and dancer. Ali is one of the artistic directors of the MENSJA Foundation. Turntable expert Kypski became known as a sixfold Dutch scratching DJ champion. He toured all over the world with his previous band C-Mon & Kypski and many other greats. Currently he’s part of Joseph Bowie’s legendary formation Defunkt, among others.

Elise Richards & Jamie Peet

Choreographer and dancer Elise Richards has a background in hip-hop culture. In her work she is guided by storytelling and rhythm. Through her company, Osas Company, she aims to inspire and challenge young people. In recent years, Jamie Peet has proven himself as a jazz drummer for the new generation who does not eschew complexity and who embraces the music of his own time, including jazz and hip-hop.

RELATED EVENTS

Workshop Elisa Zuppini: Disambiguation

22 October | 10:00 - 12:30
Theater Frascati, Amsterdam
Tickets: €15
Language: English
Level: Professionals
Tickets via Frascati 

As a part of the OFF VENUE program, WhyNot offers a workshop for professionals by Elisa Zuppini in Frascati about her fascinating movement practice. Read more about OFF VENUE here.

In this workshop, participants will be invited into the atmospheres of the night, post-clubbing states, and altered modes of presence, where anonymity, depersonalized embodiment, and heightened sensory awareness open emergent ways of perceiving relation and presence in movement. Drawing from Elisa Zuppini’s ensemble work "Disambiguation" - which premiered at Frascati Theater in May 2025 with fifteen dancers, coproduced by WhyNot - participants will be introduced to the principles of her movement practice of decentralized relational systems, imagining the body as a sensitive entity with redistributed control across multiple, movable centers.

After learning selected sequences from the choreography, they will be invited to re-compose and adapt the material through guided improvisations with the musical score of the piece. Together, participants will inhabit liminal and transitional spaces, where ambiguity becomes a generative force shaping tangible states of movement and collective presence.

This workshop is for professional dancers and people trained in movement. Please wear something comfortable (dancing is without shoes), and bring a water bottle or towel if you’d like.

WORKSHOP SOFIE KRAMER: SENSUAL BODY AWARENESS

Fri 17 Oct | 20:00-21:15
Dance Space Destiny, Rhoneweg 10, Amsterdam
Tickets: €10
Language: Dutch/English
Level: All Levels
Tickets via Frascati

Part of OFF VENUE. Read more about OFF VENUE here.

In this workshop, physical performer and pole dancer Sofie Kramer will take you on a journey to connect to your sensual side and sink deeper into your body. She combines her practice as a pole dancer with movement techniques based on meditation and Taoism, creating a sense of bodily awareness that is about letting go and acceptance rather than living up to societal expectations around sensuality. In this workshop, it is not about being sexy. This workshop takes the word "erotics" to a more spiritual level, where surrendering to and deeply focusing on the senses provokes an honest sensuality, liberating not only muscles and joints but certainly the mind too!

This workshops is open for everyone who is interested in exploring their body and movement. Please wear something comfortable (dancing is without shoes), and bring a water bottle or towel if you’d like.

Sofie will be performing herself during OFF VENUE.

WhyNot X Bimhuis:
17 September 2025

Alesya Dobysh & Max Frimhout X Maarten Vos

Dance interacting with innovative electronic music

Wednesday 17 September
Start 20:30
Tickets €18 - €21
Get your tickets here

In this longstanding collaboration with Bimhuis, we present interdisciplinary evenings where we bring musicians together with choreographers, performers, and dancers. This edition brings cellist and composer Maarten Vos to the stage. With his combination of cello and modular synthesizer, Vos explores the boundaries between acoustic and electronic sounds. He has presented his compositions at international venues and festivals such as Le Guess Who?, MUTEK, Sonár, Rewire, Paris Philharmonie, and Funkhaus Berlin. Vos regularly collaborates with other artists and musicians such as Colin Benders, Julianna Barwick, and Joep Beving, as well as fashion designer Iris van Herpen.

On behalf of WhyNot dancer and choreographer Alesya Dobysh and composer Max Frimout will be presenting Motus Sonus, an interdisciplinary experimental project that explores the interplay between movement, sound, and space, adapting each performance to the architectural and acoustic features of the venue and contributing guest artists. Motus Sonus will feature Moroccan choreographer Mehdi Dahkan, whose physically dynamic work draws from breakdance, parkour, and urban practices to explore personal and collective behavior shaped by contemporary Maghreb culture; and Xenia Sairento, a Paris-based experimental dancer who bridges urban forms and somatic research, known for redefining femininity within the electro dance community.

Check out this interview about Motus Sonus

CREDITS:

Maarten Vos: electronics/modulaire synthesizer

Motus Sonus:
Movement: Alesya Dobysh, Mehdi Dahkan, Xenia Sairento, Mohamed Bouriri
Sound: Max Frimout, Maarten Vos

Motus Sonus is produced by Bimhuis, WhyNot, and DansBrabant. 
From 2024 to 2026, Alesya is working as a PLANmaker at DansBrabant.

