‘The sector has to move, and that will hurt’ it sounds during the start of the theater year

“I invite you to this dance. Together we look for the balance.” Alida Dors, artistic director of Theater Rotterdam, said it several times in her inspired, swinging performance during the State of the Theater. The State is the annual speech with which the theater year begins, delivered at the start of the Dutch Theater Festival in Amsterdam. In addition to the most beautiful performances of the past season, there will also be jury selections from Flemish theatre, youth theater and the greatest talents in eleven days.

Preceded by a scene with a woman sowing seeds, Dors spoke in the Little Comedy about an sector that “must move”. She had a practice as an independent maker, but now she is the director of one of the largest theater institutions in the country, because she wants to direct change ‘from the inside’.

First she outlined the tradition from which she comes: hip-hop, and the method of the cypherthe circle that people form, in which everyone joins to tell their story.

That background was also in the form of her performance, a mixture of spoken word and motivational speechwith repeated words and phrases that became a chorus.

Dors wanted to inspire as well as warn. The people must speak out (“Your silence will not protect you”). For women (“sisters”) there was a special message: “This sector needs you, although it doesn’t always seem that way.” She referred to women who fled the sector “injured”. Because there is insecurity, the cross-border behavior that the sector suffers from. “Hashtag MeToo,” she proclaimed.

Dors, the choreographer, had inserted several interludes with groups of dancers, accompanied by a three-piece rhythm section, to much acclaim. The dancing entourage in no way softened its blunt words: the sector is falling into old mistakes after corona. Overcrowded programmes, a premiere infarction, everyone in overdrive. What to do about that “performance drive”? There will be a choice, she said. And she called for a just reward (“Get paid”).

‘It’s going to hurt’

She sees a form of necessary movement in ‘the restructuring of power’ in the sector. “It takes courage, it’s going to hurt.” She had advice for those who want to achieve change. Resist the man who says: that’s just how we do it; stand up to the cynical gossip; “chip in,” or make way. At the end came the discharge: Dors was rewarded with stormy applause.

The State audience found themselves in the Kleine Komedie for the first time. The Nederlands Theater Festival works closely with the cabarettempel, where a selection of high-profile cabaret, the ‘Komedie Kollektie’, is shown. In addition, there is an intensified collaboration with the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, as a stage for new talent, the counterpart of a festival with proven quality.

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