News

Now in our studio:
Fazle Shairmahomed and artists-in-community
05/09 - 01/11

Labs every weekend
sign up (for free)
You are welcome to participate in the Dance Labs, Henna Labs and Incense Labs taking place during this residency. We will dance, build altars, make incense with Farah Rahman and nurture our unique relationships with Henna, facilitated by Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen.

Public Sharing
Reserve your free spot.
01/11, 8pm at BAU

On 1 November, Fazle Shairmahomed's residency concludes with a final presentation.

Fazle developed a new focus in their long-running artistic research into the spiritual process of decolonisation in 2022 by deepening their relationship with plants. They invited people from different communities to support them in the collective work Fertile Ground /: a personal investigation into the spiritual relationship between the Snake Plant (Woman's tongue), which their Nani (mother's mother) brought with her when she migrated from Suriname, then still colonised by the Dutch. Nani has cherished this plant ever since and gifted several branches to her children and grandchildren. Originally from tropical West Africa, the Snake plant is part of a colonial history. This plant has become a symbol of migration, rooting, family and hybridisation.

Program BAU AIR for Autumn-Winter 2024

BAU AIR GREENHOUSE Ira Melkonyan & Jimmy Grima
06.09 - 04.10
27.09 Public Sharing
Get you (free) ticket

BAU AIR Perry Gits
06.09 - 04.10
03.10 Public Sharing
Get your (free) ticket

 
BAU AIR DOTE Legacy & Seeds Collective - plant spirits, Fazle Shairmahomed, Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen, Farah Rahman, Shaymaa Shoukry, Ahmad Saleh, Natasja van 't Westende, Agnes Matthews, a.o.
05.10 - 01.11
01.11 Public Sharing
Get your (free) ticket
 
BAU AIR Zhana Ivanova
11.10 - 15.11
Public Sharing 14.11
Get your (free) ticket
 
BAU AIR Alesya Dobish
20.11 - 19.12
19.12 Public Sharing

We kick off the new season with two new residencies!

BAU AIR GREENHOUSE with Ira Melkonyan & Jimmy Grima
06/09 - 04/10; Public Sharing27/09, 20.00h.

BAU AIR with Perry Gits
06/09 - 04/10; Public Sharing 03/10, 20.00h.

Ira Melkonyan continues her research Blood Thirsty in collaboration with Jimmy Grima. A transdisciplinary performance focusing on blood and other biological substances as performative tools. Ira and Jimmy explore the fantasies and mystique surrounding leaking bodies, political boundaries and the sense of belonging from a transnational feminist perspective.

Perry explores the theme of loss and death. Taking primary inspiration from Ghanaian funeral services, which are carefully organized from the moment someone dies to burial. Perry will research, for example, a person's body temperature at the moment of death, when the body is kept in a freezer and the in the ground of various cemeteries.

GARDENING #4
Four Public Sharing 29 June 2024 at BAU and Veem House for Performance
Get your tickets

GARDENING is a one-week creative incubator for four dance/mime/performance artists who are given the opportunity to simmer and grow new ideas alongside each other. 

GARDENING is about planting new seeds, making, meeting, feeding, growing, sharing and cross pollinating each other’s worlds. 

GARDENING #4 kicks off on Monday June 24th and ends with four Public Sharings on Saturday 29th at BAU and Veem House for Performance. Participating artists this year are alex blum, Diane Mahín, Kris Adem and Sjaid Foncé.

GARDENING is a GREENHOUSE project, produced by Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance.

BAU AIR The Grey Space 
Boris de Klerk & Finn Borath
Public Sharing 27 June 2024 The Grey Space The Hague
Get your tickets

After four weeks in the BAU studio, Finn Borath (Netherlands, 1998) and Boris de Klerk (Netherlands, 1998) take their work in progress Chamber Piece #3 to The Grey Space in The Hague. There, they continue to work on it and meet an audience during Default #15 Den Haag, a series of listening events with a focus on experimental music and sound art performances.

Finn and Boris explore the flickering, ticking, and generally ‘cold’ light of fluorescent lighting, which is often found in offices, clubs, and galleries as a sound source for a new work in their Chamber Pieces. In this series of performances, they compose music for specific spaces where the only sound source is the technology present in that space. They're interested in discovering how the TL can be played as an instrument and in developing a form of presentation. 

Next week we host two Public Sharings at BAU. The first, on Wednesday 12 June is with Gluklya and Robert Steijn and the second is Friday 14 June is with Finn Borath and Boris de Klerk. Both start at 20.00h at BAU and both a free of entrance, although you can support us voluntary by giving a donation. 

Reserve a spot via these links:

Robert Steijn and Gluklya

Boris de Klerk and Finn Borath

Invitation: Walk with me
May 29 and June 1, 3, 5 at 19h.
 
Are you a resident of Amsterdam-Oost? Do you work or relax, in or around the Marineterrein? And looking forward to meeting other people and finding new perspectives on your surroundings?
 
We, Gluklya and Robert, are two artists from Amsterdam who are preparing a project in which we walk and talk with all kinds of people who want to explore the public space as a magical stage for new ideas.  We focus on nature and movement to make people feel more at home in their own bodies and in their environment.
 
We're looking for artists, designers, architects, cleaners, people working in the military or creative industries, people from other countries and newcomers, each with their own ideals and experiences, who would like to exchange with us how we can coexist in a (green) cityscape.
 
In the coming weeks we will walk on May 29 and June 1, 3, 5 at 19h.
If you'd like to join us, please send us an email.
 
Kind regards,
 
Robert Steijn and Gluklya Pershina
arran@xs4all.nl, matrasplatform23@gmail.com

We warmly welcome Robert Steijn and Gluklya/ Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya as our new BAU AIR residents.

BAU AIR Robert Steijn and Gluklya/ Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya 
09/05/24 - 13/06/24

Public Sharing
12/6/24 20.00h 
 

Chachacha at the Marineterrein and beyond

Robert Steijn (Netherlands, 1958) and Gluklya / Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya (Russia/Netherlands 1969) start their BAU AIR research at the Marineterrein and the surrounding areas, by embracing the legacy of the Situationist International, who practiced ‘derives’ (walks) without pragmatic goals.

Their research consists of walks into talks and aims to unite people from different social groups despite their status. Robert and Gluklya will investigate how these walks can rewild and queer our perception of this part of the city. Their target working groups are cleaners, military, creative industries, citizens, newcomers and the Ghost of Van Gogh.

Robert and Gluklya will attempt to subvert the society of the spectacle by giving space to embodied experiences that question the relationship between the human and non-human worlds.

Soon a new residency starts:

BAU AIR The Grey Space
Boris de Klerk and Finn Borath
17 May - 14 June BAU Amsterdam
17 June - 28 June The Grey Space The Hague 

Public Sharing
14 June 20.00 h. Amsterdam
27 June 20.00 h. The Hague

Finn Borath (Netherlands, 1998) and Boris de Klerk (Netherlands, 1998) have been working together on performances and installations since 2019. For their residency they focus entirely on fluorescent lighting. Exploring the flickering, ticking, and generally "cold" light often found in offices, clubs, and galleries as a sound source for a new work in their Chamber Pieces. In this series of performances, they compose music for specific spaces, with the only sound source being the technology present in that space. They'd like to discover how to play the TL as an instrument and to develop a form of presentation.

Photo: Marjolein Vogels

Applications for the BAU AIR residency are now open!

BAU AIR is a customized four-week residency for independent makers in the performing arts, with a focus on artistic research, depth, and experimentation.

We invite makers from the broad field of dance and performance, including crossovers with theater, music, film, and/or circus, to apply. You can do this by filling out your residency plan in this form.

BAU AIR offers time and space to explore new ways of working, explore themes in depth, and/or establish collaborations in the research phase of a new project. BAU provides a stipend, studio space, production support and artistic coaching.

We offer three residencies in 2024. Each residency concludes with a public presentation that is open to the public.

See here for more information

In a few weeks, we will open the call for three basic residencies. The deadline is May 5, 2024.

* tailor-made 4-week residency in one of the BAU studios
* Artistic coaching
* Access to a large network in the arts
* Informal final presentation
* Fee

Sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social media.

We look back at three fantastic days of Come Together!

For an overview of all participating artists, please visit: cometogether.amsterdam

We look forward to seeing you at the next edition.

COME TOGETHER (9) 
18/19/20 Jan 2024 
Every day starts at 19:00h. 
Saturday after party starting at 23:00h. - free entrance! 
 
BAU & partners:  
COME TOGETHER  
a GREENHOUSE project produced by Nicole Beutler Projects  
in collaboration with Frascati, Ulrike Quade Company and BackBone.  
  
Ticketprice €15. Discounts: €10 , also for everyone purchasing a minimum of 2 days.  
Buy your ticket here.
 
Join us for the 9th edition of COME TOGETHER!  
 
COME TOGETHER is the yearly performance gathering with artists from Amsterdam. A manifesto and a celebration of the many innovative and contemporary makers that Amsterdam harbors. This year with: Lisa Schamlé, Trees Heil, Pensive Vivifier, Waakhond, Werkplaats van de Woestijne, Sara Europaeus, Hannah Chandra Mahler, Rebecca Lillich Krüger/ Karolina Krynicka, Bai Li Wiegmans, Sjaid Foncé, Memic project / Roberta Maimone, Tamar Blom, Leendert Vooijce, Luit Bakker, Luuk Weers, Xiao Chuyue, Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic, Corina Mitrovici | Carl-Johan Paulsen and Barnaby Savage 
 
Over three days, artists, colleagues and audiences share time, space and practice with each other. All the spaces of Frascati will be buzzing and bubbling with short sketches, presentation, poetic experiment, engaged conversations, lectures, debates and dance parties.  
 
COME TOGETHER is not a festival in the classical sense of the word. Rather than presenting finished pieces, it provides a platform for all forms of sharing: work-in-process, experiments, performance excerpts, installations, talks and workshops. Our goal is to nurture opportunities for growth, recognizing that, like plants, ideas need care and cultivation to blossom. Over three days, this gathering contributes to a fertile breeding ground for the Amsterdam performance, dance, and mime community, sharing the year's harvest with our audience. 
 
COME TOGETHER is a GREENHOUSE project produced by Nicole Beutler Projects in collaboration with Frascati, Ulrike Quade Company and BackBone. This year’s program is once again 'chain curated'. The GREENHOUSE network, Frascati Theater and our two new collaborators (Ulrike Quade Company and BackBone) each invited an artist, who in turn, invited another artist, and so on, until the chains was completed, creating a diverse and complete program. This year, we'll experience the work (in progress) of 19 Amsterdam-based artists! 
 
GREENHOUSE is a development network by BAU Platform for Dance and Performance, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Keren Levi | NeverLike, Nicole Beutler Projects, and Veem House for Performance. 
 

BAU x WhyNot: BAU Lab Revolve/Unfold 
Public sharing
8 December 2023 17.00 - 19.00h
NDSM Loods, NDSM-Plein 85 Amsterdam
Entrance is free, please register right here

This year, BAU Lab went high up in the air. In this five-day interdisciplinary masterclass, led by vertical dancers Ropes Aligned and visual artist Isabel Cordeiro, participants learned to dance up to 10 metres above the ground. They explored what it's like to float weightlessly, experiencing the fun and freedom it brings, while researching the meaning of the four elements that make up our world: air, fire, earth and water.
 
On Friday 8 December, you're warmly invited to a public session where participants will share some of the insights and results of the past week. 

BAU AIR with Esther Mugambi
Where is my body when?
1 December 20.00 - 22.00h
Sold out, but you can listen to radio Antidote via this link.

Esther Mugambi's research at BAU focuses on the experience of the mind-body connection, observing how we perceive this in different contexts and states. She seeks to expand her awareness of the body by talking to people in her network - artists and professionals in different fields - about their practices in relation to it.

On 1 December, Esther will share an audio recording derived from these conversations while we engage in group exercises within a spatial scenography. Through simple movements and by touching objects and materials, we will engage in shared listening with our sensing, thinking, and energetic bodies.

In collaboration with Marloeke van der Vlugt, Lise Brenner, Margrét Sara GuðjónsdóFr and Federico Bonelli.

BAU Lab: Revolve/Unfold
Masterclass for dancers, choreographers, architects and artists
04.12 - 08.12, 2023 Amsterdam 
Daily 11.00 - 17.00h
Under guidance of: Ropes Aligned and Isabel Cordeiro

08.12, 17.00h Public sharing 
Cost to join: € 100,- 

The focus of this year's masterclass is gravity, both as a subject and as a physical experience. By interweaving reading sessions on the subject and movement sessions in suspension, we aim to create the conditions for participants to establish their personal and bodily relationship to gravity.   

Our starting point will be the first attempts to understand gravity by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Aristotle claimed that the four elements - earth, water, air and fire - gravitate towards the centre of the universe according to their weight. The centre of the universe, conveniently located beneath his feet.  
Moving away from Aristotle's geocentric view of the universe, we ask participants to venture into an unknown space. To redefine and construct a new space by subjecting it to their own interpretation.   

Sign up as participant by sending your cv and motivation (max. 100 words) before 20 November 2023 to: air@bau.amsterdam

Invitation
Public sharing BAU AIR GREENHOUSE with Amparo González Sola

27.10.2023, 20.00h
BAU, Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam
You can register right here

You are welcome to join the Public sharing of Amparo González Sola's residency. This evening she will kindly engage you in the insights she has gained over the last few weeks.

González Sola's research builds on two previous works she made and premiered at the Spring Festival (Utrecht): "If every rock is a hole" (2022) and "The conspiracy of forms" (2023). Feminism, the relationship with her ancestors and her own migration experience, come together again in her new project.

Her starting point is the Malambo, an Argentinean folk dance traditionally performed by males to show their strength in front of others. González Sola focuses on the rhythm of the dance and explores the different associations it evokes. She approaches this process intuitively, exploring the boundaries between what that dance literally represents and what it provokes sensorially and emotionally.

www.amparogonzalezsola.com

We warmly welcome Amparo González Sola to our BAU house. Starting on 29 September, the Argentinean choreographer and dancer will immerser herself for four weeks in the studio researching a new work.

Previously, she took part in GARDENING, an artistic incubator for four makers organized by the development network GREENHOUSE to bolster rising talent. During the intensive research week, Amparo became particularly interested in the Malambo, an Argentine folk dance. Traditionally, men perform a dance that demonstrates their strength to onlookers. Moving forward, González Sola will focus on the rhythm of this dance and investigate the various connections it elicits. She takes an intuitive approach, exploring the fine line between the dance's literal meaning and its sensorial and emotional effects.


About Amparo González Sola
Amparo González Sola has obtained a master's degree in DAS Choreography (AHK, 2022) and is currently based in the Netherlands. She recently showcased two works in the Spring Performing Arts Festival, namely "If every rock is a hole" (2022) and "The conspiracy of forms" (2023).

Her research has focused on reciprocity in recent years. In the participatory research project "Exploring Reciprocity" (2019-2023), she unites individuals from diverse backgrounds, age groups, and fields.  

www.amparogonzalezsola.com

image composed by Amparo González Sola

Announcement

After the summer break Amparo González Sola will start her BAU AIR GREENHOUSE residency. More information coming soon!

Lectures
WE LIVE HERE #13 FUNGI FUTURES

WE LIVE HERE is the annual GREENHOUSE summer academy hosted by Nicole Beutler Projects and taking place at BAU, Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam. In this last week before the summer break Nicole Beutler and artists, musicians, dancers, performers, philosophers and other professionals from the field will immerse themselvers in in the themes that keep them busy during the run-up to the new performance ATMEN.

This week you can join three lectures, for free. Please register in advance at justa@nicolebeutlerprojects.nl.

Wednesday 12 July 20:00 - 22:00 h.
WALTER BARNING "The magical world of mushrooms"

Thursday 13 July 11:00 - 13:00 h.
MARJAN SLOB "Affordances"
How animals relate to their environment and how they make use of the opportunities provided by the biology.

Friday 14 July 10:00 - 12:00 h.
LISA DOELAND "Apocalypsofie"
Tools for living in times of extinction. 
This lecture has been cancelled due to personal circumstances. 

All lectures will be held in English.

Invitation
Public sharing BAU AIR with Michele Rizzo

08.06.2023, 20.00h
Free entrance RSVP
 

At the conclusion of his residency, dancer and choreographer Michele Rizzo will talk with Toni Steffens, a colleague and great connoisseur of his work, about the topic of his research over the past few weeks. In BAU's studio, he delved into how the body relates to the space it is in, and how that is a different experience for each person. For Michele, space implies not so much a physical place, but a movement. A transformation in a sense. For example, from an inner space to an intimate, socially communal one. By speaking with colleagues about his work, reflecting on it and with simple, sensory exercises, he explored the experience and meaning of space in his work and the role he himself plays in it.

You are welcome to join the talk and a small drink afterwards. 

Michele Rizzo, photo Marjolein Vogels

Michele Rizzo is a choreographer and visual artist. In the past years he has made works inspired by the experience of dancing in clubs, responding to the believe that a choreography manifests itself as the resultant of a process of decentralisation of agency. A distillation of the remains of the constant battle between the tendency to preserve and construct,  to decompose and surrender, between insiderness and outsiderness. 

Toni Steffens performing Higher xtn. by Michele Rizzo, photo Ink Agop

Toni Steffens studied contemporary dance and choreography in Cologne and Amsterdam. In her reflections on the performing arts, she navigates ethical and political issues, such as queer ecofeminism, new materialism and animism. In doing so, she uses sensory and cognitive perception to make sense of intangible issues such as emotions and chaos.