RELATED EVENTS

WHYNOT X BIMHUIS:
MUSIC MEETS DANCE
26 JUNE 2025

SIMON BUS X CHAERIN IM
ROWAN VAN DEN BOOMEN X LORADENIZ
ELOY COJAL X MARC ALBERTO
EMIO GRECO X TOMOKO MUKAIYAMA

Dancers and musicians express the art of being in the moment, in four performances.

Thursday 26 June
Start 20:30
Tickets €18 - €21
Get your tickets here

Four duets, each with a dancer and a musician, improvising freely. This could well be the start of wonderful new collaborations. And a compelling experience for the audience. Together with Bimhuis we have linked up upcoming artists with renowned performers. They have all developed their own unique musical and physical language.

SIMON BUS X CHAERIN IM

With his inquisitive eye and hyper-flexible body, Simon Bus stretches ideas about dance. He started breakdancing at the age of twelve and became part of the international battle scene. He graduated as a visual artist and is now a core creator at DansBrabant. South Korean pianist Chaerin Im has quickly conquered her place in Dutch jazz in recent years. In 2024, NRC elected her Young Artist of the Year.

Simon Bus dance, Chaerin Im piano, keyboards

ROWAN VAN DEN BOOMEN X LORADENIZ

At a young age he started with breaking and popping and later at dance academy he discovered ballet and contemporary styles. Currently, Rowan van den Boomen seeks freedom through movement and other forms of expression, such as painting and fashion. Under the name Loradeniz, Deniz Omeroglu develops her own sonic world. As a classically trained pianist, sound designer and DJ, she blurs the boundaries between electronic, cinematic and experimental music.

Rowan van den Boomen dance, Loradeniz electronica, vocals

ELOY COJAL X M. ALBERTO

Eloy Cojal is a versatile dancer from Catalonia whose movements explore the boundaries of popping, breaking, and contemporary dance. After studying at ArtEZ University, he collaborated with renowned choreographers, toured with Shechter II, and received a nomination for Best Male Dancer. Equal parts saxophonist, poet, theatre maker and anti-capitalist street-essayist, M. Alberto seeks to dismantle colonial structures, performing with artists from both sides of the Atlantic.

Eloy Cojal dance, M. Alberto, alto- en bass saxophone, spoken word, electronica

EMIO GRECO X TOMOKO MUKAIYAMA

In addition to his work as a dancer and choreographer, Emio Greco is active in projects in which dance, science and technology meet. With Pieter C. Scholten he founded the dance company Emio Greco | PC, which grew into ICK Dans Amsterdam. The Japanese-Dutch pianist and artist Tomoko Mukaiyama is praised for her multimedia performances in which she embarks on the sensory adventure together with her audience.

Emio Greco dance, Tomoko Mukayama piano

RELATED EVENTS

Club Mountain

Date: 17 April at 17:00 & 18:30
Location: Club Raum, Humberweg 3, 1043 AC Amsterdam

For centuries, people have used rituals to attune themselves to their environment, nature and the ecosystem in which they live. Planting is enhanced with rituals of hope, the good harvest is exuberantly celebrated and people connect with each other through dance and music.

In our own modern ecosystem of the city, many people meet in nightclubs, where they dance, move and celebrate life together. When they merge together into the music and the flow of the night, the sense of space and time disappears. The group then transforms into a collective and together they recreate the world on the dance floor.

Club Mountain is an interdisciplinary project in which elements of ancient ritual and the modern nightclub come together. The project reflects, investigates and poses open questions about how rituals and modern technologies can serve as a medium to travel between worlds and tap into the collective memory that is stored in our bodies and comes to life on the underground rhythm of the city by night.

Credits:

This project is part of an ongoing interdisciplinary research about ritual technologies with guest artists choreographer and director Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti (BO/BRA) and Light artist Zalán Szakács (RO/HU) with repetitor Matteus Moreira de Oliveria (BRA) and dance students (third year) from Expanded Contemporary Dance (ATD): Sarah Mary Bittar, Tim Brügger, Aleyna Demir, Lola Dupriez, Mélie Favre, Mandisa Gramelsberger, Sem Houmes, Naomi Katthagen, Pei Kuo, Hope Landu, Sára Mezei, Lucija Miletić, Elise Richards, Ditte Toppet, Rowan van den Boomen, San Wolteche

Production support: Dorothea Sinnema. Initiated by WhyNot Festival under the Ancient Future project, in collaboration with ECD - ATD, Club Raum and FIBER Festival.

OURSPACE

Friday Next: Future Love by Next Nature

Vrijdag 14 februari 2025, 17:00 - 22:00
Next Nature Museum, Eindhoven
Tickets €10 / €5 via Next Nature

We are proud to present our social performance bot OurSpace at Future Love, invited by Next Nature on Valentine's Day! It's a special night about the future of love, with performances, music and speeddates.

OurSpace is an initiative and production of Klasien van de Zandschulp, WhyNot, and James Bryan Graves. OurSpace is a participatory performance that zooms in on the virtual and the physical space between people, their online and offline identity and social encounters.

It is a quirky social experiment and performance that choreographs the bodies of participants using a chatbot in WhatsApp. The performance tests the boundaries of space in our hyperconnected world. It’s a productive way to reflect on the seemingly normalized things we do in virtual social networks like following, zooming and liking -- and to highlight the embodied experience of these media practices.

