Dance, music and theater teachers from Club Guy & Roni the NNO work with no fewer than 300 secondary and special education students on the MOVE IT! performance for ten weeks. Photo: Corne Sparidaens
This week, three hundred Groningen and Drenthe students are on stage making music, acting and dancing with Move It!, the education project of the Noord Nederlands Orkest and Club Guy & Roni. During this fourth edition, William Shakespeare’s tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet forms the basis and music by Sergei Prokofiev will be played.
Is it relief on the faces of the teenagers? Or do they feel satisfied because the rehearsals just went so well? While the students of the Ubbo Emmius from Winschoten storm out excitedly, the next group from RSG De Borgen from Roden is getting ready. Hectic everywhere. Inside, in De Machinefabriek on the Groningse Bloemstraat, there is first a break. A busy morning is over, followed by a tightly planned afternoon full of music and dance rehearsals.
Today is another important day for Anna Jacobs and Hanna van der Meer, the two directors who set up the creative studio Lunatics and Poets in Amsterdam. Now, as theater makers and choreographers, they have to steer the education and participation project of the Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO) and Club Guy & Roni in the right direction.
Tension too much
The day before, they saw for the first time the result of the efforts made by the Drenthe students over the past ten weeks to master their contribution to the performance. “There was a tear,” says project leader Lily Lanser. The tension was a bit too much for a girl.
Lanser has a lot of work to do with the fourth edition of Move It! which will take place again for the first time since 2019. This time, no fewer than three hundred students from pre-vocational secondary education, secondary and special education are participating. Coming from twelve schools. Lanser sees the enthusiasm growing. “It is fantastic that schools are doing this and making time for this.”
She just wants to say, it is by no means self-evident, because it results in a lot of extra work for the teachers. But as part of the teens’ cultural and artistic education, it’s a great project to work on. Ultimately, those young people will shine with the entire NNO on a beautiful professional stage in De Nieuwe Kolk in Assen or De Oosterpoort in Groningen.
Jacobs and Van der Meer are satisfied with what they have seen so far. Working with young people is not their specialty, but they like to see that they surprise them. ,,When you tell something, they deal with it in a certain way,’ explains Jacobs. “Sometimes you think you could have estimated that and sometimes you think wow that’s nice.”
Classic Love Story
Based on William Shakespeare’s classic love story of Romeo and Juliet, love is the common thread running through the collage performance. Van der Meer: ,,And then love in the broadest sense of the word, so not just romantic love, but also friendship and hate, for example. It’s about life and about goodbyes.”
In fact, they think the project has already been successful. “When you see how proud they are when they have shown something. Some young people are insecure, but that also has something beautiful because they do get over it. It’s also about that collective experience, the feeling of doing things together and being part of something special.” And hopefully tasting theater and classical music will leave you wanting more.
Sanneke Roelofs, Estela Muller and Annefloor Plantinga will not be fooled. The ladies are waiting for the next group that comes to try on costumes. The racks with clothes are full, soon every student will have a suitable piece to wear during the performance. In the rehearsal room a little further on, workshop teacher Johannes Terpstra has the matter under control. Eighteen boys and girls are lined up with large drums and djembes and perform what they have rehearsed in a pretty disciplined manner.
fire alarm
Guy Weizman comes to take a look, but this time leaves the work on the floor to others. Workshop teacher Tresor Nzita Fatima is tasked with keeping the dancers of RSG De Borgen in line. He is interrupted by the fire alarm. Someone was too close to spray with deodorant. After a short interruption and the signal is safe, everyone can re-enter.
Nzita Fatima tries to give some more instructions to the dancers who are playing the scene Julia’s Funeral. ,,Making the movements a little bigger, then it just comes across even better. You have to do it for the people who will soon be sitting at the very back of the room. Shall we do it again?”
move it! will be performed twice this week by the NNO and the students; on Thursday 19 May in De Nieuwe Kolk in Assen and on Saturday 21 May in De Oosterpoort in Groningen.