AFTERMOVIE BAU AIR 2022
With Reza Mirabi, Artun Alaska Arasli, Egle Budvytyte, Tchelet Pearl Weisstub

BAU AIR is a tailored residency program for independent creators in the performing arts. Each resident stays four weeks in one of the BAU Studios to focus on artistic research, in-depth exploration and experimentation. BAU builds connections between these makers and the cultural field and organizes public events.

Watch here

Workshop
Shared Practice by Michele Rizzo

Wednesday, May 31 
14.00 - 17.00h 
€ 10 reserve a spot

On the 31st of May Michele Rizzo will share some elements of his current research in a one day workshop at BAU, open to 10 participants.

Rizzo's work explores how 'being' relates to the space in which it is located. He explores the role of immaterial, sensory perceptions and how they can be dismantled. At the same time he looks at the notion of time and imagination. Not the imagination that refers to the realm of the unreal, but the imagination that is embedded in existing intimate and social experiences, such as dancing in a club. "When the body is gone and the gaze remains, space appears like a wild animal in the forest," says Rizzo.

Bring trainingclothes and shoes.

image: "My eyes at the moment of the apparitions" by German artist August Natterer, 1913

Michele Rizzo
20/03/23 - 31/03/23
25/05/23 - 8/06/23

Public sharing
8/06/23

Meet our BAU AIR resident Michele Rizzo

Michele Rizzo is a choreographer and performer. The performances he has developed in recent years are inspired by his experiences of dancing in clubs, where he felt an expansion of himself in a space that felt both intimate and communal.
In his performances he shows that choreography is the result of a process he calls the decentralisation of a power. A remnant of the constant struggle between preservation and construction, between dissolution and surrender, between the inside and the outside.

The research
During his residency at BAU, Michele will explore how imagination works as a tool for creativity. Not the imagination that refers to the realm of the unreal, but the imagination that is embedded in existing intimate and social experiences, such as dancing in a club.
Michele sets out to define a language of movement and performativity that encourages discovery and learning. In doing so, he challenges the idea that the mere representation of a performance generates meaning.

HIGHER xtn. (2018) At Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, photo by Maarten Nauw

Francisca Khamis Giacoman
24/03/23 - 21/04/23

Public sharing 
21/04/23
Free entrance RSVP

Meet our BAU AIR DOTE resident Francisca Khamis

Chilean artist of Palestinian origin, Francisca Khamis Giacoman relates the fragmentation of diasporic memories into performances and audio-visual installations. She ties together family archives and collective memories into different solidifications of in-between states of being. Stories of migration unfold at the boundaries of fiction and materiality.
After receiving a package from her family in Chile, she uses the same gesture and brings forth a new object to the scene. This object folds the fabric of her research together with memories of her family's business in textile manifesting the multitude of states of in-between-ness that permeate her life.

Caer Ascendiendo (Fall Ascending)
During her residence period starting on March 24, Khamis will continue working on the piece Caer Ascendiendo (Fall Ascending), with the idea of ‘in between’ identities, looking into stories of diaspora through the textile, specifically the object of the parachute.

Website

The BAU AIR DOTE residency is a collaboration between BAU and Dancing on the Edge.

Anabel Pérez Lubián and Francisca Khamis, photo Van den Bussche -Vanden Bossche 

GARDENING 3
Public sharing 17 March 2023

GARDENING is a two-week creative incubator in which four dance/mime/performance artists are given the opportunity to simmer and grow new ideas alongside each other. They are given a studio space while being actively coached by professionals in the field. GARDENING is about planting new seeds, making, meeting, feeding, growing, sharing and cross pollinating each other’s worlds.

GARDENING 3 kicks off on March 6th and ends with four public sharings on 17 March. Participating artists are Pleuni Veen, Eloy Cruz del Prado, Elisa Zuppini, and Amparo González Sola.

Read here more about the makers and the themes they will focus on during GARDENING.

Buy your tickets for public sharings on 17 March

Important info
GARDENING starts with two showings at BAU and continues at Veem House where we will enjoy a bowl of soup + bread before we watch the last two showings.

So please be aware that this event starts at 17h00 at BAU (Entrepotdok 4, 1018 AD Amsterdam) and ends at around 20h00 at Veem House (Van Diemenstraat 408-410, 1013 CR Amsterdam).

As public transport between the two locations takes some time, we advise you to come on bike.

GARDENING is a GREENHOUSE project, produced by Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance.

Once a year, BAU and Dancing on the Edge team up to host the BAU AIR DOTE. This residency provides four weeks' time and space for a performing artist, whose work resonates with both BAU and DOTE, to dive deeper into their artistic practice with research. 

Francisca Khamis, photo Carmen Gray

Francisca Khamis is our new BAU AIR DOTE resident. Khamis is a Chilean artist designer of Palestinian origin. By diving into her family archive, she questions the possibilities around representation and reproduction of memories. During her residence period starting on March 24, Khamis will continue working on piece Caer Ascendiendo (Fall Ascending), with the idea of ‘in between’ identities, looking into stories of diaspora through the textile, specifically the object of the parachute.

Website

The BAU AIR residents for 2023 are known! This year BAU welcomes Michele Rizzo and Esther Mugambi. The selection committee, consisting of Selm Merel Wenselaers, Artun Alaska Arasli and the BAU team, chose them from the applications that came in on the open call.

The BAU AIR is meant for mid-career makers in the performing arts. Residents are offered a BAU Studio for four weeks for their artistic research. Both residencies conclude with a public presentation. Dates and time for this year's will follow.

Michele Rizzo,  photo Maarten Nauw

Michele Rizzo is an Italian choreographer and visual artist based in Amsterdam since 2007.  His work explores processes of transformation and transcendence. Rizzo starts his residency on March 20. At BAU he continues his research on the imaginative practice of FIELD INTERLACE, observing how imagination can manifest itself as reality, away from representation and therefore generating a performativity that is independent and self contained.

Website

Esther Mugambi, photo Sarah van Lamsweerde 

Esther Mugambi is a writer, performance artist and vocalist, born in Kenya and based in Amsterdam for the last 20 years. During her residency in November, Mugambi will focus her research project on the intersections between life experience/body knowledge and sound. Embodied Networks is a collaboration with choreographer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir and sound artist Vera Pulito. 

Website

Our open call for the BAU AIR residency 2023 is now closed.
We received many applications which we are going to study in the coming weeks with great attention.

Thank you all for sharing your ideas and interesting submissions.

COME TOGETHER #8 

Save the date! 19/20/21 January 2023

A THREE DAY PERFORMANCE GATHERING WITH ARTISTS FROM AMSTERDAM
A manifesto and a celebration of the many innovative and contemporary makers that Amsterdam harbors.

COME TOGETHER is an artistic gathering that aims to create space for experiment and exchange. By generating opportunities to grow together, these three days contribute to a fertile breeding ground for the Amsterdam performance, dance and mime scene.

COME TOGETHER is not a festival in the classical sense of the word. Rather than presenting finished pieces, it provides a platform for all forms of sharing: work-in-process, experiments, performance excerpts, installations, talks and workshops.

The format of COME TOGETHER is fine-tuned every year. To keep the structure open and to monitor its urgency, different ways of selecting and producing are always discussed. Over the last editions, the program was curated from submitted proposals following an open call, hosting a large community of up to 50 artists.

This year, the program is "chain curated". The five GREENHOUSE partners and one guest curator started this chain by inviting one artist who then invites another artist and so on, in order to arrive at a complete and diverse program. This year we will experience the work (in progress) of 18 artists from Amsterdam!

COME TOGETHER #8 is a GREENHOUSE project in collaboration with Frascati.

GREENHOUSE is a new development network by BAU Platform for Dance and Performance, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Keren Levi | NeverLike, Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance.

www.cometogether.amsterdam

Meet our BAU AIR resident Tchelet Pearl Weisstub 
Weisstub's practice brings together theater and sculpture in interdisciplinary installations and performances. Her works attempt to embody the abstract notion of time passing, primarily concerning the tension between permanence and vulnerability. In an era where mass computing has overcome our innate limitations (such as the ability to store our memories, never to forget), Weisstub perceives a predominant social climate that denies natural processes of decay, by appropriating technologies, old and new, and placing them in dialogue with what it is to be human. Weisstub's work creates a space to share our human vulnerability and understand it as a collective ontological condition. Utilizing her background in theater, she directs objects in mise-en-scènes, creating sculptures that encompass the presence of life. While in her live performances, she objectifies the human body, exploring its material limitations.

Mat(t)er
Weisstub finds in BAU AIR the opportunity to further develop a series of works on Mothering & Technology called 'Future Present'. During her residency, from 26 November to 23 December 2022, she creates the first draft of a performance called: Mat(t)er, an excavation site of memories related to caregiving. In search for a cyclical and maternal experience of time. A mother and child are cave archeologists, excavating each other's memories and fantasies of care. Weisstub will focus mainly on exploring the physicality of grasping and releasing re-enacted memories of care with the performers. Grasping a memory and grasping another body. Releasing as awakening from a fantasy; releasing as letting go of grip or letting go of dependency.

Public sharing with Tchelet Pearl Weisstub 
Thursday, December 22 at 20.00 h, BAU Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam
Free admission. Sign up here.

Collaborating artists
Performance: Danielle van Vree, Loki Noordegraaf, Claire Philippart, Edward Lloyd
Light and Kinetic sculptures: Oded Rimon
Music: Haian Arshied

Still from HAWAII - Escaping the Inevitable -SEOUL,  2022

Our next BAU AIR resident, Egle Budvytyte, is an artist based in Amsterdam working at the intersection between visual and performing arts. She approaches movement and gesture as technologies for a possible subversion of normativity, gender and social roles and for dominant narratives governing public spaces.
Her practice, spanning across songs, poetry, videos and performances, explores the persuasive power of collectivity, vulnerability and permeable relationships between bodies, audiences and the environments.

Song Sing Soil 2022

From 4 November to 2 December Egle Budvytyte will occupy the Bau Studio working with songs as vehicles for spells and storytelling; looking into how voice, pitch, breath, rhythm, rhyme and repetition could be integral to the content. She will be exploring words as sonic pulsations resonating with and affecting the oscillations of the human nervous system. Through the process of writing and singing she will be looking into the relationship between the body and the landscape, vulnerable presence, processes of decay and melodies as medicine.

Public sharing with Egle Budvytyte
Thursday, December 1 at 20.00 h, BAU Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam
Free admission. Sign up here.

Performing 
Reza Mirabi, MingJou Chen, Saule Maria Groenendaal
Choreographic advise 
Noha Ramadan
Sound design 
Thessa Torsing
Art direction 
Marija Olšauskaite

Still from Songs from the Compost: Mutating Bodies, Imploding Stars, 2022

Tension, Stress and Trauma Release Exercises with Egle Budvytyte

Sunday, November 20 at 10:30h and 12:30h
BAU, Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam
5 euro

Stemming from Egle’s interest in the human body and somatic practices, in recent years she has been studying the anatomy of trauma and the nervous system. This research informs the way Egle works with the voice, sound and image; reaching beyond cognitive systems of perception, she explores their potential resonance and visceral impacts. As part of this research, Egle has been training to become a TRE facilitator. TRE stands for Tension, Stress & Trauma Releasing Exercises. This is a specific set of simple exercises designed to trigger involuntary movements and tremors from within the body. These involuntary tremors help to reset the balance in our nervous system, releasing stress and tension stored in the body/mind, while practiced in a safe and supported environment. TRE is a simple and gentle, yet profoundly transformative somatic practice.

Egle will guide a group of 6-7 participants through this TRE practice, at the BAU studio on the 20th of November. There will be two sessions starting 10.30-12.00 and 12.30- 14.00.

The session will last circa 1.5 hours, including a short introductory conversation and time for rest and integration afterwards. Please wear comfortable clothes.

You can find more information about the TRE here

If you have any questions, you can reach Egle here 

Reserve a spot for the 10.30h TRE session

Reserve a spot for the 12.30h TRE session

Open Call BAU AIR 2023

Registration for BAU AIR 2023 is now open! In the coming year, we will offer two residency places for independent makers in the performing arts who are in the research phase of a new project. The residency lasts four weeks and is intended for mid-careers.
Read all about what the residency entails and how to submit on our 'Open Call' page. The deadline to apply is 15 December 2022.

To the 'Open Call' page

ARTUN ALASKA ARASLI, an Amsterdam based artist, writer, curator and researcher, is the first BAU AIR resident. BAU starts this residency for independent performing artists to stimulate artistic research. Selected artists can deepen their practice for four weeks time in one of the BAU studios.
From August 29 till September 25 Artun Alaska Arasli will deepen his current research about the relationship between the artwork, its documentation and the moment the artwork is seen by the viewer. In his aims to perform an exhibition through a series of immaterial utterings and propositions, He will create an ekphrastic revival of ideas that are fading away and string them together to constitute a coherent whole—in a monologue performed by the artist for the very first time. 

Talk with Artun Alaska Arasli, Anik Fourier and Billy Mullaney 
Wednesday, September 14, at 17.00, BAU Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam
Free admission. Sign up here. 

Public sharing with Artun Alaska Arasli
Friday, September 23 at 17.00 h, BAU Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam
Free admission. Sign up here. 

The three residents of BAU AIR 2022 are known! Earlier this year we launched an open call for this residency that offers a professional mid-career performing artist the possibility to do research in our BAU studio for four weeks.

From all the incoming applications a committee selected Artun Alaska Arasli, Egle Budvytyte and Tchelet Pearl Weisstub as residents of 2022.

Artun Alaska Arasli will go first, starting August 29, with his artistic research on the relationship between the artwork, its documentation and the moment the artwork is seen by the viewer. Followed by Egle Budvytyte in november, who wants to explore the possibility of healing with singing in a post-human reality, and Tchelet Pearl Weisstub in december, who dives into the labour of care through personal stories. Public Sharings are (under reserve) planned for September 23, December 2 and December 23, at BAU in Amsterdam at 5 pm. You're welcome to join us! Further public activities will be announced later on. 

6 May: open studio with Mami Kang, a GREENHOUSE project
Sold out. 

Currently, Mami Kang is working on her new performance Body Drift [working title]. In this piece, she intends to create the composition of an anonymous figure with a tendency of morphing. With the creation of fragmented and fantastical narratives, voice, sound, and movements, the work imagines dance as something that transcends human exceptionalism and attempts to bring an altered spirit and vibrancy to it.

During this open studio at Veem House, Mami Kang will hold an open rehearsal and invite you into her creation process.

Body Drift [working title] is a GREENHOUSE project, produced by Veem House for Performance in co-production with ICK Dans Amsterdam. BAU is one of the initiators of and participators in the GREENHOUSE network. 

MAMI KANG - BODY DRIFT
6 - 9 July 19.30h at Veem House for Performance
6 July try-out, 7 juli première
You can buy your tickets here. 

With the performance Body Drift, choreographer Mami Kang intends to create a state of constant morphing. With dream-like fragments, voice, sound and movement, the work imagines dance as something that transcends human exceptionalism and brings an altered vibrancy.

An assembled figure encompasses a multilayered spiritual microcosm. It resists the economy that tries to reify the world and reduce the individual to a single and solid representation. Here, spatiotemporal reconfiguration does not seek linear progressions but rather attune to the emergence of forgotten,
decaying and unknown corporeal sites.

By exploring subconscious desire, Body Drift invites the audience to participate in a cryptic, elusive, thus charged space where fiction and reality, imagination and materiality intersect.

Body Drift is a GREENHOUSE project, produced by Veem House for Performance in co-production with ICK Dans Amsterdam.

Once a year, BAU and Dancing on the Edge team up to host the BAU AIR DOTE. This residency provides four weeks' time and space for a performing artist, whose work resonates with both BAU and DOTE, to dive deeper into their artistic practice and research without the pressure of producing a finished piece of work.

The first selected resident is REZA MIRABI. On Juli 1st Reza shares his findings with the public. Together with percussionist Khaled Mohamed Khaled and Cellist Sheng-Chiun Lin. Feel welcome to join us at 17.00h at BAU, Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam. The space is limited. You can reserve a spot here. 

From 6 June - 3 July Reza deepens in the BAU studio his research into what he calls choreographic storytelling. Choreographic storytelling is a practice that he has been coining and developing over the last few years. It starts from the belief that every place, object or being is already and always telling their story. And we might hear these stories when we listen. So instead of overwriting them, what he sees as crucial is to practice listening which in turn affords us to rather co-compose with all these stories that are already being told at this very moment. In that way, Mirabi tries to look at listening as a choreographic process and political act.

THE GREENERY with Keren Levi - a GREENHOUSE project
7 juni 20.00-22.00h at Veem House for Performanc
€ 5,- tickets can be bought here

Four times a year, once per season, GREENHOUSE organizes THE GREENERY; a salon style evening with lectures, conversations and dialogue. The subject of each GREENERY arises from the current concerns, research and topics of interest of the host. The spring edition will be hosted by Keren Levi. 

Keren Levi is a choreographer living in Amsterdam. Her company, NeverLike, receives support from local, national, public and private foundations. Levi’s work is idiosyncratically choreographic and multidisciplinary by nature. Levi has a feminist focus and creates a heterogeneous image of women in all aspects of her work. In her process the questions arise, “what is dance?”, and “what role can dance play in a broader socio-political context?”, among others. Levi changes dance into an area where social conventions and expectations become visible

More information regarding the topic of THE GREENERY will be announced shortly. 