The audience is guided by an artificial chatbot on WhatsApp. This artificial companion is sharing stories and responding with assignments that translates online social habits into physical movements. These storylines can vary from simple actions “If you think somebody looks interesting, tap this person on the shoulder” to more intimate actions “Observe your new friend closely: smell them, feel them”.

Credits:

Choreography: Marjolein Vogels
Script: Klasien van de Zandschulp, WhyNot (Daisy Benz & Marjolein Vogels)
Technology: James Bryan Graves
Interaction Design: Klasien van de Zandschulp
Music: Mark Meeuwenoord
Graphic Design: Angela Lidderdale

WHYNOT X BIMHUIS:
MUSIC MEETS DANCE
12 december 2024

TANATE X PAYNE & ARPINI
TRAN X PELSER
DOBYSH X HONG
WESSELS X SINAY

Dancers and musicians express the art of being in the moment, in four performances.

Thursday 12 Dec
Start 20:30
Tickets €16 - €19
Get your tickets here

After last year's success, WhyNot x Bimhuis are back on Thursday, 12 December with an evening filled with exciting and unexpected duets! 

Four performances, each featuring a dancer and one or two musicians, improvising freely. This could well be the start of wonderful new collaborations. And a compelling experience for the audience. Together with Bimhuis, we have linked up these renowned performers: dancers Jefta Tanate, Tuan Tran, Alesya Dobysh, Lucinda Wessels and musicians Alistair Payne, Marta Arpini, Yanna Pelser, Sun-Mi Hong and Rafael Devánte Sinay. 

We can't wait to see what they will bring to the stage ????. 

After the performances, DJ Stijn van Beek will play some soulful tracks in the Bimhuis café.

Jefta Tanate X Alistair Payne & Marta Arpini

Jefta Tanate is a prize-winning dancer. Soon after his internship at Scapino Ballet he created several solo performances, followed by his first productions Even Onions Don’t Make Me Cry and DOMELESS. Now he will interact with the expressive tone and out-of-the-box-attitude of trumpeter Alistair Payne, and the challenging melodies and colorful orchestrations of singer-songwriter Marta Arpini.

Lucinda Wessels x Rafael Devánte Sinay

Lucinda Wessels has danced in major productions in various genres, from street dance to ballet. She even performed in the opera How ANANSI freed the stories of the world by Nationale Opera & Ballet. Young guitarist Rafael Devánte Sinay is making a name for himself in the jazz world with his band SMANDEM. with which he performed at international festivals such as North Sea Jazz.

Tuan Tran x Yanna Pelser

Dancer Tuan Tran has his origins in hip-hop and is always curious for more. He danced works by renowned choreographers such as Conny Janssen and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Yanna Pelser is a classically trained violist who also uses her voice. She played viola in various ensembles, including in pop and jazz, and recorded tracks for major stars like David Guetta and will.i.am.

Alesya Dobysh X Sun-Mi Hong

Alesya Dobysh combines her background in street, house and en battle dance scenes with performance art, theatre, visual art and sound art. Through experimenting with various forms she develops her own choreographies. In the work of drummer Sun-Mi Hong we hear catchy melodies and dramatic outbursts, alongside impressionistic patterns and irregular time signatures.

Tuan Tran dance, Yanna Pelser viola Alesya Dobysh dance, Sun-Mi Hong drums Lucinda Wessels dance, Rafael Devánte Sinay guitar Jefta Tanate dance, Marta Arpini vocals, Alistair Payne trumpet

Unfolding Multitude X Museumnacht
02 november 2024

Saturday 2 November
Unfolding Multitude Flam Festival @ Museumnacht
Arti et Amicitiae
More info & tickets >>

On November 2nd, Museum Night will once again light up Amsterdam, and WhyNot is exited to be part of it this year! We are teaming up with FLAM to close their festival during Museum Night at Arti et Amicitiae with our captivating WhyNot-production Unfolding Multitude: a co-creation by vertical dance collective Ropes Aligned, visual artist Isabel Cordeiro, and sound artist Gemma Luz Bosch.  

This special collaboration kicks off outside, with the performers suspended dramatically from the facade of the building. The performance then continues indoors, where tickets are required, and where you can also catch the premiere of Anna Fink's image essay, Drawing Verticality, created alongside Unfolding Multitude.

The FLAM Festival, taking place from 31 Oct - 2 Nov, celebrates live art in all its forms, and we are delighted to collaborate with them. There is lots more to see, so be sure to check out their full program! 

OFF VENUE WORKSHOP:
KATJA HEITMANN
13 july 2024

When: 13 July | 10:30-12:00
Where: Vondelkerk, Amsterdam
Tickets: €15
Language: English
Deadline: Limited spots available, please secure your spot before 5 July.
Level: Open for everyone (professional and amateurs) aged 16 and above who is interested in exploring the body and movement.
Teacher: Ornella Prieto, dancer/movement archivist with Motus Mori since 2019.

What moves humankind? In the multi-year art project Motus Mori, Katja Heitmann collects and preserves human movement. Since 2019, more than 2000 people have already donated their personal movement to this embodied archive, an ever-growing foundation from which the choreographer creates new artworks.

