Holland festival: CASA's tips

What happens when the boundaries between body and technology begin to blur? In Cyber Subin, Pichet Klunchun combines traditional Thai dance with technology. Together with MIT scientist Pat Pataranutaporn, Klunchun has created AI avatars that deconstruct traditional movement and generate new poses. The avatars are based on “Mae Bot Yai.” The dancers face the challenge of responding to, resisting, or dancing alongside these avatars.

Paraorchestra invites you to stand within the orchestra. In this unique setting, you’ll experience music up close. Move among the musicians with a standing ticket on the floor, or view from the balcony with a seat. The orchestra performs three works by both emerging and established composers: Straylight, The Last Time / Ultima Vez, and finally Fratres from Arvo Pärt. Don’t miss this immersive experience.

During this emotional journey, choreographer Ali Chahrour pays tribute to mothers. Arabic folk songs, blended with urban sounds, portray both the sorrow and strength of personal stories. Chahrour draws from his own family history, one story being that of his aunt Fatmeh, who lost her son in Syria.

“I want to show the struggle of mothers. To me, they are the real heroines. Their bodies and voices have many powerful traits”

Carolina Bianchi confronts patriarchal structures and exposes how systems of power normalize violence. She explores the roots of so-called brotherhood codes shared among men. Through radical poetry, she reveals how misogyny and sexual crises are intertwined. The Brotherhood is a powerful and painful narrative that heightens awareness of violence in our society.

Note: This performance contains nudity, explicit sexual content, alcohol abuse, and references to suicide and sexual violence.

In this performance, you’re given the perspective of multiple characters who together (across different time periods) offer a fresh look at history. Otemba is based on the painting Portrait of Pieter Cnoll, Cornelia van Nijenrode, their two daughters Catharina and Hester, the enslaved Surapati, and an enslaved woman (Batavia, 1665) by Jacob Coeman. Cornelia steps out of the painting, and together they look back on the past through a decolonial lens.

Ready for a musical world tour without leaving your seat? This orchestra features over forty top musicians from different cultures: China, Japan, Korea, India, Iran, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Syria, Turkey, and Europe. String, plucked, wind, and percussion instruments from each culture will be played. Never before has an orchestra united such a diverse range of ‘descendants.

In this world premiere, choreographer Tero Saarinen pays tribute to the music of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Saarinen blends his background in ballet, contemporary dance, and Asian traditions into his “tero technique.” His work is seen as total art, known for a unique movement language that plays with balance and imbalance. Five of Saariaho’s compositions will be performed live. Just like in The Anatomy of the Orchestra – Drone Refractions, the boundary between spectator and performer blurs: the audience sits around the stage, while dancers and musicians move freely through the space.

In the final week, the festival ends with a mesmerizing collaboration between the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Iranian musicians, led by André de Ridder. Together they create a unique performance using both Western and Persian instruments. Hani Mojtahedy presents a song cycle with Andi Toma and Ian Anderson, inspired by the story of Shirin: a woman who retreats to the mountains of the Kurdish border region to mourn her lost love. In those mountains, Mojtahedy once again sang Shirin’s centuries-old Kurdish laments. Her voice echoed through the valley where many victims of Iranian political struggles are buried. In Amsterdam, Mojtahedy and Toma revive that echo.