About THE GREENERY

Four times a year, once per season, GREENHOUSE organizes THE GREENERY. During THE GREENERY people working in the Mime, Dance and Performance field gather for an evening of exchange and inspiration. An evening where we share and create discours around relevant topics, where there’s space to open up and reflect on artistic practices. THE GREENERY is a place for deepening and allowing ideas to ferment and sprout – guided each time by the changing seasons.

Each session is based on the current concerns of one of the GREENHOUSE partners.

About GREENHOUSE
GREENHOUSE is a development network initiated by BAU, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot Keren Levi | NeverLike, Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance. The network aims a healthy ecosystem for dance, performance and mime in Amsterdam, so that artists stemming from these disciplines can flourish.

GARDENING #2 - a GREENHOUSE project
with: Marijn Brussaard, Revé Terborg, Karina Villafan and Marcin Kaminski

3 & 4 juni 17.00 – 20.00u  € 7,50
3 june is by invitation only, tickets for 4 june can be bought here.


GARDENING is a one-week creative incubator in which four dance/mime/performance artists are given the opportunity to simmer and grow new ideas alongside each other. They are given a studio space while being actively coached by professionals in the field. GARDENING is about planting new seeds, making, meeting, feeding, growing, sharing and cross pollinating each other’s worlds. 

GARDENING #2 kicks off on May 26th and ends with four public sharings on Saturday June 4th. The artists will be coached by Eva Villanueva. Read below for more information about the makers and the themes they will focus on during GARDENING.

Important info
GARDENING starts with two showings at BAU and continues at Veem House where we will enjoy a bowl of soup + bread before we watch the last two showings. So please be aware that this event starts at 17h00 at BAU (Entrepotdok 4, 1018 AD Amsterdam) and ends at around 20h00 at Veem House (Van Diemenstraat 408-410, 1013 CR Amsterdam). As public transport between the two locations takes some time, we advise you to come on bike.

GARDENING is a GREENHOUSE project, produced by Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance.

Here you can read more information about the artists.

6 May: open studio with Mami Kang, a GREENHOUSE project
Sold out. 

Currently, Mami Kang is working on her new performance Body Drift [working title]. In this piece, she intends to create the composition of an anonymous figure with a tendency of morphing. With the creation of fragmented and fantastical narratives, voice, sound, and movements, the work imagines dance as something that transcends human exceptionalism and attempts to bring an altered spirit and vibrancy to it.

During this open studio at Veem House, Mami Kang will hold an open rehearsal and invite you into her creation process.

Body Drift [working title] is a GREENHOUSE project, produced by Veem House for Performance in co-production with ICK Dans Amsterdam. BAU is one of the initiators of and participators in the GREENHOUSE network. 

Our open call for the BAU AIR residency is now closed. We received a high amount of proposals which we are going to read in the coming weeks with great pleasure. Thank you all for sharing your ideas and interesting submissions. On June 1 we will announce the selected residents of 2022! 

BAU AIR is a tailor-made residency of four weeks for an established talent in the performing arts. Through an annual open call, we invite creators from different artistic and cultural backgrounds to apply for the residency with a developed plan that focuses on artistic development and experimentation. BAU selects three makers per year. Each residency concludes with a final presentation.

The annual open call is now open! You can submit your research proposal until May 1, 2022. The first residency starts at the end of August 2022.

See BAU.AIR for more info. 

Come Together #7 canceled

With the posters freshly printed, we are very very sad to say that we have to cancel this years edition of Come Together (again). We had a great line up of artists...... We really hope we can see you all at COME TOGETHER #8.
 

THE GREENERY #2:

The end of the world as we know it
with Nicole Beutler and guests

16 november 2021, Veem House for Performance, 20:00
€ 5, language: english

Four times a year, once a season, GREENHOUSE organizes THE GREENERY; a salon style evening with lectures, conversations and dialogue. The fall edition will be hosted by Nicole Beutler. Since she’s working on RITUALS OF TRANSFORMATION there is a natural overlap with the autumn season and concepts of change, farewell and letting go.

Autumn brings an end to the season of growth. What was built up in the Summer is gathered and utilized in the Autumn. Leaves, fruits and seeds are full of potential the moment they hit the earth. Dying in order to support growth – dying as part of a cycle.

​​In the coming years, choreographer and theater maker Nicole Beutler will only be making work about the climate crisis. “Our living world is changing and we will have to relate to it.” Under the title RITUALS OF TRANSFORMATION (towards a new humanity), she is working on three big stage productions that each highlight a different phase of the upcoming change – in search of a new balance between humans, animals, thing and nature.

In GINKGO or 56 years ago there were palm trees on the North Pole (the first part of the trilogy) we say goodbye to the world as we know it. Our world is crumbling and endangered. Let’s imagine everything around us disappearing, not only the insects, and bees but also the objects and constructions we have built. Let’s also imagine humanity disappearing.

In the research preceding and during the creation process we deepen our understanding of the Buddhist concept of impermanence, the art of letting go. We are facing our fear; is this the end of the world? How does the Anthropocene come to an end? Will humanity disappear?

During this GREENERY we would like to learn more about apocalyptic thinking related to the climate crisis and to religion. And we would like to organize a collective meditation in which we learn to let go of our fears, live a lighter life because we understand the impermanence of everything – including ourselves and humanity. So we invited Eric Soyeux to guide us through a meditation. To reflect on the end of the world as we know it, to feel our understanding of this potential ending, to be able to let go of the fear that is accompanying us.

About Eric Soyeux
Eric Soyeux began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1984 and has been teaching it for decades. He has taken instruction from several teachers including Sogyal Rinpoche and Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. He has done many retreats including a one-year personal retreat and a three-year retreat at Lerab Ling, ‘Institute of Wisdom and Compassion’, in southern France. He has also been working as a Buddhist spiritual caregiver in prisons. This has given him a wealth of knowledge and experience, including about his special interest: the various aspects of the Buddhist path and the different movements that have developed from it.

Eric gives meditation training and courses from his own organization Be Real Meditation. “The training I give is based on my years of Buddhist training and teaching experience, but free from all cultural and religious ballast, focused on the actuality of life in our modern times and tailored to personal needs.”

About THE GREENERY
Four times a year, once per season, GREENHOUSE organizes THE GREENERY. During THE GREENERY people working in the Mime, Dance and Performance field gather for an evening of exchange and inspiration. An evening where we share and create discours around relevant topics, where there’s space to open up and reflect on artistic practices. THE GREENERY is a place for deepening and allowing ideas to ferment and sprout – guided each time by the changing seasons.

Each session is based on the current concerns of one of the GREENHOUSE partners.

OFF VENUE a performance tour of Festival WhyNot
3 & 4 July 2021
14.00 / 15.00 - 17.00 / 18.00 hrs
BAU, Studio ITE, Jacuzzi and Chassé Dance Studios

A look behind the scenes of Amsterdam dance workspaces.

In this pandemic world, where little work could be presented, artists and choreographers have been working hard behind the scenes, creating new pieces. That is why this year's OFF VENUE tour, set on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 July in the afternoon, will guide you past several Amsterdam dance workspaces. The 'kitchens' of the dance and performance world, where makers cook up their performances.

This OFF VENUE tour lets you see exciting works by emerging choreographers and performance artists, while discovering the iconic buildings in which the dance studios are located, from former warehouse to monumental church. 

With the body extensions and wearable musical instruments of Astrit Ismaili. An improvisation between hip-hop dancer Shailesh Bahoran and Indian sarod player Avi Kishna. Taming of a horse as a metaphor for self-control in Courtney May Robertson's multimedia performance. And a choreographic clash between geological elements, the digital world and machines by choreographer Elisa Zuppini with DJ James Whipple (M.E.S.H.) and dancer Federica Dalla Pozza.

Come on a bike ride with us!

More info and tickets via www.offvenue.nl

We made a short video from our pilot residency BAU AIR² 2020. Choreographer/dancer Vera Tussing and choreographer/composer/performance artist Astrit Ismaili immersed themselves in their current, artistic research at BAU Studios. They also organized workshops, held an open studio and presented the interim outcome at the end of the residency during an informal presentation in Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond. 

Go to video!
 

The first pilot edition of GARDENING is a wrap! We look back to a week full of exploration, artists challenging themselves, trying-out new stuff, taking risks and cross pollinating each others worlds. We're grateful that we could realize this first initimate and fruitful edition. Next year we hope to be back with a new and even longer GARDENING!

Participating artists of GARDENING #1 were: Lucinda Wessels, Niek Vanoosterweyck, Keerthi Basavarajaiah and Sofie Kramer.
GARDENING is a one-week creative incubator in which four dance/mime/performance artists are given the opportunity to simmer and grow new ideas alongside each other.

GARDENING is a GREENHOUSE project, initiated by BAU Dance & Performance Amsterdam, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Keren Levi l Never Like, Nicole Beutler Projects & Veem House for Performance.

GARDENING is a one-week creative incubator in which four dance/mime/performance artists are given the opportunity to simmer and grow new ideas alongside each other. They are given a studio space while being actively coached by professionals in the field. GARDENING is about planting new seeds, making, meeting, feeding, growing, sharing and cross pollinating each other’s worlds. 

GARDENING #1 (pilot) will take place from 5 – 10 April 2021 at Veem House for Performance and the BAU studios. Participating artists are Keerthi Basavarajaiah, Sofie Kramer, Lucinda Wessels and Niek Vanoosterweyck. They will be coached by choreographer & GREENHOUSE partner Keren Levi. 

Public sharing  
We had hoped to open our studio doors on the 10th of April, to share with you what the artists have been working on. Unfortunately, this event cannot take place due to the current COVID-19 regulations.  
 
GARDENING is a GREENHOUSE project. Produced by Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance. 
  
GREENHOUSE 
GREENHOUSE is a development network for dance, mime and performance initiated by BAU Platform for Dance and Performance, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Keren Levi | NeverLike, Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance. The network aims to create a healthy ecosystem in Amsterdam in which artists stemming from these disciplines can flourish. 
In GREENHOUSE we share connections, facilities, ideas and expertise. Together we claim time and space for exploration, experimentation and encounters. We join forces to create the support network that’s needed for artists to take root, simmer, grow and flower within the artistic environment. Over the next four years, the network strives to initiate and produce new work, offer residencies and internships, organize workshops, talks, summer schools and festivals. 

COME TOGETHER #6: INTIMACY, IN A STATE OF CHANGE
11-13 March 2021, Frascati Theatre – CANCELLED

Due to the corona measures, COME TOGETHER #6 unfortunately cannot be a public event this year. We would however like to share with you the artist selection for this edition: Antonia Steffens, ARIAH LESTER, Astrit Ismaili, Burning Blue, Charles Pas, Courtney May Robertson & Paul Sixta, Keren Levi, Lucia Fernandez-Santoro, Mami Kang and Maria Magdalena Kozłowska would have shared their ideas and works-in-progress with us. These makers will continue to work on their projects in our studio spaces at BAU and Veem House for Performance. On these pages you can read more about what they are working on. Follow @cometogetheramsterdam on Instagram or Facebook for updates about future opportunities to see the hard work come to fruition.

COME TOGETHER aims to create space for experiment and exchange. By generating opportunities to grow together, we hope to contribute to a fertile breeding ground for the Amsterdam performance, dance and mime scene. COME TOGETHER is not a festival in the classical sense of the word. Rather than presenting finished pieces, it provides a platform for all forms of sharing: works-in-process, experiments, performance excerpts, installations, talks and workshops.

Over the last three editions, the COME TOGETHER programme was curated from submitted proposals following an open call, hosting a large community of up to 50 artists. Due to the corona measures we were forced to downscale the program for COME TOGETHER #6 considerably, inviting 10 artists in total to participate. Through personal invitation, the curational team strove to gather an inspiring and multi-facetted group of outspoken artists to share their current fascination and artistic search.

Be safe, keep dancing and we hope that we all can come together again next year.  
The curatorial team,
Nicole Beutler, Keren Levi, Eva Villanueva, Marga Kroodsma, Suzan Boogaerdt & Bianca van der Schoot.
 
COME TOGETHER was first initiated by Nicole Beutler, Andrea Božić and Keren Levi in 2014, when they presented their work alongside each other. Since that time the gathering grew.

COME TOGETHER #6  is a GREENHOUSE project in collaboration with Frascati.

GREENHOUSE is a new development network by BAU Platform for Dance and Performance, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot, Keren Levi | NeverLike, Nicole Beutler Projects and Veem House for Performance.

COME TOGETHER #6
Curatorial Team: Eva Villanueva, Keren Levi, Marga Kroodsma, Nicole Beutler, Suzan Boogaerdt & Bianca van der Schoot
Artistic Coordinator: Justa ter Haar
Production: Nicole Beutler Projects in collaboration with Frascati and BAU Platform for Dance and Performance
With the support of Veem House for Performance, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Fonds Podiumkunsten

Photo: Maria Magdalena Kozłowska,photographer Bas de Brouwer

What does the lockdown financially mean for you, workers in the cultural and creative sector?

The Creative Coalition of which BAU is a member, sets out an investigation to get hard numbers for the lobby for additional support measures.

"The lockdown will remain in place for a while. Where are you now? Are you still coping financially? Are you making use of emergency support? Are you temporarily working outside the sector? What do you need most to survive the crisis?

A large part of the cultural and creative sector has been locked up for ten months now. There is no concrete prospect of reopening. What does this mean for the financial situation of people working in culture?

Do you work in the cultural and creative sector? Then help us by participating in our research."
Please fill in this form and help us get the right facts!

NEW SED GRANT: APPLY 1-3 FEB

Applications for the Stimuleringsregeling voor contemporary dance (SED) can be submitted to the AFK between 1 and 3 February 2021. Apply on time, applications will be dealt with in order of entry and only a limited number can be accepted.

The basic principle of the scheme is to support freelance dance professionals in their professional practice. Independent choreographers and dancers with a clear relationship with the city of Amsterdam can apply for an allowance for the costs of renting rehearsal and assembly rooms in Amsterdam. The actual rental costs will be reimbursed, with a maximum annual amount of € 3,000 per freelancer. With the support dance professionals can do research and deepen their profession.

www.afk.nl

CALL FOR PARTICIPATING 
BAU Agency Research Project

In 2020, on behalf of BAU, Marion Tränkle and Michael Jahoda carried out in-depth research into the functioning of the ideal agency for independent dance and performance makers. They’ve build a website where you not only find the outcome of their research but also a prototype for a digital agency.

We invite all of you to participate in the last part of the research phase and test this digital platform that aims to better serve, promote and sell the work of independent makers, by uploading your work before the end of January 2021.

You'll find the agency test platform right here.

This helps us to better understand the workings of such a platform. We also ask programmers to give feedback on the idea now on the table. In case you have remarks or comments you’d like to share with us, please contact Michael and Marion via agency@bau.amsterdam. The research phase ends by February 1st. After that we evaluate the results and make possible follow-up plans. 

INVITATION
Open BAU Meeting: BAU Agency
16 december 2020
19.30 – 21.30 hrs Zoom
Register via agency@bau.amsterdam

We are very pleased to invite you to the upcoming Open BAU Meeting on the topic of the BAU Agency, hosted by Michael Jahoda and Marion Tränkle. This year they have been working on a solid framework for a new agency model and platform that can better serve, represent and sell the work of independent performance and dance makers in Amsterdam.

Michael and Marion are eager to bring you up to speed on all the developments that they have been making, and they will walk and talk you through the workings of a prototype website for a research archive and proto-digital agency. They will run through a real-time test of the platform and invite all of you makers to contribute to the process, comment on it and see how it could develop further.

Please keep in mind that this is a research project that aims to make its results publicly available. The website not intended to be a finalised product but a viable model and resource base for the greater scene to benefit from.

We very much look forward to seeing and meeting with you. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us at agency@bau.amsterdam

See you the 16th!

What does the lockdown financially mean for you?

The Kunstenbond and the Creative Coalition of which BAU is a member, sets out an investigation to get hard numbers for the lobby for additional support measures.

"The lockdown will remain in place for a while. Where are you now? Are you still coping financially? Are you making use of emergency support? Are you temporarily working outside the sector? What do you need most to survive the crisis?

A large part of the cultural and creative sector has been locked up for ten months now. There is no concrete prospect of reopening. What does this mean for the financial situation of people working in culture?

Do you work in the cultural and creative sector? Then help us by participating in our research."

Please fill in this form and help us get the right facts!

CLOSING PRESENTATION BAU AIR² with Vera Tussing and Astrit Ismaili sold out!
4/12 Rode Zaal Brakke Grond, Nes 45 Amsterdam.
19.30 – 21.00 hrs. 
We work with a waiting list. If you are unexpectedly unable, or if you want to sign up for the waiting list, please send an e-mail to: air@bau.amsterdam.

Choreographer Vera Tussing and performance artist Astrit Ismaili dedicated the past few weeks to research, experiment and in-depth conversations. For a month they worked in the studios of BAU on the further development of their current project. Astrit researched the functioning of a new wearable instrument for part two of his opera MISS and Vera delved deeper into the meaning of touch and closeness in (dance) performances for her upcoming book. In the final presentation they show their work with film, part of a performance, a manifesto and an interactive reading of some research texts. 