Join us for an immersive workshop where you will get a physical insight into the Motus Mori movement archive. Learn the basics of the unique movement language of Motus Mori. How can you become more aware of your own movements and bodily characteristics? How do you embody the movements of some’body’ else? And how can you inherit those movements into your own body? Experience firsthand and in your own body what it means to be a movement archivist!

About Katia Heitmann

Katja Heitmann (1987, DE) is fascinated by the human attempt to escape their own mortality. This paradox is the muse of the movement archive Motus Mori. Katja Heitmann's choreographic work consists of extreme aesthetics, in sharp contrast to human fallibility. Her minimalistic and minutely designed imagery confronts viewers with a frantic flood of insights. As a choreographic sculptor, Katja is constantly searching for the core of her material. The universal character of her work makes it possible for anyone who wants to find their own entrance to the work. In 2016 Katja was awarded the Prize of the Dutch Dance Festival. In 2020 she was honored with the prestigious Gieskes Strijbis Podium-award, Netherlands' largest performing arts award.

The performance Motus Mori MUSEUM by Katja Heitmann is part of Julidans x WhyNot: OFF VENUE 2024.

OFF VENUE WORKSHOP: GUILHERME MIOTTO
11 july 2024

When: 11 July | 16:00 - 18:00
Where: Lucia Marthas Institute for Performing Arts, Studio 2, Lijnbaansgracht 260, Amsterdam
Tickets: €15
Deadline: Limited spots available, please secure your spot before 5 July
Level: Professional dancers and people trained in movement
Teacher: Guilherme Miotto

Miotto’s approach 'Instinctive Performance' is designed to cultivate the personal characteristics and impulses of the performers. The work sessions consist of assignments emerging from spontaneous and recurrent explorations into embodied cognition. Miotto works from the premise that assumptions about the world are built into the body and the brain and are largely determined by the form of the human body.

During the working sessions, the body is opened to its own existing layers of instinctual physical knowledge triggered by movement, sounds, text, situation and escalating intensities. The participants are given the space to resource and exercise their own repertoire of techniques along with their own stylistic preferences. The sessions create a context where these personal experiences are challenged to formulate new expressive tools. The in-depth psycho/physical work stimulates one to interact with and reshape their possible performance tactics. The 'Instinctive Performance' approach offers a mental and cardio training that assists in the discovery of multiple dimensions for performing states applicable towards various stage practices such as dance, theatre and mime.

About Guilherme

Guilherme Miotto (1979) is a Brazilian dancer/teacher/choreographer based in The Netherlands. Miotto has studied dance in Brazil, Russia, Germany and The Netherlands. As a dancer he featured in the works from choreographers: Emio Greco, Bruno Listopad, Krisztina de Chatel (a.o.). His choreographic work has received the following awards: in 2011 the Grand Prix of Kontrapunkt, the Magnolia Award (Szczecin, Poland) and the Best Film for Camera Rework Award at Cinedans Film Festival. In 2015, he received the André Gingras Award - this award goes to inventive choreographers who dare to risk venturing outside the established boundaries of contemporary dance. In 2016, he was the recipient of the stimuleringsprijs given by the city of Breda to exceptional and promising talents. In 2019, he was awarded the largest theater award in The Netherlands the Gieskes-Strijbs stage price. He has created work for a.o. Festival Boulevard, Festival Circolo, Festival Lieve Stad, Dansgroep Amsterdam, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, CaDance Festival, Fricties Festival (Hasselt, Belgium), Yorkshire Dance (Leeds). Since 2009 he has been teaching his own approach ‘Instinctive Performance’ at the Theatre Academy in Maastricht. He has also been invited to teach workshops at a.o. Atelier de Paris, OperaEstate Festival, and Edinburgh Festival. In 2017 he founded the company: Corpo Máquina Society (Tilburg/Breda).

The performance Mondo Perfetto by Guilherme Miotto is part of Julidans x WhyNot: OFF VENUE 2024.

Relay Sport

Andreas Hannes x Annelie Koning x WhyNot x ECD3 students

Location: De Duif, Amsterdam
Date: 13 April
Times: 20:00 & 21:10

In the process of constant transiting, we could not understand the ground we touch upon. Passing movement, giving and taking, pushing and pulling could only give a chance for accepting that our games, big or small, have consequences to lean on.

We sing for the clouds and the mystery and hope, we transform so to feel the magic in our bodies, for movement to be a learning of promises to hold. Hand over, turn over, encounter and mold.

Andreas Hannes brings forward the two interrelated practices of skipping (as in skipping down the street) and warping (to deviate from the original direction or course). Together with vocalists Annelie Koning, Sanem Kalfa, Līva Dumpe and Felicity Provan and the dancers of ECD3, they attempt to find the potential of dance and sound between different spaces, desires, histories and urgencies. Circulation, direction, combination and gravitational pulls are explored for folding and unfolding perspectives of oneself, the viewer and the environment. Relay Sport is a proposal for practicing multiplicity and care as well as openness to change and be okay with it all.

