Moving Narrative | Amber Docters van Leeuwen | VER VAN HIER

With Moving Narrative, the invisible legacy of adoption is made palpable: a search for origins, identity, and intergenerational resonance. What began with unexpected contact with my biological father grew into a story spanning three generations: my father, my daughter Lou, and me. In this performance, we move between speaking and silence, between facts and feelings. A daughter seeks her father, a father struggles with distance, and a child asks questions no one dares to ask.

My drive lies in making those attempts at connection visible, however fragile. Not to repair anything, but to give legitimacy to what often remains unsaid. Through music, sound, and story, a trace emerges that can be passed on – to Lou, and to others. For me, art is a place where vulnerability is allowed to resonate safely, and where new relationships can emerge.

About Amber By distorting materials, sounds, and contexts, she alienates the familiar. This creates space for new perspectives and sensory experiences. Amber Docters van Leeuwen is a composer, performer, and multimedia artist. In her work, she brings together sound, documentary, and theatrical elements. She creates interdisciplinary performances and installations in which sound, performance, image, and space form a unified whole.

Sound is central to her work, not only as music, but as a narrative force: as language, as a carrier of memories, and as a way of thinking and giving meaning. Her work is driven by political and societal issues that cannot be captured in straightforward answers. She creates space for themes such as uprooting, intergenerational transmission, trauma, and identity, with attention to doubt, the unfinished, and the imagination of the spectator.

She studied cello at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and continued her education at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. During her studies, her fascination with sound design, dramaturgy, and the performative power of sound grew. Within her platform EEFA Projects, she developed projects such as Capsule I & II (immersive sound installations) and Moving Narrative (documentary theater performance). With these interdisciplinary works, she invites the audience to listen in an active and different way.

Credits Concept/performance/composition: Amber Docters van Leeuwen Dramaturgy: Aukje Verhoog Final direction: Jochem Stavenuiter Sound design: Rinse de Jong (and Amber Docters van Leeuwen) Lighting design: Manuel Boutreur Production: Rosalie de Witte/ Zarah Ruwhof Business: Tamara Keasberry Scenography: Amber Docters van Leeuwen Managership: Huis Heerkens