Astrit is accompanied by sound designer Michele Abolaffio and filmmaker Ana Plowden. Vera is supported by many of her colleagues at distance including Elvira Crois, Yoh Morishita, Ben McEwen, Michael Picknett, JS Rafaeli and Julia Rubies Subiro. Afterwards, a substantive discussion takes place under the guidance of Charmy Rose.

PUBLIC PROGRAM BAU AIR² 
Hereby you'll find all the information on the Public Program of BAU AIR². It takes place at BAU, Entrepotdok 4 Amsterdam. Apply with your full name and phone number via air@bau.amsterdam for each part of the programme you'd like to join. We'll make sure it's all Covid-19 proof.

24/11 Open studio's Astrit Ismaili and Vera Tussing with Ben McEwen and Yoh Morishita
15.00 - 18.00 hrs, free entrance
BAU AIR² Open Studio's is a great change to meet both the artists, Vera Tussing and Astrit Ismaili, and find out more about the projects they're working on. Vera invites Ben McEwan and Yoh Morishita to join her open studio. Astrit asked Michele Abolaffio to participate. 

Practical info:
We'll work with time slots. Every hour (15.00, 16.00 and 17.00 hrs) we invite a group of max 12 people to join the Open Studio's.  When you sign-up it's possible to indicate which time slot you prefer or at which moment you are unable to join the Open Studio's. 

27/11 Workshop Choreographing / Dancing Touch by Vera Tussing.
10.00 - 12.00 hrs € 10,-
For this workshop Vera Tussing will give several short insights into her choreographic practice on tactility, consent and collectivity. She will invite the participants both to explore physically as well as engage in discussions. All explorations will be done in accordance with the current safety guidance.
www.veratussing.com

28/11 Workshop Creative when Limited by Astrit Ismaili.
10.00 - 16.00 hrs € 15,-
Note: the dates has changed. From 28 & 29/11 to 28/11 only. The price changed as well to € 15,-. ‘Creative when Limited’ is a two days workshop that focuses on the possible becoming states that the body can achieve within restrictive situations. Adding restrictions to the body will directly affect the movement, but will also extend the possibilities to explore new ways of interacting with the space and the other parts of their body that aren’t limited. The limitation will be the starting point of the workshop, but the main focus will be invested in the freedom that you can find within limitation. The workshop is part of Astrits recent performance project ‘MISS’ which deals with the same topic. An important element of the project is reflecting on particular historical events that directly relate with the notion of the workshop.
www.astritismaili.com

4/12 Closing presentation BAU AIR² with Vera Tussing and Astrit Ismaili
Rode Zaal Brakke Grond, Nes 45 Amsterdam.
The program is free of entrance.

You are very much welcome at the closing presentation of BAU AIR². Choreographer Vera Tussing and performance artist Astrit Ismaili dedicated the past few weeks to research, experiment and in-depth conversations. For a month they worked in the studios of BAU on the further development of their current project. Astrit researched the functioning of a new wearable instrument for part two of his opera MISS and Vera delved deeper into the meaning of touch and closeness in (dance) performances for her upcoming book. In the final presentation they show their work with film, part of a performance, a manifesto and an interactive reading of some research texts. 

Astrit is accompanied by sound designer Michele Abolaffio and filmmaker Ana Plowden. Vera is supported by many of her colleagues at distance including Elvira Crois, Yoh Morishita, Ben McEwen, Michael Picknett, JS Rafaeli and Julia Rubies Subiro. Afterwards, a substantive discussion takes place under the guidance of Charmy Rose.

About BAU AIR²
BAU AIR² is a tailor-made residency, which creates opportunities for cross-border talent to interact with the Dutch dance and performance scene. For a period of 1 to 2 months, an international and a local dance or performance professional work simultaneously on the further development of their artistic idea. Depending on the need, BAU puts together a tailor-made programme, with the commitment of cultural partners and on the advice of the AIR Pool, a selected group of art professionals. The programme focuses on space for experiment, in-depth knowledge exchange and the growth of networks. The residencies close with a form free presentation of both artists that is open to the audience.

BAU AIR² stimulates the development of dance and performance in the Netherlands with international influences. At the same time, the Netherlands contributes to the development of dance and performance abroad. 
 
BAU AIR² is an initiative of BAU platform for dance and performance.

The BAU AIR² Team (Marjolein Vogels, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Iris Peters, Eva Villanueva) works closely together with coach Erik Hagoort, the Veem House for Performance and Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond. These partners provide prominent stages in Amsterdam to show the work of the residents.

In addition, the carefully composed AIR Pool serves as a sounding board. This diverse group of art professionals includes Priscilla Macintosh, Janneke Raaphorst, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Setareh Fateh Irani, Richard John Jones, Annechien van Litsenburg, Christian Guerematchi and Clara Amaral.

TOZO CHANGES PER 1 OCTOBER 2020

Tozo 3 runs from 1 October 2020 to 1 July 2021

If your income as a self-employed entrepeneur falls below the social minimum due to the corona crisis, you may be entitled to the Tozo, a specially created temporary bridging scheme. It provides a supplementary livelihood allowance up to the social minimum.

You can apply for the Tozo#2 scheme until 1 October 2020. After that, from 1 October 2020 until 1 July 2021, an adjusted Tozo #3 scheme comes into effect. This is what will change:

TOZO 3 APPLICATIONS

You can apply for Tozo 2 until 1 October 2020. After 1 October you can apply for Tozo 3 at your municipality of residence. If you already received a Tozo 2 benefit, you can submit a shortened application form as soon as your municipality of residence has completed the application procedure. Your Tozo 2 benefit will not be automatically extended. You must indicate in your application whether or not your situation has changed since your previous application. You also need to state that your total equity (private capital) is below the permitted limit of € 46,520. Keep an eye on the website of your municipality for more information.

BENEFIT UNTIL 1 JULY 2021

If you meet the conditions, the livelihood allowance can be granted for the months October 2020 up to and including June 2021. You can indicate how many months you want to apply for a benefit.

The Tozo is extended until 1 July 2021. This does not mean that support for self-employed entrepreneurs will cease after that date. The Besluit Bijstandsverlening zelfstandigen (Bbz) will continue to serve as a safety net for the group of self-employed persons. With the Bbz the entrepreneur can receive support for living expenses and working capital. This is possible both for entrepreneurs with a viable business, as well as for entrepreneurs who want to end their business. 

CHANGED CONDITONS TOZO 3

As of 1 October 2020, a test on available cash will be introduced in the Tozo 3. This test will be in addition to the tests that exist in the Tozo 2. As with the equity test in the Bbz, the test on available funds will be designed in such a way that the self-employed are not forced to liquidate parts of their company or independent profession. This would be at the expense of the company's viability and the possibility of starting up again with independent activities after the corona crisis. The test on available cash means that entrepreneurs with more than € 46,520 in available cash (such as cash, bank and savings balances and shares, bonds and options, etc.) are not eligible for the Tozo 3. Other assets, including those from the owner-occupied home, protected pension, business premises, machinery, business equipment and supplies, are not taken into account. Further information about this to entrepreneurs and municipalities will follow shortly.

The parliament feels it is important for entrepreneurs to orient themselves on their future and sees that many entrepreneurs are already thinking about this. The next phase of the Tozo 3 will start on 1 January 2021. In this phase municipalities will support independent entrepreneurs where necessary to prepare for a new future, either as an independent entrepreneur or as an employee. Together with independent entrepreneurs, municipalities will make an inventory of whether and if so, which support of the independent entrepreneur is needed. This could be coaching, advice, retraining and reorientation.

TOZO 3 LOAN FOR WORKING CAPITAL

Self-employed persons who have liquidity problems as a result of the corona crisis can also apply for a corporate loan in the follow-up scheme. The loan for the Tozo 1, Tozo 2 and Tozo 3 together has a maximum of € 10,157.

You cannot apply for a Tozo 3 loan for working capital if you have applied for or obtained a moratorium or bankruptcy for yourself, your company or one of the partners with whom you work.

BACKGROUND CHANGES TOZO 3

The Tozo is an assistance scheme, which in principle limits assistance to persons who do not have the means to cover the necessary costs of living. For this reason, it is logical to include the available funds in addition to income when determining the right to Tozo. When Tozo 1 and 2 were introduced, the choice was made, for implementation reasons, to exclude the wealth of the self-employed person when determining the right to Tozo. Now that the use of the Tozo has decreased considerably, the introduction of such a test is now one of the possibilities that can be implemented for municipalities. As a result, the use of the Tozo will be more focused and there will be less misuse. In addition, a step has been taken towards the application of the regular assistance regime for self-employed entrepreneurs, the Bbz.

In addition, as the crisis continues, the government considers it important that companies and entrepreneurs adapt to this new economic situation. The government wants to help entrepreneurs to adapt to a changed society and economy. That is why the cabinet gives an impulse to the reorientation of entrepreneurs.

The Tozo will be extended until July 1, 2021. This does not mean that support for independent entrepreneurs will disappear after that date. The Bbz will continue to serve as a safety net for the group of self-employed people. With the Bbz the entrepreneur can get support for livelihood assistance and working capital. This is possible for entrepreneurs with a viable business, as well as for entrepreneurs who want to end their business.  The Bbz is a facility with strict conditions and a long processing time. This does not fit in with the purpose of the current support package in which companies and employees get more security and perspective through the extension of temporary financial arrangements and are supported in adapting to the changed society and economy. In addition, municipalities are not yet equipped to handle large numbers of applications for the Bbz. Therefore, the choice has been made to extend the Tozo until July 1, 2021.

PARTNER INCOME TEST REMAINS IN FORCE

The partner income test is also carried out at Tozo 3 if you apply for the supplementary living allowance. The partner income test means that the partner's income is taken into account when determining the amount of the benefit. If the household income is above the social minimum, you are not entitled to Tozo 3 maintenance benefits, just as with Tozo 2.

OPEN BAU MEETING JULY 4th

Dear all,

Together with WhyNot x Julidans Off Venue we organize our next Open BAU Meeting on July 4th at 16.45 hrs in the Slatuinen in Amsterdam.
(Slatuinenweg 45, 1057 KB Amsterdam)

Both evenings of WhyNot x Julidans Off Venue are already sold out but for the Open BAU Meeting an extra edition of the tour Pranic Grid by Annika Kappner will be on show.
After this audio experience we invite you to walk to a café nearby (to be announced at the event), to get together and have a chat for the last time before we officially dive into the summer.

Please register before Friday July 3rd by sending an email to info@bau.amsterdam

We hope to see you at the Slatuinen!

Best,

BAU

ANNIKA KAPPNER - PRĀṆIC GRID

Especially for the lush Slatuinen, one of the richest ecosystems in the city centre, multidisciplinary artist Annika Kappner creates a guided audio experience with connectivity as a starting point. In this fairytale garden we explore the sensory dimension of our own experiences and the mental notions of ecosystems and networks.
http://www.annikakappner.com/

NEWSLETTER BAU #2 - 2020

Dear people,

Here is our newsletter #2!
This edition comes to you from the BAU home workplaces, because our office and studios are closed as well. What a strange time this is. But along with the difficulties comes unexpected time for reflection, space to think differently and to see new possibilities. Suddenly it turns out that our BAU Lab about viruses, which took place in November, was very prophetic! So you see, art is always a few steps ahead. We miss our nice workspace at the waterfront and the budding plants on the square. And especially the bustle and company of makers who normally go in and out.
Therefore we would be pleased to see you at the Online Open BAU Meeting on May 1st so we can keep in touch with each other - for details see the end of the newsletter.
In this newsletter we hope to inform you about current affairs.

CORONA CRISIS

ZZP’ers in the Corona era
The Corona virus has had a huge impact on all aspects of society. And rightly a lot of attention has been given to the impact on the health of the population and those that take care of us.
In the Arts sector we are used to getting a lot done with little means. And while we have already been through a lot, the current situation is unprecedented. What five weeks ago was a self-evident measure now turns out to be a catastrophe.
 
With the cessation of all cultural activities, the expected loss in turnover in the arts and culture sector until June 1st is estimated at 969 million euros. Theatres, museums, festivals and producing organizations will suffer a great deal as a result. But about 60% of our sector consists of freelancers, of which a large part is not working for the (large) institutions. While this group is the most vulnerable, it is the group whose needs are being met the least.
 
For the months of March to May, companies with at least 20% loss of turnover are supplemented up to 90% of the total wage bill (NOW; Noodmaatregel Overbrugging Werkgelegenheid). However the income of the self-employed is supplemented only to the minimum wage level with a special program (TOZO; Tijdelijke overbruggingsregeling zelfstandig ondernemers).
Many ZZP professionals in the arts and culture are also excluded from the TOZO and TOGS (Tegemoetkoming Ondernemers Getroffen Sectoren COVID-19) schemes.

On 15 April 2020 the emergency package for the cultural sector was announced by the Minister of Culture, Ingrid van Engelshoven, and quite suddenly €300 million had been released for the sector. Good news of course, but the support appears to be mainly for the large BIS institutions (Basic Infrastructure Institutions), institutions that the government directly subsidizes for the longer term, such as ITA.
The minister does not seem to understand that the arts field is a chain, and it needs all of its links to exist.
ZZP'ers are a very important part of that chain and the €300 million is therefore a necessary and important, but above all, a first step, in which this group should not be forgotten.

BAU and the lobby
For five weeks now, interest groups and representative organizations have been working hard to lobby for Arts & Culture. BAU is part of the alliance the Creatieve Coalitie, an initiative of 36 representative parties from different disciplines of arts and culture who are lobbying for the ZZP'ers. It is very encouraging to see how united we are in working together, taking stock, doing research, communicating with the ministry, visiting the press and especially persevering. Step by step there is progress; the conditions of the regulations are being adjusted and the news reaches the press, but we still have a long way to go.

The Creative Coalition is working to have all SBI codes (Standard Business Classification Code; it tells something about your company's economic activities) to be on the list for the TOGS scheme. In addition to that we want makers to be able to have their company at their private address, and that there will be an exception for professionals in the arts and culture when it comes to the €4.000,- fixed charge requirement, and that the generic support will last longer than three months. And of course we are fighting for more support for the arts in general. Through this link you can read the detailed latest version of the TOZO scheme.
 
In the performing arts everything will start up again with a delay, because everything that cannot be rehearsed now will not be able to be performed later. Also, many organizations do not know if they can postpone their performances because it is not clear if they will still be part of the new Kunstenplan in 2021. Moreover, we have no idea when we will be able to start again and how this should be done in the performing arts, within a 1.5 meter economy.
The lobby has to continue for the time being, because the workers in the sector will need support for more than 3 months.
 
We at BAU continue to support independent dance and performance! We would like to thank all the other lobbying parties very much, including the Kunstenbond, which is incredibly committed as an umbrella advocacy party. Thanks also to all the independent makers who have provided BAU with information lately!

Are you a professional in Arts and Culture and not eligible for the TOZO or TOGS scheme? Fill in the survey!
It appears that many people do not qualify for the TOZO or TOGS scheme because they cannot meet the conditions. In order to do something about this, we want to make an inventory of how many people it concerns, so we need concrete figures. You can fill in the survey here.
 
Non-European workers legally employed here are now eligible for the TOZO scheme.
The conditions for the TOZO have now been adjusted: Foreigners with a temporary residence permit who work in the Netherlands as self-employed persons now can apply for a TOZO at municipalities. 
State Secretary Van Ark's response to the elaboration of the TOZO contains an important "victory". Persons lawfully residing in the Netherlands can, if they meet the criteria of the scheme, claim the TOZO scheme, WW or general assistance. The municipality does not need to report persons with a residence permit who are entitled to the TOZO scheme to the IND. 

Applying for general assistance may have consequences for the residence status, both for people with a residence permit and for EU citizens. The IND applies leniency with regard to persons whose residence permits expire (and by whom no extension is applied for) and for EU citizens who are temporarily unable to return to their country of origin due to the current situation. This means that during the period of 'overstay' persons will not be charged in the event of a new application for a residence permit or visa, or when traveling to the country of origin after the corona crisis. Persons without a valid residence status cannot claim general assistance.
 
#wijmakencultuur
BAU is currently working closely with De Kunstenbond and we are part of the alliance Creative Coalition, consisting of 36 interest groups from the cultural sector representing more than 46,000 independent creators, performers and creatives. Together we created this page to promote the value of culture together. More info

_{#wijmakencultuur #ikmaak #waardevancultuur #fairpractice #paytheartist #solidariteit #samensterk}

CORONA RELATED TIPS

• If you have any questions about the measures taken (TOZO, TOGS or WW) please contact your own municipality or check the websites of de Rijksoverheid, de Kamer van Koophandel, de Kunstenbond of de Creatieve Coalitie. If you cannot find the answer, you can always contact BAU: info@bau.amsterdam.
• Report your lost income and cancelled performances/assignments (anonymously) via the contact point of the Kunstenbond. This is the only way to gain insight into the size of the problem and to take action. So please really do this!
• Do you feel unfairly treated? Have contracts been broken, have agreements not been honored or financial compensation from the government unfairly distributed? Then share your story with www.unfairpractice.nl
• Let us hear from you! Share your story on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, with the newspaper, on the radio etc. Use the hashtag #wijmakencultuur and/or #ikmaakcultuur

BAU IN RETROSPECT

Come Together #5
Just at the last minute, before all the theatres closed their doors, Come Together #5 took place. During this dance and performance 'gathering', more than forty artists associated with the Amsterdam arts field showed their work in all of Frascati's spaces and interspaces. Dance, mime and performance makers from different generations and backgrounds came together to share insights, develop thoughts and present their latest experiments to each other and the audience. To get an impression of this edition you can read this review written by Lucia Fernandez Santoro.
We look back on a very successful fifth edition and thank all of this year's participants for their dedication, inspiration and presence.