Ropes Aligned X Isabel Cordeiro X Gemma Luz Bosch: Unfolding Multitude

Location: Het Motorblok, Zaandam (Oostzijde 381)
Date: 21 December
Times: 20:30

WhyNot welcomes you to the vibrant cultural venue Het Motorblok in Zaandam for the pre-premiere of Unfolding Multitude, a co-creation of vertical dance collective Ropes Aligned, visual artist Isabel Cordeiro and sound artist Gemma Luz Bosch in which visual art, vertical dance and ceramic sounds come together and gravity is being defied.

What’s that mass throbbing and humming in the air? An organism of some sort? A shrub, a sea urchin, a swarm of bees?

A multitude. A suspended entanglement of bodies and ropes. They hold each other knotting limbs and hands and heads and armpits and toes and wrists. Softly grappling, they seek support and offer rest to each other.
In slow descent the entanglement unravels releasing the bodies, one by one. While drawing the connected ropes —the umbilical cord, the tentacle, the kundalini, the life support— bodies reveal their individuated mission, which unfolds in sound, dance and in the engagement with the surrounding materiality. The intelligence of the multitude is articulated.

Credits

Choreography: Ropes Aligned | Isabel Cordeiro Concept/artwork: Isabel Cordeiro
Dancers/performers: Suzanne de Bekker, Natasja Bode, Carlo Camagni, Isabel Cordeiro
Composer/music: Gemma Luz Bosch
Musician: Mees Siderius
End direction: Keren Levi
Artistic advice: Marjolein Vogels
Light: Marco Chardon
Sound: Matthijs Ruijter
Production: Gemma Hauptmeijer, Katerina Vershinina
Catering: Yvette & Rolf
Co producing partners: EKWC, Panama Pictures, Space is the Place (SITP), WhyNot, Motorblok Zaandam Rigger: Tim Halussy, Roan Lo-a-Njoe

Unfolding Multitude is made with the support of AFK, FPK, van Bylandt Stichting, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds NH, Stichting Stokroos, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and SITP

THE BODY & ALCHEMY

WhyNot in collaboration with Dr. Esmee Geerken and Embassy of the Free Mind

Date: 14 December 2023
Time: 20:00
Location: Embassy of the Free Mind
Tickets: €15 via embassyofthefreemind.com
Language: English spoken

What makes a body, a collection of 'lifeless' particles, a living, rotating whole? And is the distinction between living and non-living matter actually clear? With The Body & Alchemy in the Embassy of the Free Mind, dance and performance platform WhyNot investigates the origins of living matter in an evening in which art, dance and science come together.

For many years, (Eastern) Alchemy has been searching for 'the life giving juice' - or the 'philosophers stone' - that lies at the base of the conception of the living body, from the womb or the distilling flask. Where Western Alchemy split into Alchemy (the occult) and Chemistry (science), art, dance and science are interwoven again during this evening. Together with natural scientist and artist Dr. Esmee Geerken, we investigate the alchemical perspective, in which life and non-life form one whole. As Cleopatra the Alchemist describes it in her Ouroborus emblem: “One is the Serpent which has its poison according to two compositions, and One is All and through it is All, and by it is All, and if you have not All, All is Nothing.”

Program:

The evening opens with a work by visual artist Jennifer Tee and dancer Miri Lee. Based on the concept 'Soul in Limbo', Tee explores the spiritual, mental and physical space, often together with dance, music and poetry. In 'Concrete Interior' (NY 2012) dancer Miri Lee breathes and moves on a crystal-shaped, octagonal floor piece by Tee, on which the inner psychological space of the dancer is enclosed.

Bonnie van Vugt, art & performance student, enters into a dialogue through Cleopatra the alchemist about how non-living matter turns into living matter and how we can reconnect science to creative and spiritual domains in our world. What if this alchemist from the 3rd century BC could talk to a modern-day scientist, philosopher or artist?

Corey Andrews, junior researcher at the Embassy of the Free Mind, guides us through rare books and manuscripts that explore the connection between the body and the universe.

Cellist Sheng-Chiun Lin and performer Reza Mirabi will end the evening with an embodied journey through time. Through various stones, Mirabi takes you to his grandfather's ritual in the Kurdish valley of Zaman (دره زمان).

With The Body & Alchemy, WhyNot presents the second part of its “The Body & …” research series, with this year's overarching theme being 'Revolving Bodies'. During The Body & Atoms, the first evening in this series that took place in De Waag, we investigated the origins of matter and the smallest particles in relation to the body.

WHYNOT x BIMHUIS

Music meets Dance
WARELIS X ZUKAUSKAITE | MCCALL X SOMUAH | POLENCE X GROOTENS | MOOR X KUSUDA

Location: Bimhuis, Amsterdam
Date: 1 November 2023
Times: 20:30

Tickets via Bimhuis

On 1 November, WhyNot and BIMHUIS will be back with a special mix of innovative music and dance. Just like previous editions in which dance and music came together, this evening promises to be unforgettable. Eight renowned and emerging musicians and dance artists embark on an adventure together in four fully improvised duets. The artists are (almost) all working together for the first time, but along the way they have developed their own powerful language and show us the art of 'being in the moment'. The duos improvise and co-create at the cutting edge to surprise each other and all of us.

