Eight Dutch premieres at the international performance festival ‘Feeling Curious’?

Feeling Curious? brings the international vanguard of performance art to Rotterdam. From 6 to 16 January, leading artists will share the stage with emerging voices, presenting radical and incisive work. Alongside the performances, there will also be films, talks, workshops and parties both inside and outside the auditoriums of Theater Rotterdam.  

For this edition, Feeling Curious? has selected creators who, from different perspectives, explore how the past continues to shape the pressing issues of today and the future. Under the title ‘Your History is (Y)our Future’, the programme brings themes such as heritage, identity, migration, emancipation and what we pass on to new generations into sharp focus.

Programme

Florentina Holzinger opens the festival with the Dutch premiere of *A Year without Summer*. The internationally acclaimed Austrian choreographer draws inspiration from the year 1816, when Mary Shelley conceived *Frankenstein*. 

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Martin Zimmermann turn their attention to their own history. These two key figures from the international dance, circus and theatre scenes share the stage, taking a humorous look at transience and their artistic legacy.

In his latest production, *Dignity*,
director Chokri Ben Chikha establishes a Tunisian truth commission in exile. Artists, academics and members of the public assert their own truths about migration and human rights.

In *Late to the Party*,
Trajal Harrell draws inspiration from music legend and civil rights activist Nina Simone, whilst in *STONE*, Garance Maillot explores lesbian and queer precursors in the history of dance. After thirteen years, Alesandra Seutin revisits her piece *Ceci n’est pas Noire*; *Act II* is a performance that views the body as a place of echo and cultural resonance. 

In *Music Hole*, Steven Michel explores how invisible traces from the past continue to haunt the present.

Also
noteworthy is the return of dancers/choreographers Nassim Baddag and Lilian Damango, and pianist Racha Arodaky. Following their performance at the previous Feeling Curious? festival, they were invited by the Grand Palais in Paris. Dead Leaf has developed into a production featuring eight dancers and live piano.

Feeling Curious? also presents two artists based in the Netherlands. With *P4RTY GWORLZ N3V4H DI3*, Vincent Riebeek brings together six performers from the nightlife scene in a piece that blends dance, theatre, performance art and aerial acrobatics. In *HA*, the Amsterdam-based Latvian artist Jana Jacuka uses voice, body and breath to place laughter at the centre as an expression of discomfort and a coping mechanism.

Cover photo: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Martin Zimmermann in *Has Been*, Photo: Basil Stücheli