 
<sub>Piotr Urbaniec, Photography Bas de Brouwer  Lancel/Maat, Photography Reinout Bos    

 
Weiz/Murugarren, Photography Reinout Bos Rebecca Collins, Photography Reinout Bos</sub>

Open BAU Meeting
During Come Together #5 our second Open BAU meeting of this year took place on Saturday the 7th of March. For this edition BAU had invited the initiative Aanvang!, a platform that organizes and facilitates meetings and conversations to better the future of the performing arts. Aanvang! and BAU discussed a few topics:
Which campaigning strategies are the best for the performing arts scene? How to collaborate to create a strong vision on arts policy? How do we convince policy makers to make radical improvements in arts funding?
One of the conclusions that can be drawn from this discussion is that many artists/makers do not feel part of initiatives that lead to policy changes or calls for action. This is partly due to the composition of our scene, which is very international and also works internationally. For example, professionals in dance and performance often cannot find the information needed to follow the conversation about politics, because in many places it is not available in English. Also, people do not always feel addressed and represented by (or welcomed by) different initiatives. We found it a very fruitful meeting and are looking forward to the next one!
 

SED

The next round of the Stimuleringsregeling Eigentijdse Dans (SED) will be carried out by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK). They will decide how to deal with the fact that the budget for this year may not be spent. Cultuur & Ondernemen will discuss this with the AFK and we will keep you informed.

BAU FACEBOOK GROUP

BAU has recently set up a Facebook group. We set up this group for the independent professionals from the Amsterdam dance and performance field. With this group we want to offer a platform to get in touch with each other and have a discussion.

ONLINE OPEN BAU MEETING

Because we cannot meet each other live, we want to organize an

Online Open BAU Meeting on Friday 1st of May, 16:00 hrs.
You can participate at Zoom via this link. Meeting ID is 852 7883 9644
We propose to talk about some subjects together with the field and share knowledge. After we would like to end the meeting with BAR drinks/talks/dances!
 
The subjects

1. Situation for us (all artists from the theatre and dance scene) - info about political regulations in Corona crisis /1,5 meter society/theatre closing/festival cancellations/postponing/closed working spaces
2. How to survive - finances (TOZO and problems from the participants with their finances) /training (where and how) /how to make work now?/funds to apply for/alternative activities
3. What do you miss? (theatre, art, meeting)
4. How to keep up the network?
5. How to stay active (what do you do to maintain your knowledge, network, finances)

The Corona crisis hits us all hard. With 34 organizations, united in the Creative Coalition, we try to give self-employed people in the cultural field a clear picture of the developments. We will always add new information on this website and on the website of the Creatieve Coalitie.

Update 23-03-2020

Information about the temporary benefits for freelancers (TOZO), concerning the Coronavirus.

On the 17th of March the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SWZ) announced a support scheme (TOZO) for freelancers. Currently there is still a lot of uncertainty amongst freelancers about this scheme: how and when can freelancers apply, and when are freelancers eligible for these benefits? The Creatieve Coalitie tries to provide more clarity on these questions.

The conditions are adopted from the website of the Ministry of the SWZ. The TOZO is not yet in force and still needs to officially be published. However, in some municipalities applications for this temporary benefit can be processed. If a freelancer is in serious financial stress, the municipality can give an advance.

Only apply now if you need immediate financial support

The ministry of SZW asks freelancers who still have sufficient financial reserves to wait with the application. In this way municipalities are less overburdened and can handle more adequately. The official KvK-advisory team of the Coronavirus can be reached from Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 17:00 by calling 0800- 2117. The KvK-advisory team also answers Tweets: @KvK-NL. FAQ are answered in English on their website.

Temporary benefits for freelancers (TOZO)

The temporary benefits (TOZO) are for freelancers and entrepreneurs who have become the victim of the coronavirus crisis.

There are two types of benefits:

• A maximum of 3 months income-support up to a social minimum.
• A loan for working capital.

TOZO for freelancers amounts to a maximum of €1.500,31 net per month per household. This is based on the existing Bbz (decree on assistance for freelancers), but in this case will be processed and provided more quickly. Because of the exceptional situation in which The Netherlands currently finds herself this scheme has temporary flexible conditions: The income-support for life sustenance will not have to be repaid. In addition, a loan for working capital can be requested.

For the time being, TOZO applies for 3 months (until the 1st of June 2020 and with retroactive effect from the 1st of March 2020). It is carried out by the municipality in which the freelancer lives. The ministry of SZW will further elaborate the scheme together with the association of the Dutch municipality among others.

What will the scheme look like?

You will be able to request support in the form of an additional benefit for living and/or working capital. The scheme is based on the existing Bbz and will be processed by municipalities where you live, not the municipality where your company is located.

The TOZO includes the following:

• Testing for viability is not in order, which means that applications can be processed more quickly.
• Within 4 weeks and for a period of max. 3 months income-support for life sustenance will be provided. Municipalities have the ability to work with advances.
• The amount of income-support, depending on both income and the household situation, is a maximum of €1.500,31 net per month.
• The accelerated procedure also applies to working capital loans and amounts up to €10,157.
• Income-support for life sustenance will not have to be repaid in the future. There is no asset- or partner test.
• The option to postpone the repayment obligation is included when a working capital loan is granted.
• When a working capital loan is granted, a lower interest rate than the usual Bbz is applied.

To whom does TOZO apply?

The scheme applies to freelancers who have become a victim of the Coronavirus crisis. The government is asking all freelancers to only apply for the scheme for this special case. Freelancers residing in Belgium or Germany are not eligible.

Specific requirements:

• You are an established freelancer from the age of 18 to the retirement age.
• You are a resident (lawfully) in the Netherlands.
• You are Dutch or equivalent; a citizen of a country within the European union, Switzerland, Iceland, Finland, Lichtenstein, Norway; or in possession of a valid residence permit.
• Your business or profession is carried out in the Netherlands (commissions abroad are allowed).
• You meet the legal requirements for running your own business, including being registered in the Trade Register of the KvK.
• You started your business before the 1st of January 2020 and you meet the hour criterion, that is to say at least 1,225 hours per year working in your own company or profession.
• You are a resident in the municipality in which additional income-support is requested.

Attention! Freelancers on a payroll (who are not self-employed professionals and are not registered at the KvK) are noteligible for the temporary benefit. They may be eligible for WW (unemployment benefits). For them the existing conditions are applied, including the wekeneis (the requirement that you have worked at least 26 weeks out of the 36 before you became unemployed). We await the precise rules of the new regulations. These have yet to be officially published.

TOZO is not yet in force

Because TOZO is not yet in force, municipalities do not have access to it yet. However, they can process applications. Municipalities that desire to support freelancers without the official scheme can do this by granting an advance. For those who are financial stable the government requests to wait a little longer with the application, this will relieve the municipalities and the people who really need the support. Some municipalities use separate organizations for the implementation of temporary benefits.

For more information on granting advances, check the website of your municipality under Corona info.

How to apply for TOZO?

To apply you must fill in the existing Bbz application form, which you can find on the official website of the municipality in which you live. Submit this form to your municipality, together with an extract from the Trade Register from the KvK, copies of your identification, bank statements and existing orders and letters. Municipalities will attempt to process these digitally.

Currently the Ministry of SWZ is working on TOZO and expects to be able to provide more details by 25th of March 2020. The official scheme itself is not yet in force due to the demanding procedures attached to it.

If you apply you have to choose your category (below the links to the webpages of the municipality of Amsterdam):

Starting freelancers Freelancing for less than a year and a half but experiencing temporary financial problems? Read about the possibilities for benefits or working capital through the following link: Bbz-regeling voor startende ondernemers/zzp’ers.

Established freelancers Freelancing for more than a year but experiencing temporary financial problems? Read the possibilities for a benefit or working capital through the following link: Bbz-regeling voor gevestigde ondernemers/zzp’ers.

60+ freelancers Freelancing over the age of 60 but not earning enough? Read the possibilities for a benefit or working capital through the following link: Bbz-regeling voor ondernemers/zzp-ers van 60+

CALL FOR YOUR INFO REGARDING A COMPENSATION FOR FREELANCERS WITH FINANCIAL DAMAGE DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS

Dear independent makers, artists and other freelance employees working in the field of dance and performance, 

Currently, the ministry and the municipalities (with input from the arts union Kunstenbond and other representatives of the arts) are working on a regulation for freelancers for a temporary financial compensation for three months (with a possible extension of three months). Before the temporary regulation is drawn up, it is very important that as much information as possible is collected by the trade unions and representative parties.

Next Monday there will be a meeting with Minister Van Engelshoven at which there should be an impression of the total financial damage of self-employed people in the cultural sector. For this we need your information, preferably before this Monday. 

Please fill in your information about your financial damage caused by the corona virus, on the form at the contact point of the Kunstenbond.
Give as much information as possible about your situation:
-Are you Dutch or do you work here legally but are you foreign, or other?
-Have you not signed an agreement for an assignment, but do you have proof that agreements have been made (make sure you keep the proof)?
-What income you will lose in the short term (until 6th of April), in the medium term (’till the 1st of June) and in the long term (please fill this in at question D. of the form).

-Do you also have cancelled assignments abroad? 
Etc.

The regulation will be implemented as soon as possible and will be executed by the municipality of the city where you are based.
For Amsterdam it will be published here, as soon as more information is available.
BAU will keep you updated via our website and Facebookpage.

At the moment there are several online sketches of the upcoming regulation. But as described above, it has yet to be worked out. The Kunstenbond is aware of the situation of people who are foreign but work here in the Netherlands as freelancers. The different situations of these people will be taken into account in the meetings.

We also recommend, if you haven't already done so, to become a member of the arts union: Kunstenbond to strengthen your position as a freelancer in the arts.

You can find international information for the independent art scene in the situation of the Coronavirus here.

Warmly,
Eva Villanueva
BAU

NEWSLETTER BAU #5 - dec 2019

Greetings to you all!

The time has come for our last newsletter of this year, even of this decennium. We hope you’re doing well and that you will have at least a bit of time to reflect upon things during these semi cold winter days.

BAU is in reflection mode these days but more importantly in anticipation mode. We’re mostly focussing on the writing of a terrific Kunstenplan, since we hope to still receive money (more money!) to support the independent scene in the next four years.

As you might know these have been boisterous times in terms of art policy with the plans of the Minister of Culture - Ingrid van Engelshoven - to take away 8,6 million of the FPK (Performing Arts Fund). So firstly we would like to point out the Zie Ons action. The NAPK (Dutch association for the performing arts) created an “action magazine against the destruction of creative capital”. Later on in the newsletter we’ll give you an introduction to what these organisations like NAPK are actually doing, since we can imagine that it can be confusing! Furthermore we have some information on how the SED procedure went, on the upcoming Open BAU Meeting during Polyphonic Songs and more...

We hope you all will have peaceful and calm holidays.

See you in 2020!

X X
BAU

POLYPHONIC SONGS: 16 - 25 JANUARY
We're happy to invite you to Polyphonic Songs, a collaborative program organised by Veem House for Performance, Keren Levi | NeverLike, Nicole Beutler Projects, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot & BAU. Combining works in progress alongside established works, we locate inspiration in conversation and discoveries amongst new and familiar voices. This 10-day program embodies on-going dialogue concerning the development of the Amsterdam dance, mime and performance field.

Please come, join and discover Polyphonic Songs together with us January 16 - 25 @ Veem House for Performance.

Within this program we will host an Open BAU Meeting at Veem on Saturday the 18th of January at 5 pm. More info will follow soon.

FOR DUMMIES - LOBBY ORGANISATIONS & ART UNIONS

Probably you have followed the horrific plans to cut the arts funding in the Netherlands and Belgium. We thought it might be good to give you an insight in the art union organisations here in the Netherlands, who do the lobby for the performing arts (or arts in general) and are attempting to create better working conditions for artists and creatives. Most of their info is in Dutch unfortunately, so we made some translations for you.

Firstly, a small list of the most important organisations in this spectrum:
- Kunstenbond
- Kunsten 92
- ACI meeting / DaThO
- NAPK

Who are they and what do they do? How can they help us as independent makers and professionals?

KUNSTENBOND
Kunstenbond is the biggest union of artists and creatives of all disciplines in the Netherlands. Kunstenbond wants to create a better future for the ones working in the arts. They operate in the Netherlands and look after the interests of all professional artists working in this country, no matter where one is originally from.

You can become a member, which means you can ask for legal assistance, help with reading contracts, assistance with your taxes, etc. Here you’ll find some reasons to become a member. So Kunstenbond is mostly there for topics related to working conditions, with a focus on the relation between employer and employee.

What else do they do? They for example have a platform for #unfairpractice in which they gather information of unfair wages and poor working conditions. You can share your stories with them.

They’re trying to make some parts of their website accessible for English speakers.

KUNSTEN ‘92
Kunsten ‘92 is the main interest group or association for arts, culture and heritage. Their aim is to solidify the social and political climate for arts and culture in the Netherlands with a collective voice.

They have three focus points:
- advocacy; strengthening the contact between arts and politics
- improvement of the image of arts and culture
- information provision

How do they do this?
By lobbying towards the governments, by organising activities and meetings, by bringing parties together to exchange knowledge, and by research and by bringing out ‘background’ publications.

As an organisation or company you can become a member of Kunsten ‘92, not as an individual. As an independent maker Kunsten ‘92 is mostly relevant for their provision of information. It’s good to follow their news items and know what is at stake in the art policy world.

ACI MEETING
ACI stands for Amsterdam Cultural Institutions. They organise several meetings for the different disciplines in Amsterdam; a meeting for the Amsterdam museum sector, the film theaters in Amsterdam etc. Important for us is the DaThO (dance- and theater companies meeting). BAU - as an organisation - is present at these meetings to represent the independent scene, but the focus of these meetings is on structurally subsidized companies.

NAPK
NAPK stands for Nederlandse Associatie voor Podiumkunsten (Dutch Association for Performing Arts) and is representing the interests of the theater and dance companies in the Netherlands. It functions as an employers association and agrees on CAO’s (Collective Labor Agreements) together with the unions. NAPK also works on stimulating the position of the performing arts towards the politics, governments and cultural fonds. So they have two main functions: employers matters and the positioning of the field.

As you can see there’s actually not any organisation that solely focuses on the independent makers and professionals in the dance and performance field. Most of them focus on companies or organisations. For the new Kunstenplan BAU is doing an attempt to better this situation.

SED STATISTICS
On the 2nd of December there was the possibility to apply for the SED (stimuleringsregeling eigentijdse dans) to get financial support for studio rental for dancers and makers. Very quickly all the money was divided… and many people didn’t receive any support unfortunately. We thought it would be good to give you some SED statistics to have an insight.

194 dancers/choreographers/makers have successfully passed the professionalism test - those were the ones who could apply for the SED
90.000 euro was available for this (5th) round 
3.000 euro was the maximum budget to apply for
On the 2nd of December at 12.00 the form went online
After 30 minutes 50 requests were received
They have taken off the form at that moment
32 requests have been rewarded
This means that almost everyone has asked for the maximum of 3.000 euros
For the new arts plan the SED will be taken over by AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) and they will examine the application procedure and perhaps adjust it. Perhaps they should adjust the max. budget of 3000 to 2000 euro!? So more people can make use of this grant. What do you think?

BAU LAB ARCHITECTURE X CHOREOGRAPHY
Don’t forget to apply for the next BAU LAB in collaboration with WhyNot on the space in between architecture and choreography, with an end presentation at W139. We postponed the deadline to apply due to the holidays: which is now the 5th of January.
More info

IN RETROSPECT - BAU LAB BIOART MEETS PERFORMANCE
We would like to share a short reflection upon our BAU LAB in collaboration with Waag | Technology & Society, which was held in the last week of November. Apart from many interesting perspectives it also raised lots of new questions that are related to the ways science and art interact. Questions such as how to stage or perform a dissertation defence? Or how to embody fundamental plant powers, as being shaped by he rhythms and frequencies in their surroundings? Just to give you an idea of some of the touched upon topics.

Waag made the presentation possible in their beautiful Theatrum Anatonicum. Below some pictures taken by Marjolein Vogels.

 - - - TIPS - - -

Frascati: Theater van Deyssel
A tiny pop-up and neighborhood theater in Amsterdam Nieuw-West where they do lovely things.

Filmhuis Cavia
One of BAU's favorite cinema's of Amsterdam: climb the stairs, follow the candles and find an intimate cinema space with only 40 seats and a small bar. A perfect place to hide from family obligations and enjoy their great programming.

SOCIËTEIT SEXYLAND
Looking for a place to organise a party / festival / exhibition?
Sociëteit SEXYLAND is a conceptual club on the NDSM in Amsterdam North. For 365 days it has a different owner, every day. The owner of the day decides what kind of club they want it to be, which can vary from art exhibitions to sporting events, from gangster rap nights to dinners in stroboscopic light.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
We got inspired by the BioArt BAU LAB... A book that gives you a whole new perspective on trees and plants!

NEWSLETTER BAU #4 - 2019
 

Greetings everyone,

A tiny newsletter this time, nonetheless filled to the brim with invitations and dates for you to take note of. First of all we're happy to tell you that Come Together (our yearly gathering) is slowly awakening again and we're looking for proposals from dance, performance and mime artists! Furthermore we would like to invite you to two events that are coming up: the next Open BAU Meeting with our Agency Reseach as topic and the presentation of the BAU LAB on BioArt and performance. Lastly there's also some SED news to be aware of.