Goda Žukauskaitė (dance) X Marta Warelis (piano)
Goda Žukauskaitė is active in renowned Dutch dance companies such as Schweigman& and Kalpanarts. The Lithuanian-born dancer is also making name with performances that can last for hours. Now she will interact with Polish keyboard improvisor Marta Warelis, who will explore the timbral possibilities of the acoustic piano.

Faizah Grootens (dance) X Laura Polence (vocals/piano)
As a choreographer, Faizah Grootens has built an impressive resumé working with, among others, Nederlands Dans Theater and Holland Dance Festival. Her personal language of movement is related to her Creole heritage and her birthplace Curacao. Latvian vocalist Laura Polence has been active in the Amsterdam jazz and improvised music scene for over fifteen years.

Liam McCall (dance) X Peter Somuah (trumpet/electronics)
Liam McCall, born and raised in Utrecht, came up as a dancer in the urban underground. With his background as a b-boy or breakdancer he developed his own intuitive signature. Now he will form a duo with Rotterdam-based trumpeter Peter Somuah, who received an Edison Jazz Award for his album Outer Space on which he collaborated with rappers.

Kenzo Kasuda (dance) X Andy Moor (guitar)
Coming from Tokyo, Kenzo Kasuda came to fruition as a dancer and choreographer working with, among others, Korzo Productions in The Hague. He made a big impression as a solo dancer alongside musicians such as Oene van Geel and Spinvis. Andy Moor has a background in the British post punk of the 1980s, and since 1990 he’s mainly known as the guitarist of Dutch band The Ex.

WHYNOT x DE RUIMTE: Ditdit-Dada-Ditdit

Location: De Ruimte, Distelweg 83, Amsterdam Noord
Date: Fr 13 October 2023
Times:
Doors open: 19:00
Start dinner: 19.30

€21,50 for three courses and 12,50 for all the performances
Reserve via ditditdadaditdit@cafederuimte.nl
Read more about Ditdit-Dada-Ditdit

As you might know, WhyNot holds office at De Ruimte in Amsterdam Noord. And we always spice up their diner event Ditdit-Dada-Ditdit with some dance & performance art! Next up, on Friday 13 October, we have invited Goda Zukauskaite to present her performance research "Bones". In a collection of traces, the moving body meets the material which lasts after the movement stops. The past becomes present and a new life arises. In this work-in-progress, Goda is collecting, constructing and dancing as the tribute to everyone and everything that was present before us.

Previously, this performance has been presented as a durational installation at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Art Chapel, Platform Nexus, Het Huis Utrecht, Festival “Give-a-Dans!”, Festival “Volume Up!” / Grace Exhibition Space (New York, USA) etc.

WhyNot x Waag: The Body & Atoms

Date: 31 Augustus 2023
Times: 20:00

Entrance €10
Tickets via waag.org

The first evening of The Body & series, The Body & Atoms is taking place in the Anatomical Theater of Waag and begins at the beginning:
We will travel back into the early universe, and explore the nature of matter. How and when did matter emerge after the big bang? What are the smallest particles like? What makes a body a body? What is matter, actually? When zooming in into the quantum scale, can we still phantom the odd behaviors of the sub-atomic particles that make up our own spinning and dancing bodies? Join us for an exciting night, with different angles of bodies of matter, provided by our guests:

Particle physicist Osama Karkout will enlighten us on quantum entanglements, his favorite quark flavors, and the quest for interacting Higgs bosons with the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Filmmaker Ruben van Leer was the first one to be allowed to film within CERN. During the evening, fragments of his Sci-Fi Opera film Symmetry will allow us to travel inside the particle Collider, following a physicist in search of the smallest primordial particle, to find love without end..

Dancer Yoko Haverman is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and photographer with a background in martial arts, physical theater, floor work, and partnering. During the years, she has been working as a freelancer (inter)nationally with renowned choreographers, production houses, filmmakers, and musicians. For instance, De Dansers, Dansateliers, iET & Davide Bellotta, and Zuhause Productions.

Artist and Earth Scientist Esmee Geerken will moderate the evening, trying to connect the dots between all perspectives on the nature of particles of matter, revolving bodies.

The Body & Atoms is supported by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst

WhyNot x Bimhuis: Meral Polat Trio, Ropes Aligned

An innovative evening with exciting encounters between music, dance and audience.

Location: Bimhuis, Amsterdam
Date: 30 Augustus 2023

Entrance: €18-€21
Tickets via Bimhuis.nl

Dancers hanging with ropes on the ceiling and circling dervishes: this evening at BIMHUIS promises to be again breathtaking. The vertical dance collective Ropes Aligned welcomes you to the foyer of Het Muziekgebouw with Unfolding Multitudeand leads you upstairs to BIMHUIS for Ez Kî Me, in which a Kurdish and Iranian dancer immerse themselves in the rituals of their ancestors, inspired by Meral Polat and her trio. The source of inspiration is the Alevi Semah, a dance in circles that can be compared to a whirling dervish dance. Innovative music is linked to adventurous dance and sound, body and space merge into a physically tangible experience.