So take your agenda and write down the following dates:

• 20th of November: Open BAU Meeting #agencymatters @ Veem
• 28th of November: presentation of the BioArt meets Performance BAU LAB @ Waag
• 1st of December: Deadline Open Call Come Together #5
• 2nd of December: Deadline for the SED 

Besides these lovely invitations there's also some devastating policy news, a.k.a. budget cuts for the performing arts. Please raise your voice by sending an email to the spokespersons for culture who are in the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) before the 18th of November.

OPEN BAU MEETING #AGENCYMATTERS
The Open BAU Meetings are a unique opportunity to meet face to face with a wide range of individuals in our field, and delve into topics of specific concern to our community. This meeting will start with a warm soup and a social drink, and an update of BAU’s current activities and upcoming plans. 

The core of this meeting will then be dedicated to the BAU Agency Research Project, a research into the possibilities of an agency that could potentially sell and possibly produce the work of the independent makers. This project is led by BAU Core Team members, Marion Tränkle and Michael Jahoda. During the meeting they will reveal the results of the preliminary independent makers survey and will physically engage all the participants in a "live survey" action.
 If you have not yet responded to the survey, you have one last chance with an extended deadline of Thursday 14 November. We need your input #datamatters !

--> survey <-- 

We look forward to seeing you and encourage you to bring a friend/colleague to get acquainted with BAU and help us grow our community.

You are also warmly invited to attend the performance Ductus Midi by Anne Lise Le Gac and Arthur Chambry at 20.00 at Veem. Attendees of the Open BAU Meeting will receive a €5,- discount on their ticket. Please RSVP by sending an email to bibi@bau.amsterdam, in which you mention you want to visit the performance. You'll receive instructions on how to get the discount by mail.
 

• Wednesday 20 November, 2019
• 17.30 - 19.30
• Veem House for Performance -> Veemvloer -> ground floor
• @ Van Diemenstraat 408-410
• 20.00 Ductus Midi by Anne Lise Le Gac and Arthur Chambry
• RSVP at bibi@bau.amsterdam
   

OPEN CALL COME TOGETHER #5
 Get your proposal ready for this years Come Together! :)

Nicole Beutler Projects, Keren Levi | NeverLike, BAU and Frascati are pleased to invite you to take part in the fifth edition of COME TOGETHER: a public gathering offering a stage to artists from the dance, performance and mime field in Amsterdam. This three-day event creates time and space for experimentation, for the unknown to happen, for new proposals of art making and for different approaches to encounter a public.

Makers from dance, performance, mime and all related arts disciplines are welcome to submit their proposals by the 1st of December 2019.

More info

PRESENTATION OF BAU LAB: BIOART MEETS PERFORMANCE
On 28 November, 2019 the participants of the BAU LAB will give an informal presentation at the Theatrum Anatomicum of Waag | technology & society of the results of the upcoming BAU LAB BioArt meets Performance. Prior to this presentation we will bring four specialists from the field of BioArt, scientists and visual artists together with a group of twelve choreographers and performance makers during a four-day performance laboratory.

The field of BioArt, in which living matter such as bacteria and microorganisms are used to discover the impact of biotechnology and science on our contemporary society and culture, will be linked to the performing arts to investigate how the meeting of these two disciplines can create new perspectives about both the body and living matter.

Kuang-Yi Ku, Pei-Ying Lin, Arjen Mulder and Lotte Pet are invited to provide insight into their BioArt practices which will serve as inspiration for the choreographers and performance makers who will create material during the days. The results of these four days of experimentation will be presented in the form of short performances.

• Thursday 28 November, 2019
• 20.00 - 22.00
• Waag @ Nieuwmarkt 4
• Entrance is free, please register here. 
• Facebook event
   

GOOD SEDNEWS
We have no sad news but good SED news! The SED gives financial support to freelance dancers and choreographers to rent a studio in Amsterdam. This arrangement vanished for a short while, but now it is back again and possible to receive support. Studio rental costs will be covered with a max. amount of €3000,- per freelancer, per year.

The deadline for the SED is on the 2nd of December at 12.00. But mind you, you also have to do a test to show you're a professional. Do this asap since it can take two weeks before you receive the results.

More info

TIPS
 

An app: 'To Good to go'
A nice attempt to overcome food waste!
A book: 'Tussen Kunst en Cash'
This book consists of several interviews with creative entrepeneurs; find out the do's and don'ts.

                                                                                     Photo: Pei-Ying Lin

24 - 28 November 2019, BAU Studio’s & Waag

BAU platform for dance and performance and Waag | technology & society are pleased to invite you to apply for the BAU LAB: BioArt Meets Performance.

BAU is a platform for innovation and development in dance and performance in Amsterdam. We claim space for experimentation, such as organizing BAU LABs. These labs are held twice a year and are intended to stimulate a cross-fertilization between dance, performance, mime and other disciplines.

This time we will organize the lab BioArt Meets Performance. The field of BioArt, in which living matter such as bacteria and microorganisms are used to discover the impact of biotechnology and science on our contemporary society and culture, will be linked to the performing arts to investigate how the meeting of these two disciplines can create new perspectives about both the body and living matter.

We will bring four specialists from the field of BioArt, scientists and visual artists, together with a group of twelve makers from the field of dance, performance and mime during a four-day performance laboratory.

Arjen Mulder is a writer, biologist and media theorist. He will elaborate on how plants collaborate and communicate with each other, attempts to look at the world from the perspective of the plant.

Pei-Ying Lin is a designer, artist, programmer, and many other things. During the lab she will focus on the relation between humans and viruses, both biologically and socially. Lin sees the interaction between virus and "host" as a relation of intimacy. This relationship is one of Lin's main research topics; what does the existence of viruses mean for how we see the world and how we react on concepts like fear.

Kuang-Yi Ku is a former dentist, bio-artist and social designer. He will discuss his work on body modification and ways of hacking ‘the medical patriarchy’ with BioArt.

Lotte Pet researches art as a means to gain knowledge within scientific and technological discourse. Specifically, she focuses on the onto-epistemological force of bioart and to what extent it can expand theoretical limitations of the frameworks developed by new biopolitics and posthumanism to enable consequential activity in decision-making processes within daily life.

Every day another specialist will give an insight in his/her practice in the morning, serving as inspiration for the work created during the day. In addition to bringing different disciplines together, an important feature of the BAU LAB is that something presentable must be created in one day, with which we attempt to create a different workflow and creation process. The lab will take place at BAU Studio’s, Entrepotdok 4 in Amsterdam.

The results of these four days of experimentation will be presented in the form of short performances during an informal public presentation on the 28th of November at 20hrs at Theatrum Anatomicum in Waag, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam. We will provide the participants with a healthy vegan lunch and dinner on the days of the lab. On the presentation day only dinner will be provided.

Programme  

24 - 27 November at BAU Studio’s:

10.00 - 11:00 presentation BioArt specialist

11:00 - 13:00 working time

13:00 - 14:00 lunch

14:00 - 18:00 working time

18:30 - 20:00 dinner

28th of November at Waag:

14:00 - 17:30 preparation time

17:30 - 19:00 dinner

20.00 - 21:30 presentation

21:30 - 22:00 drinks

Participate
BAU LAB invites professional dance, performance and mime makers/performers to apply. We ask the participants for a modest contribution of €50,- which covers lunch and dinner for all days. Please send an email including a short biography and a written motivation to Bibi Scholten van Aschat at bibi@bau.amsterdam before the 1st of November 2019. We have limited spots available.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate  to get in touch.  

Greetings everyone,

With this newsletter we hope to inspire, inform and support you all with some updates of what we’re working on and with some explanatory news. Read on to find out what the topic of this years BAU LAB is, what’s happening with the SED and what the f#ck this Kunstenplan tumult is all about.

By the way, it was lovely to see some of your faces Friday the 13th of September at our Open BAU Gathering at de Brakke Grond. Thank you for coming!

BAU LAB: What is (a)life performance?

With our BAU LAB’s - organised once or twice a year - it is our aim is to cross fertilize disciplines, to create space for experiment, and to have an insight into each others practices; which could potentially lead to new and unexpected collaborations. This years BAU LAB will focus on Performance & BioArt and will be organised in November in collaboration with Waag | technology & society. We’re inviting four specialists from the BioArt scene who will be giving an insight in their practice, which can serve as inspiration for the work created in the lab.

The BAU LAB will most probably take place in the third week of November (the week of 18th - 22 Nov). Exact dates and more info coming soon!

BAU CO-WORKINGSPACE

Looking for an affordable workspace? We still have a few spots left at our soon to be opened co-workingspace! BAU Co-Workingspace is a communal office space where you can meet your peers, exchange experience and knowledge, help one another, and get to know new people from the Amsterdam dance and performance field. We’re planning to open up the BAU Co-Workingspace this fall, in Amsterdam Oost.
Interested? Please send an email to bibi@bau.amsterdam

BAU TRY-OUT
BAU invites you to come to a work-in-progress presentation by choreographer Keren Levi | NeverLike and Slagwerk Den Haag. There is space for 10 people to join the presentation on Thursday 26th of September 2019 at 19.00hrs at Veem House for Performance, in Amsterdam.

UNMUTE
a musicdance performance
3 dancers and 2 percussionists
wearing sensors on their bodies
bring into being a landscape of voices and sounds
in a performance about the loss of language

What: work-in-progress presentation by Keren Levi | NeverLike and Slagwerk Den Haag
When: Thursday 26th of September 2019
Time: 19.00hrs
Entrance: free
Where: Veem House for Performance, Van Diemenstraat 408-410, Amsterdam

If you are interested to come reserve by sending an email to info@bau.amsterdam with the reference BAU Try Out. If you made a reservation but in the end need to cancel, please let us know, then we can invite the next person on the list.

FOLLOW-UP SED (Stimuleringsregeling Eigentijdse Dans)

Sadly the SED* disappeared last year, which created a lot of discussion and disappointment in the scene. The update on the SED is as follows: Cultuur + Ondernemen and De Gemeente recently had an evaluation on the SED and they concluded that the arrangement has been very valuable in various regards; for makers but also for studio owners. They concluded that the SED has been successful. At this moment the AFK, De Gemeente and Cultuur + Ondernemen are researching the possibilities of a continuation of the SED.

*What is the SED? Under the wings of the organisation Cultuur + Ondernemen the SED came into being in 2015 to stimulate freelance dance and performance professionals living in Amsterdam. The arrangement helped makers to cover the costs of rent for studio space.

BAU STUDIO'S AVAILABLE
In November and December we still have some spots available at our studio’s. If you’re looking for a space to rehearse, send us an email.

FOLLOW-UP BROODFONDS
The interest in starting a Broodfonds (as a result of our Open BAU Broodfonds Meeting) has not been sufficient so far, so we decided to quit the search for members. We’re sorry for the ones who were genuinely interested. If you have any questions regarding this topic, please email bibi@bau.amsterdam.

INTEREST IN WORKSHOPS/MORNING TRAININGS
BAU is currently developing potential LABS and workshops for the coming period. Besides that we're also researching the needs for open morning trainings for professionals in general.
We would like to ask if any of you (makers) would be interested in having the opportunity to work with a larger groups (+/- 10 freelance dancers) for a day intensive or for a weekend. The aim is to provide makers with a chance to explore questions on a larger physical scale, and to create a new framework where the independent makers and the freelance dancers in Amsterdam can meet and exchange ideas and expertise on the floor.

If you have any other ideas or needs for mornings trainings or workshops, please let us know asap: info@bau.amsterdam
 

THANK YOU: Giulio D’Anna!
Our dear member of the BAU Core Team has left us a few months ago. Giulio has decided to make some more space for his own projects. Herewith we would like to thank him for his time and consideration for BAU. Go for it Giulio! :)

WHAT'S ALL THE FUZZ ABOUT? Kunstenplan 2021-2024 for dummies

It’s the talk of the town. Kunstenplan-stress. If you have no idea what all this uproar is about, we’ll explain it for you. ‘Het Kunstenplan’ is the policy on arts and culture in the Netherlands that shifts every four years. In other words it is the way in which the money for all the different art disciplines is divided, (the structural funding but also the total amount reserved for project subsidies).

At this moment the plans are being crystallized for a new period, Het Kunstenplan 2021-2024. Companies, makers and institutions who want to work with structural funding need to apply. Some are already working with structural funding and want to continue their practice, others are working with project funding but want to get structural funding in the coming years. As an applicant you have to present your plan for the next four years, artistically and financially according the presented policies (link).

Who gives four-year grants?
The two most important parties are the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Fonds Podiumkunsten. The provinces and municipalities also have their own four-year subsidy schemes. In Amsterdam these are: Gemeente Amsterdam and Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK).

What is the difference between these schemes?
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science created the BIS (basic infrastructure of cultural institutions) as an overarching organ to fund "a high-quality range of institutions of (inter)national significance". There is a limited number of places in the BIS for institutes with fixed functions. The institutions that do not qualify for this are directed to the Fonds Podiumkunsten. Institutions (both within and outside the BIS) can also apply for a subsidy from the province and municipality. Big cities have their own policy with their own criteria. In Amsterdam the Kunstenplan also consists of two parts: the A-BIS (Amsterdam-BIS) and the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts). 

Who decides?
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (BIS) and the Fonds Podiumkunsten are being advised by the Raad voor Cultuur. In our previous Newsletter we already gave you an insight in the newly published advisory report by the Raad voor Cultuur, which concerns the national policy. 

The Amsterdam Kunstenplan is being advised by the Amsterdamse Kunstraad. They have also published two advisory reports on policy in Amsterdam: namely Kunst, Culturele Diversiteit en Inclusiviteit in Amsterdam-de volgende stap (link) and Advies A-Bis 2021-2024 (link). In November the definite policy will be presented by the city of Amsterdam.Both committees give advice to the policy makers but such advice doesn’t automatically get turned into policies.

Watch this short clip/infographic for more info on the Amsterdam Kunstenplan (in Dutch)

So if you hear people chattering about their Kunstenplan-stress. Now you know. Plans for coalitions or collaborations for the next few years are being forged and discussed these days, in order to strategically find some governmental funding, either in the BIS or at a Fund. Most of you are perhaps working with project subsidy so the changes in the policy of the funds are most important for you. We will keep you updated in our next newsletter.

 

TIPS
- Debate on The State of the Dutch Dance @ Maastricht, October 4
At the Nederlandse Dansdagen ‘The State of Dutch Dance’ will be presented. After the presentation there will be a debate.

- Ditdit-dada-ditdit @ De Ruimte, September 27
A tight embrace of food, dance, music, (Dutch) poetry and theatre. €16,50 for three courses and 12,50 for all the performances.

- Noiserr - The Perrforrmance Edition @ Butcher’s Tears, September 28
This event is a performative celebration of undisciplined learning and contaminating through sound, kicking off the new season of Noiserr at Butcher's Tears! (Noiserr is an interdisciplinary research group centered around explorations of Noise via deconstructed reading and listening sessions.)

- Transnatural - In the Age of Post-Drought @ Eye Filmmuseum, October 1
An evening with Transnatural, an organisation dedicated to promoting artists and designers who work with new technologies and science. This evening artists will be addressing the theme of water. The programme includes a film by Nicky Assmann and Joris Strijbos and performances by TeZ & Federico Murgia and Robertina Šebjanič.

Dear independent makers!

We warmly invite you for a casual get-together during Amsterdam Fringe Festival next week. It would be great to open the cultural season collectively, after a (way too short) summer break. Please come Friday the 13th to the foyer of the Brakke Grond and join us for drinks to kick off a new exhilarating dance and performance season. Let’s gather and discuss current projects, potential projects, utopian projects, dystopian projects, perhaps the lack of projects or possibly the need to stop working on so much projects… or just exchange sweet summer stories.

Aukje Verhoog, director of Amsterdam Fringe Festival, will be giving a short introduction on this years program.

And please don't forget that you still have the possibilty to see what your collegues have been working on, this week at Fringe.

We look forward to seeing you there!
X
BAU

→ Friday the 13th of September at 4.30 pm @ Brakke Grond ←
Click here to check the Facebook event
Please RSVP: bibi@bau.amsterdam

Hello dear all!

We hope you’re doing fine! As with the fluctuating weather these days, we have all sorts of news for you in this newsletter. We have some appealing invitations for events and for our new Co-Working Space. This letter also includes some alarming words about the upcoming changes in the policy for the arts and for freelancers. And lastly, we hope we can inspire you with a few summer recommendations!

OPEN BAU MEETING - 6 July 2019
We are pleased to invite you to our next Open BAU Meeting organised next to Julidans Extended in collaboration with Festival WhyNot. In this meeting we will focus on the topic of curating within the dance and performance field. We are interested to see how different programmers and curators make their artistic choices, where they go to discover ‘new’ work and what kind of social or political circumstances are defining their practice.

The word curating - coming from the visual arts - is quite a new term in the performing arts, which asks for an explanation in this unknown context. Does curating for example involve something else when situated in a theatre or black box? And more importantly, for whom does a curator curate? To go into questions like these we would like to organise a moment where a few curators/programmers have an open moderated conversation. We believe this is a relevant topic for independent makers for whom it has become more complicated in the current circumstances of the field to have their work seen. An insight into the practice of a curator can be useful within is framework.

We are very happy to reveal our first guest speaker for the meeting: Ravian van den Hil, programmer at Holland Festival. The names of the other guest speakers will follow soon.
They will each tell us something about their practice as a curator or programmer, which will be followed by an open conversation.

This Open BAU Meeting will be a brunch edition (with vegetarian snacks) starting at 11.15 on Saturday the 6th of July at the Belcampo Studio in Amsterdam West. Please register your attendance by sending an email to bibi@bau.amsterdam with the reference Open BAU Meeting.

After the meeting you’re very welcome to join WhyNot x Julidans: OFF VENUE, a cycling route passing architectural locations where performances will be seen. This ‘dance & bike tour’ will start at 14.00, just outside of Belcampo. More info about reservations and the time table of WhyNot x Julidans: OFF VENUE can be found here.

What: Open BAU Meeting Brunch edition
Topic: On curating
When: Saturday 6 July 2019
Time: 11.15 - 13.45
Entrance: free
Where: Belcampo Studio, Hannie Dankbaarpassage 10, Amsterdam

BAU CO-WORKING SPACE - Starting in September 2019
We gladly announce that we found a new BAU Co-Working Space! The BAU Co-Working Space is a shared office space for independent makers from the dance and performance field. At this shared office you will have the possibility to do production work, meet your peers, exchange experience and knowledge, support or advise one another and hold meetings. The beautiful space is on a great location, situated at The Mirror Centre in Amsterdam Oost and will be opened in September 2019. This means we’re looking for tenants! 10 persons to be exact. For €50,- ex. VAT per month you’ll be able to think along in forming this space to your desires.

If you're interested send an email to bibi@bau.amsterdam

More info about the Co-Working Space

BAU TRY OUT: ROOS VAN BERKEL - 2 July 2019

Another BAU Try Out is coming up! The concept of the BAU Try Out is that BAU invites people from the BAU network to come to a work-in-progress presentation. This BAU Try Out will present work by choreographer Roos van Berkel. There is space for five people to join the studio presentation on Tuesday the 2nd of July at 20.00 at BAU in Amsterdam.

About the work:
Sensing…
Activity…
On/off…

Roos van Berkel received an AFK development grant to advance her interdisciplinary practise focused on dance and technology. This presentation/reflection will include a short work-in-progress created together with physicist Tom Bergman and performance artists Marion Tränkle and Ivo Bol.

Note this invitation is only for independent makers.

If you are interested in coming, please make a reservation by sending an email to info@bau.amsterdam with the reference BAU Try Out. If you want to cancel your reservation please let us know, we’ll invite the next person on the list.

What: work-in-progress presentation by Roos van Berkel
When: Tuesday 2 July 2019
Time: 20.00
Entrance: free
Where: BAU (big studio), Entrepotdok 4, Amsterdam

UPCOMING ARTS POLICY FOR 2021-2024
In April The Raad voor Cultuur (the Council for Culture: a body established by law to advise the Dutch Government and Parliament on the arts, culture and media) has published their advisory report for the cultural policy plan for the period 2021-2024, called ‘Cultuur dichtbij, dicht bij cultuur’. For an English summary of the plan click here. The minister of Culture, Ingrid van Engelshoven, has responded to that advise by publishing her new policy on the 11th of June.

In general the new cultural policy comprehends that the money is shifted from the FPK (Performing Arts Fund/Fonds Podiumkunsten) to the BIS (Basic Infrastructure for Culture). In short this means that there will be less money for the FPK to spend, to note that the FPK is already over-solicited. For smaller structural subsidized companies and independent makers it will be a bottleneck. The Fair Practice Code is fully embraced by politicians but instead of adding money, budgets are shifted; in this case from the FPK to the bigger institutes so they can bring the Fair Practice Code into reality. With this policy the ecosystem of dance and performance will be completely disturbed. In this article it is explained quite well.

At this moment there are many meetings organized by interest groups/branch associations like NAPK, Kunsten ‘92 and the funds to reflect on this presented policy. These organizations help make it possible to collectively react and make changes before the plan starts in 2021. Yesterday Ronald Wintjens, director of the Nederlandse Dansdagen, represented the interest of the dance field in a hearing in the parliament that was prepared with the support of many cultural organizations in the field of dance, including BAU. You can read his text here.

We know lobbying is the most difficult for independent makers, but please try to be aware of what is happening and let that be the start of a stronger lobby. With BAU we do our utmost best, but we are also a small institution and need your support.

BROODFONDS UPDATE

A short update on the Broodfonds situation. Our last Open BAU Meeting was dedicated to this subject considering our understanding that there is a need and an interest in this topic. Since that meeting we have collected a few people who are genuinely interested in starting up a Broodfonds, but the group is too small. We need at least 25 people to start with, at this moment we have 15 people. So please spread the word because if in the end there is not enough enthusiasm, we will unfortunately have to leave the issue... If you’re interested send an email to bibi@bau.amsterdam!
 

COMPULSORY DISABILITY INSURANCE FOR FREELANCERS
The government, the employers associations and the unions have come to a new pension deal which also concerns agreements for freelancers. The deal includes a clause stating that all freelancers will have to have insurance to cover in case they become unable to work through ill health - something which only around 20% of freelancers currently have. Organisations representing the self employed (like ZZP NL) have reacted furiously to the news about the disability insurance since they believe in the own responsibility of the freelancer to cover the risks that come with being self employed.

The question is whether a Broodfonds insurance will be considered as legal alternative for such an insurance. At this moment this is still unclear. Besides, the deal is not definite yet and we don’t know all the details of the agreements. We have to see how this deal will evolve, we will keep you updated!

More info

If you want you can sign this petition to say no against the compulsory disability insurance for freelancers.

BAU AGENCY & BAU AIR (artist-in-residency) UPDATES

AGENCY
Since the last newsletter, research team leaders Marion Tränkle and Michael Jahoda have met with their two coaches, Marie-Anne Rudolphi and Vincent van Kekerix to refine the research plan. Their first ideas are taking shape which we will put to the test during the coming months. Come to the Open BAU meeting on 6 July to meet the research team and learn more about the project.

AIR
The BAU AIR team consists of Sarah van Lamsweerde, Bibi Scholten van Aschat and Eva Villanueva, supported by coach Erik Hagoort. At the moment we’re setting up an AIRpool focusgroup, a sounding board and feedback group, with people who are willingly to think a long and sharpen our ideas. Furthermore we’re talking with experts in the field of residencies, besides the Netherlands we’re also visiting residencies in Germany and Belgium.

TIPS

• Antidote Festival
  A three day happening (28-30 June) in a Dutch forest where thirty five young international dance and performance artists will come together to join forces.
• ISO
  A gigantic creative workspace near Sloterdijk, also available for rent! The 28th of June they’ll celebrate their first year anniversary with a BBQ and they’ll be opening up the ISO Ateliers.
• We Live Here
  A yearly summer academy offering two laboratory programmes with workshops, lectures, expeditions, How-Do-You-Work sessions and visits to Julidans.
  8-12 July @ the BAU Studio’s
• Henny Jurriens: Open Trainstorm Session
  A moment to share your ideas about how the Henny Jurriens Studio can be even more of service to our dance community. They’ll be interested to have your input for their plans for the coming years.
  25 June 2019 @ Cafe Belcampo
• Yuli
  A dance film, a mix between fictional and autobiographical, about Carlos Acosta, who danced at the Royal Ballet of London.

(Photo by Bas de Brouwer, Come Together)

Hello dear people,

Spring has sprung! The flowers are sprouting and so are some new projects at BAU! With this newsletter, we would like to give you an update of what we are currently busy with, as well as sharing some information about upcoming activities. We also have some reading, viewing and visiting tips in store for you.

After a successful edition during the Polyphonic Songs program at Veem House for Performance at the end of November, we would like to draw your attention to the next Open BAU Meeting. We hope we will meet you there!

> OPEN BAU MEETING MAY 6

Another Open BAU Meeting is coming soon! On the 6th of May the next network meeting for the Amsterdam independent dance and performance field will be held in our building at Entrepotdok 4.

The focus of this meeting will be on a Broodfonds (a type of insurance- collective). Two-thirds of the self-employed entrepreneurs have not made any arrangements for the possibility that they become incapacitated for work. Disability insurance (AOV) is often unaffordable for this group. We have noticed that this form of uncertainty plays a major role in the independent dance and performance field. But luckily there is an alternative: a Broodfonds! This is a way to financially support each other in times of illness or accidents.

Would you like to know more about this method of insuring against calamity? Would you like to ask questions or take concrete steps after realizing that you want to join a Broodfonds? Then come to BAU on May 6 at 8:00 PM. The evening will be held in both Dutch and English. *Translation can be provided for those who need it during the discussion.

Be sure to let us know before 26 April if you are coming by sending an e-mail with the reference "Open BAU Meeting 6 May" to bibi@bau.amsterdam. This evening can only happen if we have at least 25 people present.

> TWO YEARS DEVELOPMENT SUBSIDY FROM AFK

We are incredibly pleased that we have received a two-year development grant from the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) for the period 2019/2020. With this grant we have started two projects: the development of an international Artist in Residence for dance and performance in Amsterdam and a research into the possibilities of an agency/production agency that could potentially sell and possibly produce the work of the independent makers.

We believe that these two projects are important because we currently lack and Artist in Residence for dance and performance in Amsterdam with a rehearsal space large enough for a maker from outside Amsterdam to work with a larger cast here. Sleeping places are also very expensive in the city. Artist in Residencies make the city lively and interesting, so we are therefore arguing for time and space for artists. That’s why we’re investigating whether a paid residence location with (multiple) sleeping places can be realized. We hope to complete the necessary preliminary research in 2019 and start a pilot in 2020.

We also proclaim that there is a need for a dance and performance agency that sells and/or produces work from independent makers, at home and abroad. Agencies such as Bureau Berbee and Theaterzaken Via Rudolphi mainly represent theater makers or structurally subsidized dance makers. This is why BAU is investigating how an agency could function, what the revenue models could look like and how it could be realized.

> CHANGES ORGANIZATION BAU

Saskia van der Kroef, our business manager, unfortunately had to leave us in January. Martha van Meegen is currently working with us as our interim business manager, and we are looking for someone who will strengthen our team for one day a week. Do you know someone who would be interested? If so, please let us know. Furthermore, as of January of this year, Bibi Scholten van Aschat has been working with us as a production manager/assistant business manager. And our core team member Riccardo Guratti no longer sits on our committee due to his departure abroad. We thank him enormously for what he did for BAU!

> COME TOGETHER #4

It is with great pleasure that we share a brief retrospective of the fourth edition of our dance and performance event COME TOGETHER in Frascati. On January 24, 25 and 26 2019, fifty independent Amsterdam artists showed their work in progress in all various spaces of Theater Frascati. COME TOGETHER, which is a coproduction between BAU, Nicole Beutler Projects, NeverLike, and Frascati, is a manifesto and a celebration of Amsterdam's many innovative and contemporary makers and at the same time an invitation to the broader Amsterdam arts field to come together and get together to work. Over the course of three days a wide variety of work was shown and interesting encounters abounded. It was once again a successful edition. Do you want to look back to what the line up of the event was? Then click on this link.

> A REACTION TO THE DANCE SECTOR'S VISIONARY DOCUMENT

In the fall of 2018 a visionary document has been written collectively by various sub-sectors of the dance field as a response to "Alles Beweegt" (the sector advice from the Raad voor Cultuur; advisory counsel for culture at the government). Finally the OC&W committee (Ministry for Education, Culture and Science) has notified that they have received this document in good order, have read it with interest and will take it in consideration in the realization of the OC&W budget. We look forward to the new four-year cultural policy plan, starting in 2021, and hope that our advice will be included in the decision-making process.

Also, on Thursday the 11th of April the Raad voor Cultuur has published a new general advice for the arts for the period 2021-2014. Have a look at it here.

> BAU CO WORKINGSPACE

The BAU Co Working Space, which was located in the Dansmakers building in 2018, has come to an end at this location in 2019 due to the uncertain future scenario for this building. BAU is currently looking for a replacement location and talking with a number of parties. We will keep you informed of any developments. Are you looking for a nice Co Working Space? Let us know. We will gladly check the interest that is currently there.

> DANSWERF UPDATE

The Danswerf project was an initiative, with a number of partners from the dance field (including BAU), to set up a collaborative structure aimed at innovation and development within the Amsterdam dance sector and for the preservation of the current Dansmakers building for the scene.

The submitted application for the "Danswerf" project was soundly rejected by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst. The various organizations involved will write their own individual plans for the coming Kunstenplan period. But the Danswerf meetings have not been in vain. New cooperative plans are emerging from this initiative. For example, the parties BAU, Veem House for Performance, The National Ballet and the Academy of Theater and Dance in collaboration with Nicole Beutler Projects and NeverLike, are sitting around the table to come up with an idea for a joint set up and sustainable structure for dance and performance in Amsterdam.

> TIPS

Read:

- Commonism, A New Aesthetics of the Real. Nico Dockx and Pascal Gielen (eds). Valiz, 2018.

- Plan And Play, Play And Plan - Defining Your Art Practice. Janwillem Schrofer. Valiz, 2018.

Visit:

- TapasTheater, a new and unique pick'n mix theater experience in Amsterdam. www.tapastheater.nl

- Ritman Library houses the largest collection of books and manuscripts in Europe in the Hermetica, Alchemy, Mysticism, Rose Cross, (Western) Esoteric and Comparative Religious Studies collection areas. www.ritmanlibrary.com

Look:

- Cinetree collects high-quality arthouse films and docs for you to watch. www.cinetree.nl

- Crème is a newsletter for and by Amsterdammers. You will be introduced to the proliferation of cultural offerings in the city. www.creme.amsterdam

> DID YOU KNOW

• we have a dance and performance agenda on the BAU website?
• we have a jobs and calls page on the BAU website?
• that you can have your data placed on our website so that you are easier to find for other professionals? Send your info to database@bau.amsterdam, if you want to join the database.

COME TOGETHER #4
On 24, 25 and 26 January 2019, Theater Frascati will fly the colours of the fourth edition of the dance and performance event COME TOGETHER. Three days long fifty artists will be showing their work in all the spaces and interspaces of the theatre in Amsterdam. COME TOGETHER is a manifesto and a celebration of the many innovative and contemporary makers that Amsterdam is rich in and at the same time it's a clarion call to the broader Amsterdam arts field to come together and work together. Performance makers from different generations and backgrounds convene to share insights, develop thought, meet colleagues and present their ideas to the public. A 'work in progress', an interdisciplinary dance piece, a multi-media lecture, a work session, an artistic manifesto on the bar, or a performance in print: during COME TOGETHER, the makers and the audience alike get a chance to discover and experience performance works in all their facets, disciplines and stages of development within a single context.

COME TOGETHER #4 is curated by Nicole Beutler, Keren Levi, Eva Villanueva, Eva Susova, Justa ter Haar & Riccardo Guratti. It is produced by Nicole Beutler Projects, NeverLike, BAU Platform for dance and performance and Frascati, supported by Jacuzzi, ICK, Veem House for Performance, Leine Roebana and Dokzaal

BAU IS GRANTED TWO YEARS SUBSIDY FROM THE AFK

On December the 3rd the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) announced the decisions of the two-year grants 2019-2020, as part of the Amsterdam Arts Plan 2017-2020. The AFK handled a total of 33 applications, eighteen of these applications were granted (55% of the total).

We are very happy with the news that BAU is one of the eighteen initiatives that will be supported the coming two years!!!

OPEN BAU MEETING NOVEMBER 28TH, 17HRS AT VEEM HOUSE FOR PERFORMANCE
This meeting will take place within the framework of the 100 Days program of Veem House for Performance, and will be part of a special three-day program called Polyphonic Songs;
a collaboration between Veem, Nicole Beutler Projects, Neverlike and BAU. For more info about this program click here.

Sharing moment ‘Our Voices’
For this meeting BAU offers 10 independent makers the opportunity to share their work with the attendees. We sent out an open call for proposals and have selected 10 makers from this list.
Each maker will be offered 7 minutes for their sharing/asking/pitching/showing.
This moment of sharing will give them the opportunity to practise the so-called "format pitch", which is becoming a more common method of connecting and sharing work.
If this is successful we will look into repeating this format for other ‘Our Voices’.

Are you interested to share your work on this day and you didn't get the open call? Please let us know by sending an email to: info@bau.amsterdam

Food and performance!
We will have some food/snacks provided during the BAU Meeting and after the meeting you are welcome to attend the performances in Veem.
You can order tickets for the performances via this link

Program:
- LIVE (work in progress) by Cherish Menzo
-1: SONGS by Nicole Beutler (Nicole Beutler Projects)

Please let us know by email if you're planning to come: info@bau.amsterdam with the reference ‘BAUmeeting’. We would really appreciate the advanced notice to be sure we will have food for everyone.

Hope to seeing you there!
We also encourage you to come to day two and three of Polyphonic Songs…....

 
Location:
Veem House for Performance
Van Diemenstraat 408-410
1013 CR Amsterdam
https://veem.house/EN

OPEN BAU Meetings:
Once every two months, an OPEN BAU meeting takes place, each time at a different location. These are meetings for the independent dance and performance network.
Here the current state of the dance and performance arts is discussed, there is room for ideas and exchanges and BAU can actively engage in change.

It has been quite some time since we sent our last newsletter, but we have not been idle. Time has just flown by….