Credits

Meral Polat Trio
Vocals: Meral Polat
Piano: Chris Doyle
Drums: Jens Bouttery
Dancers: t.b.a.c

Ropes Aligned
Choreography: Ropes Aligned | Isabel Cordeiro
Composer/music: Gemma Luz Bosch
Musician: Mees Siderius
Artistic advice: Keren Levi, Marjolein Vogels
Choreographic advice: Keren Levi
Light: Theun Mosk
Co producing partners: EKWC, Panama Pictures, Space is the Place, WhyNot, Motorblok Zaandam
Rigger: Tim Halussy, Roan Lo-a-Njoe

Unfolding Multitude is made with the support of AFK, FPK, van Bylandt Stichting, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds NH, Stichting Stokroos, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, SITP

Schweigman& and DOX: Eros

WhyNot x BIMHUIS

Location: Bimhuis, Amsterdam
Date: 31 May 2023
Times: 20:30

Tickets: €18 - €21
Get your tickets here

A thrilling musical experience as a celebration of femininity in all its facets, in which the female dancers are supported by drums and percussion by Frank Rosaly and Katherina Bornefeld (The EX). DJ Superinca will wrap up the evening with a set in the cafe.

In Eros, a group of women go in search of the power and pleasure of their sensuality. In a contemporary ritual, the brakes are released, all social taboos and cliches are thrown overboard and a powerful feminine energy is unleashed.

Eros is the god of love and passion. Theater maker Boukje Schweigman found that women often look at their own bodies with too little love, certainly when it comes to sensuality and sexuality. Every human being is sensual. Old, young, big or thin, man, woman or non-binary: we all have a body full of energy and sensations. But shame and doubts often color how we see our own bodies. Am I healthy, do I look good? While there is so much more. Our bodies are insane! Powerful, fascinating, sensational. Eros invites you to embrace this in its entirety, in an infectious, energetic performance that goes far beyond everyday life.

Eros was created by Schweigman& in collaboration with Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and co-produced by DOX.

DJ Superinca (aka Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti) will close the night with a sizzling DJ-set in the cafe, that melts and melds dirty beats and hot songs from her Latin American root system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf_QmBPtx1k

Credits

concept: Boukje Schweigman, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti
makers/ performers:Lysanne van Berlo, Fiona Dekkers, Luana van Eekeren, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti, Rosanna ter Steege, Goda Zukauskaite
drums and percussion: Frank Rosaly, Katherina Bornefeld
director: Boukje Schweigman
music composition: Frank Rosaly
scenography: Theun Mosk
costume design: Esmée Thomassen

Isabel Cordeiro & Ropes Aligned - And then, it becomes that Produced by WhyNot x ECD

Location: NDSM Wharf, meeting point: entrance NDSM Café (scheepsbouw kade 6)
Date: 26 April 2023
Times: 17:00 & 19:00

Sixteen students from Expanded Contemporary Dance at the Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam defy gravity with vertical dance, together with and building on the research of Ropes Aligned (Suzanne de Bekker and Natasja Bode) and Isabel Cordeiro.

Inspired by the first attempts to grasp gravity dating back to Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) who claimed that the four elements —earth, water, air and fire— gravitated towards the centre of the Universe according to their weight (the centre of the universe being conveniently located underneath his feet) the students, in suspension, defying gravity, establish new relations between their bodies and the elements. Moving away from Aristotle’s geocentric view of the universe they venture into an unknown space rebuilding/redefining this space by subjecting it their own interpretation: “And then, it becomes that.”

On Revolving Bodies:

The different parts of Revolving Bodies focus on the changing relationship of man with our planet and forms of life. Building on previous research into choreography and architecture and the moving landscape, WhyNot explores the natural and cyclical movements of our living environment through the body and dance: from the cosmic movement of planets and the position of the earth, to the microscopic scale of cells, molecules and atoms, and the forces - such as gravity - to which all these 'bodies' are subject.

Credits:

Choreography: Isabel Cordeiro, Ropes Aligned | Suzanne de Bekker & Natasha Bode i.c.w.
the students Performers: Dicko-Andrea Din, Jimi Dormans, Marilou Fortune, Nara Goncalves, Maira Darja Horvath, Peer Jonkers, Wiktoria Kolcon, Amisha Kumra, Ugnė Irene Laurinavičiūtė, Ryan Le-Nguyen, Dengling Levine, Pedro Afonso da Silva Sampaio Soares Machado, Bryan Nurhakim, Tara Pula, Rowan van Sen, Gretė Vosyliūtė, Ina Wojdyła. Production: WhyNot and ECD Rigging: Roan Lo-a Njoe
Special thanks to: Marc Koolen from PickUp Club, NDSM Loods and Roos Oudt

WHYNOT x DE RUIMTE: Ditdit-Dada-Ditdit

Location: De Ruimte, Distelweg 83, Amsterdam Noord
Date: 31 March 2023
Times: Doors open: 19.00
Start dinner: 19.30

€19,50 for three courses and 12,50 for all the performances
Reserve via ditditdadaditdit@cafederuimte.nl
Read more about Ditdit-Dada-Ditdit

As you might know, WhyNot holds office at De Ruimte in Amsterdam Noord. And we always spice up their diner event Ditdit-Dada-Ditdit with some dance & performance art! Next up, on Friday 31 March, we have invited Anne-May de Lijser. She will present THE MELDING BODY, in which two dancers are in an entwined embrace. Extremely slow, constantly melting deeper, moving as one, a transforming form. A form intended to touch the spectator, slow it down, and open the senses to the intimate subtlety of movement. A living visual work of art in which the bodies of the dancers are the material.

The Melting Body is an ongoing investigation into how we can slow down, soften, connect and merge in the macro and microcosmos of ourselves, each other and the world around us. It is a symbolic work, representing softness in times of hardness, love in times of struggle, connection in times of polarisation and touch in times of distance, performed by Eltjo Felix de Graaf and Anne-May de Lijser.

Perselí + Chronos: As you lean against the noise

WhyNot x BIMHUIS

Location: Bimhuis
Date: 31 August 2022
Times: 20:30

Perselí, a trio co-led by BIMHUIS Artist in Residence Fuensanta Méndez, has found a kindred spirit in the dance collective Chronos. We present a fusion of contemporary jazz with folk influences and transformative dance, in a dialogue with the city from the terrace of the BIMHUIS. Wrapping up the night with dj’s and dancing.

Fuensanta Méndez (Mexico) is a singer, composer and double bass player. Poetry and folklore are important elements in her music. Together with José Soares (Portugal, alto sax) and Alisatair Payne (Scotland, trumpet) she forms Perselí. WhyNot and BIMHUIS connected Perselí to the Chronos dance collective, inviting them to explore an interdisciplinary collaboration based on their shared interests in transformation and the emergence of natural patterns. The basic ingredient is the piece As You Lean Against The Noise by Chronos: a dance inspired by natural growth through constant adaptation, as seen in flocks of birds, mycelium networks or tree roots. In collaboration with singer Vita Pagie.

Perseli:

Alto sax: Jose Soares Trumpet: Alistair Payne Vocals and double bass: Fuensanta Méndez

Credits

Concept and performance: Charlotte Mathiessen, Coralie Merle, Sarah Soethoudt, Vera Goetzee
Co-production: Chronos, ICK Amsterdam, Over het IJ Festival, Leine Roebana
Made possible by: Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Gravin van Bylandt Stichting, Stichting Norma

Vertical Dance Workshop (aerial) Ropes Aligned

Location: Broedplaats Hellema, Oostzijde 381, Zaandam
Date: 16 July 2022
Times: 13:00 - 14:30 (1,5h)

Register: info@festivalwhynot.nl / direct message on instagram @festivalwhynot
Experience not required, all levels
Price: €11 per person

In the workshop Vertical Dance by Ropes Aligned dancers Suzanne de Bekker and Natasja Bode challenge you to defy gravity and share their passion for vertical dance and wall dance. What is possible with a rope that is vertically connected and what happens to your body weight at different heights. You get to experience hanging in a harness and standing and walking against a wall using climbing and abseil technique.

Playing with the theme of the performance Rope & Limbs, that's part of the OFF VENUE performance tour by WhyNot and Julidans on 2&3 July, the participants experiment with other materials in addition to hanging from a rope designed by visual artist Isabel Cordeiro, that influence your movements. The safety of our participants is paramount, we work with climbing materials. Experience not required / All Levels.

Julidans x Whynot Workshop: Astrid Boons

@ITA Studio

Location: ITA Studio (back stage entrance: Manixstraat 427
Date: 9 July 2022
Times: 10:30 - 12:00 (1,5h)


Fee: 11€ to pay cash or via pin on location.
Register: Register by email via info@festivalwhynot.nl / or direct message on instagram @festivalwhynot.
Limited spots available, please register before 5 July.
Level: (semi)-professionals / advanced level

During this workshop we will dive into choreographer Astrid Boons’ movement practice; approaching the body as a space of discovery, as a territory that has fragile borders, which expand into other physical spaces and realities. Through improvisation tasks we will empty the body from its meaning and acquired knowledge so that we can start to reencounter the world from a new sensory space.

We will work on sensorial experiments and guided improvisations which will lead the participants through processes of self-discovery. We will focus on inner exploration, increasing the physical awareness and encourage you to expand the understanding of your body.

About Astrid Boons:

Getting known in the European dance scene for her emotionally demanding pieces, Astrid Boons’ (BE, 1988) creations offer a space to deeply experience the body as the site of boundaries and expansion between us and the world. She creates work with a distinctive female perspective foregrounding the subjective connectivity as a form of resistance, together with the continuous search for personal agency.

In 2021 Boons was nominated for the prestigious Prize of The Netherlands Dance Days for choreography. Astrid received the BNG Bank Dance Award 2017 and Piket Art Award 2017 for her duet Rhizoma (2016). Since 2017 Astrid is connected as a choreographer to Korzo Theatre in The Hague, The Netherlands. Her work has been produced by Korzo Theatre, Nederlands Dans Theater, Dance Theater Heidelberg, among others.

Visit Astrid Boons: Arise

The performance Arise by Astrid Boons is part of Julidans x WhyNot: OFF VENUE. You can visit this performance as part of tour A, B, C, D, G or H on 2 or 3 July.Read more