In July we successfully wrapped up the season with the summer academy We Live Here; a co-production with BAU and Nicole Beutler Projects. One part of this academy was a BAU LAB, which this year had the title of What-If-Then. During this research week specialists from the performing arts, the complexity sciences and from computer programming were brought together to work on the most elementary rule of computing: If-Then.
 

BAU has also applied for a two-year subsidy at the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts just before the summer. In the event of a positive result, we will start two new projects; the establishment up an international artist-in-residence for dance and performance in Amsterdam, and a research into an ideal agency for dance and performance. We would also like to strengthen the foundation of our organization. We are expecting the results of our application at the beginning of December.
 

After a short summer holiday BAU began the opening of the new cultural season at the Uitmarkt. We shared a glittered market stall with partners Nicole Beutler Projects, Veem House for Performance, Keren Levi | Neverlike and Festival Why Not. We all promoted our initiatives, and as a result of an open call, the independent makers and their new productions were included in the shared flyer.
 

Furthermore, we would like to introduce you to Saskia van der Kroef, our new business manager. Together with Saskia, we will once again enthusiastically dedicate ourselves to the independent makers throughout the year!

⟩ FROM NOW ON LOWER RENTAL PRICES AT BAU STUDIOS FOR INDEPENDENT MAKERS 
We are very pleased to announce, that thanks to a subsidy from a fund, BAU has been able to reduce its rates for renting the BAU Studios by 25% which came into effect from 3 September, 2018. This applies to all independent dance and performance makers based in Amsterdam. For the new rates (depending on the duration of the rehearsal period) mail to info@bau.amsterdam

⟩ DANSWERF

This year a group of different parties from the Amsterdam dance field (BAU included) has been working on a plan called 'Danswerf'. Danswerf is both a network organization and a stage, focused on innovation and development of the Amsterdam dance sector. For this plan, an application for a two-year development subsidy was requested from the AFK. The outcome is 3 Dec 2018. Read the Danswerf plan (in Dutch) here.

⟩ SED SUBSIDY
As many of you have already experienced yourself, the SED subsidy (Stimuleringsregeling Eigentijdse Dans= Incentive Scheme for Contemporary Dance) is a real success. It gives a bit of extra space in your working budget, helps to give your work more continuity, stimulates collaboration, helps the scarce rehearsal spaces in the city survive, and the AFK (Amsterdam Art Funds) is pleased that it can be a part of the budgets in the applications. The SED subsidy is awarded on a 'first come, first serve' basis, which means there is always quite a rush of applications on the morning that the application link opens. Last year the entire budget was allocated in barely no time. This year it went in a record 20 minutes.....
 
The demand is huge! The regulation, which is administered by the organization Cultuur&Ondernemen (Culture&Entrepreneurship), was created in 2016 for a period of only four years. That means that this past round was the last round....
BAU is of course doing its very best to lobby for a renewal. Cultuur&Ondernemen is also of the opinion that the regulation can be called a success, and they are pleading for an extension of this regulation. The Amsterdamse Kunstraad (Amsterdam Arts Council) is aware of the necessity of the SED and the AFK is also making efforts.
We hope that the City of Amsterdam is prepared to make a budget available for the subsidy for 2019.
 
Perhaps it is an idea to collect signatures and recipients' motivations to make it clear that there is a need for an extension and to submit this to the city council of Amsterdam?

⟩ BAU MEETING 28 NOVEMBER, 5:00 PM, VEEM HOUSE FOR PERFORMANCE
On Wednesday, November 28th at 5:00pm, the next BAU Meeting will take place! 
This time in the 100 Days program of Veem House for Performance. 
 
During this meeting BAU would like to offer 15 makers the opportunity to share their work with the attendees in a format of five minute blocks. More information will be emailed to our mailing list shortly. The BAU Meeting will be part of a three-day Polyphonic Songs collaboration program from Veem, NBprojects, Neverlike and BAU. More info

⟩ COME TOGETHER # 4

On 24, 25 and 26 January 2019, Come Together # 4 will take place in all the spaces of Frascati. It is a performed manifesto and a celebration of the many innovative contemporary makers that Amsterdam hosts. Over these three days approximately 45 independent choreographers, musicians, artists, dramatists and thinkers from different generations and backgrounds will come together to share knowledge, develop concepts, meet colleagues and present their ideas to the public.

⟩ JOINTLY WRITTEN DANCE FIELD DOCUMENT SENT TO THE MINISTER OF OC&W
During the Nederlandse Dansdagen (Dutch Dance Days), members of the dance field came together to draw up a document, per relevant sector, as a response to ‘Alles Beweegt', an advice written by the Raad van Cultuur (Cultural Council). The aim of their advice was to delineate current trends and developments within the dance sector, to identify bottlenecks and opportunities, to determine policy options for the short and long term, and to make a review of the current culture system.
 
A specific text from the sub-sector of the Independent Dance and Performance scene has also been drawn up. Please read the document ‘Alles Staat Stil’ (in Dutch) written by Eva Villanueva/BAU in collaboration with independent choreographer Jasper van Luijk (and with the helpful feedback of a group of independent makers).
 
All of the documents written by the sub-sectors have been collected and a summary of the full text has been written by Annette Embrechts. You can read it here (in Dutch). These documents have been sent to the Minister of OC & W and stakeholders.

I you would like to read all the texts of all sectors (in Dutch), please click here.

⟩ DID YOU KNOW THAT

• We have a dance / performance agenda on the BAU website?
• We have a jobs and calls page on the BAU website?
• You can have your information put on our website so you are easy to find? database@bau.amsterdam

CALL FOR PROPOSALS COME TOGETHER #4

24, 25 & 26 January 2019
 
Nicole Beutler Projects, Keren Levi / NeverLike, BAU, Jacuzzi and Frascati are pleased to invite you to take part in the fourth edition of COME TOGETHER: a public gathering offering a podium to about 45 artists from the dance & performance field in Amsterdam. This three-day event will create time and space for artists and interested audiences to meet, exchange ideas and inspire each other. COME TOGETHER #4 will take place in all spaces of Frascati on the 24th, 25th and 26thof January 2019.
 
We invite you to take part in COME TOGETHER #4 with your work. Makers from all performing arts disciplines are welcome to submit their proposals.
 
COME TOGETHER #4 is open to all formats of presentation. E.g. performances, lectures, actions, manifestos, films, workshops, installations, discursive formats or any other format that emerges from your practice. During these three days we offer space and time to test your ideas, ask questions, look for answers or challenge your own thinking. To share with your peers what you might otherwise not share with your audience. COME TOGETHER #4 is not a festival that focusses on full length works. As such, we invite you to propose a short performance or a project that you could not normally present in standard presentation circumstances: something unfinished, unpolished, unplugged. We encourage projects that facilitate the discourse on dance & performance or offer different perspectives on artmaking. In order to stimulate meaningful encounters, artists are requested to attend all three days of the event, also when not performing themselves.
 
We look forward to receiving a wide range of ideas and will do our best to facilitate your artistic wishes. There are some conditions to be considered:
 
·      Space:Your project must take place at Frascati 1, 2, 3, 4 or in another space in or around the theatre.
·      Duration:Please take into account that we are hosting 15 artists per night. Shorter performances (1 min to 30

min) are appreciated. Exceptions are possible, but cannot be guaranteed. We are aiming to create a programme in which events do not overlap, unless they are durational.
·      Rehearsal time: We can offer you time in the studio to realize your idea.
·      Technical production:Please be aware that we can only host proposals with minimal technical needs. There is a technical team available for some support. All technique will have to be shared with others. We will coordinate, accommodate and provide as much as possible.
·      Budget:We offer free production support, rehearsal time and shared meals every day. Unfortunately we cannot afford to pay any honorariums. We provide a small budget of €200 to relieve production costs.
·      Amsterdam: This invitation is addressed to artists who are affiliated with the Amsterdam dance & performance scene and want to connect to the community in a meaningful way.
 
Submit your proposal before the 25th of September to cometogether@nbprojects.nl. Please be specific as to what you need in order to realize your plan, and also let us know what you can provide yourself. Though we wish to include all proposals, we cannot give any guarantees. We will let you know if we can include your project by the 10th of October 2018. We look forward to reading your ideas. If you have any questions, please contact project coordinator Justa ter Haar at cometogether@nbprojects.nl/ 06-48263327.
 
Warm regards,
 
Nicole Beutler, Keren Levi, Eva Villanueva, Eva Susova and Noha Ramadan
in collaboration with Veem House for Performance and Frascati
 
COME TOGETHER #4 is produced by Nicole Beutler Projects, Keren Levi / NeverLike, BAU and Frascati. In collaboration with Jacuzzi and with the support of Veem House for Performance. COME TOGETHER was first initiated by Nicole Beutler, Andrea Božić and Keren Levi in 2014 in order to create time and space for artists in the Amsterdam dance & performance field to meet each other, exchange ideas and share their work.

It has been a while since our last OPEN BAU MEETING. What a busy winter!

But we are glad to invite you to our long-awaited spring edition, hosted by Podium Mozaïek.

When: The meeting will take place on Thursday, May 10th (Ascension day/public holiday) between 17:00 and 19:00

Where: In one of Podium Mozaïek studio’s. Address: Bos en Lommerweg 191, 1055 DT Amsterdam
What: We will start with a quick update about whereabouts of BAU, followed by a short introduction on Podium Mozaïek and invited two artists/collectives who work on a regular basis in this house: theatre maker and choreographer Mouna Laroussi and Vloeistof, dance initiative which makes work for public space.

Please let us know by email if you're planning to come: info@bau.amsterdam with the reference ‘BAUmeeting’.

On the same evening, at 20:00, Podium Mozaïek presents the show Fractured Memory by Ogutu Muraya, followed by a talk on the remnants of the colonialism in theatre, which might be of interest to you.
The talk is with Ogutu and several other people: Quinsy Gario, Patrica Kaersenhout, Ernestine Comvalius, Liesbeth van Zonnen, Diana Blok, Oumar Mbengue Atakosso and Nancy Jouwe.

You are invited to watch the performance and join the discussion after our meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you!
Warmth and wishes,

BAU team and Inge Koks, programmer Podium Mozaïek

Dear all that feel an affiliation with the dance and performance scene in Amsterdam,
herewith we would like to invite you to the next
O P E N. B A U. M E E T I N G
………………………………………………………………........
Monday, January 29th, 2018
17-19 hrs

This meeting will be hosted by our newest project,
the BAU CO-Working Space at Dansmakers Amsterdam.

During this Open BAU Meeting we will give an update of all the activities and developments within BAU,
and an update on the current situation of the dance and performance field in Amsterdam.

We will also host a discussion with several funding institutions such as the AFK (Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunsten) to give you more insight into how the funds function and about the procedures for how their subsidies are allocated.
There will also be the rare opportunity to pose your personal questions directly to funding representatives.

We want to empower and inspire the dance and performance scene in Amsterdam by coming together, finding easier access to means of making work, strengthening our dialogue and enhancing the quality of our working conditions.
A surprising combination of colleagues come together each time we meet and you get to share time and space with others who are active in the field.

So, come on, jump on your bike, hop on the ferry, cross the water and and join us!
Spending time together is the secret recipe for surprising ideas.

Please let us know that you are coming to the Open BAU Meeting by sending a quick mail to info@bau.amsterdam with in the subject: Coming!

We rotate the coordination of the OPEN MEETINGS, this meeting is organised by Riccardo Guratti
www.bau.amsterdam

Location:
BAU Co-Working Space at Dansmakers
Gedempt Hamerkanaal 203
1021 KP Amsterdam

For several years now, the problem of finding affordable office space for independent makers keeps popping up during the Open BAU Meetings. BAU has put its energy and efforts into creating a solution:

a new BAU CO-WORKING SPACE!!!

BAU CO-WORKING SPACE is a communal office space where you can meet your peers, exchange experience and knowledge, help one another, and get to know new people from the Amsterdam dance and performance field.

BAU has recently reached an agreement with Dansmakers to use part of their building to support the Amsterdam arts scene. This will contribute to the payment of the rent of the building, and ensure the existence of this valuable venue for the future.

BAU CO-WORKING SPACE offers:

• Working space 5 days a week (Mon-Fri) from 10h to 18h for one year starting on 22 January 2018.
• Flexible desks in different spaces.
• Safe storage space for your office needs.
• Shared printer for cheap copies.
• Shared kitchen.
• Separate room for meetings.
• Great location in Amsterdam Noord (Gedempt Hamerkanaal 203), 5 min from the ferry and with a supermarket next door.
• Possibility to work outside during the sunny days.

WHAT DOES IT COST?

Less than a coffee a day!!!

€350 (ex btw) per person for the whole year (that comes to about €30 a month). We would like a one-year contract for 2018 to be signed, and the rent can be paid at once or in two terms. Take this chance and book your office space before the 20th December 2017.

This is a great opportunity to fulfill one of the pressing needs of the scene but we can only proceed with this project with a minimum of 20 people.

Are you are interested? Do you need more info? Please send an email with some information about yourself (your contact info, your profession) to info@bau.amsterdam

Please also forward this invitation to people you think might be interested (people related to the Amsterdam dance and performance scene).

BAU zoekt per 15 januari 2018 een zakelijk leider

Aantal uur: 0,2 Fte

Plaats / locatie: Amsterdam

Het betreft een betaalde vacature

Organisatie

BAU is hét platform voor de onafhankelijke dans- en performance-scene in Amsterdam.

Via onderzoek, kennisdeling en artistieke ondersteuning wil BAU de werkcondities en het toekomstperspectief van zelfstandige makers verbeteren. BAU initieert en leidt projecten die bijdragen aan de ontwikkeling van de dans en performance in Amsterdam en houdt de vinger aan de pols van ontwikkelingen in het (internationale) werkveld.

Middels lezingen, workshops, seminars en andere events stimuleren ze ontmoeting en uitwisseling tussen professionals.

Als vertegenwoordiger van een Amsterdams dans- en performancenetwerk is BAU een belangrijke gesprekspartner voor beleidsmakers en culturele instellingen in de stad.

Daarnaast verhuurt BAU twee repetitiestudio’s die ruimte bieden aan de ontwikkeling van nieuwe dans- en theaterproducties.

Vacature

We zoeken een gedreven zakelijk leider die samen met de dagelijks leider mee bouwt aan de inhoudelijke en zakelijke ontwikkeling van het platform/de organisatie BAU. Iemand met ervaring op gebied van

zakelijk-, financieel- en cultureel management, die verantwoordelijk is voor de financiën en, in nauw contact met onze boekhouder, de administratie.

Functie-inhoud

Je:

• Ontwikkelt samen met de dagelijks leider meerjarenbeleidsplannen en voert deze uit.
• Ontwikkelt samen met de dagelijks leider projectplannen en begeleidt deze (vaak in co-productie met andere culturele instellingen/organisaties in Amsterdam).
• Bent zakelijk (en inhoudelijk) de sparringpartner van de dagelijks leider van BAU die samenwerkt met een comité van onafhankelijke kunstenaars.Vormt met de dagelijks leider de directie en het gezicht van BAU.
• Bent verantwoordelijk voor de financiën en werft subsidie- en sponsorgelden.
• Woont bestuursvergaderingen bij.
   
  Profielschets

Je:

• Hebt affiniteit met kunst en cultuur, je voelt je aangesproken door de activiteiten van BAU en de plaats van de organisatie/het platform in het Amsterdamse kunstenveld.
• Hebt ervaring als zakelijk leider in de culturele sector en bent op de hoogte van ontwikkelingen in het kunstenveld.
• Hebt ervaring met fondsenwerving, begrotingen en financiële onderhandelingen.
• Bent zakelijk en strategisch, maar verliest niet de artistieke inhoud uit het oog.
• Hebt een netwerk in de kunsten en bent communicatief ingesteld.
• Bent ambitieus, denkt oplossingsgericht, ziet kansen en je staat open voor nieuwe werkstructuren.
• Vindt het leuk om op zakelijk vlak samen te werken met projectpartners.
• Vindt het leuk om een relatief jonge organisatie te helpen vormgeven en verstevigen.
• Bent woonachtig in de regio Amsterdam.

Salaris op basis van een freelance-opdrachtovereenkomst en conform CAO Toneel en Dans en afhankelijk van leeftijd en ervaring.

Contactgegevens

Voor meer informatie over de organisatie zie www.bau.amsterdam

Stuur je C.V. en motivatie naar info@bau.amsterdam t.a.v. Eva Villanueva.

Deadline 13 december. Gesprekken vanaf 18 december.

Aanvang werkzaamheden vanaf 15 januari 2018 - of in onderling overleg.

Acquisitie n.a.v deze advertentie wordt niet op prijs gesteld.

⟩ BAU CORE TEAM HAS GROWN

We are happy to tell that the BAU core team (the people that meet regularly discussing the way BAU should function and that are taking on the work that needs to be done) has grown.

We have on board, on the picture from left to right: Giulio D'Anna, Riccardo Guratti, Susanne Marx, Marjolein Vogels, Julia Willms, Orion Maxted, Marion Traenkle, Eva Villanueva, Keren Levi, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Nicole Beutler, Michael Jahoda and Hayley Adams, our agenda/website angel (not on the picture).

⟩ OPEN BAU MEETING

On Saturday October the 28th the next Open BAU Meeting of the saison 2017/2018 will take place. This time we have the pleasure to be hosted by Festival Why Not #6.Here you can meet your peers, be updated about important developments, chat and get inspired.We will give you an update on the activities and developments within BAU and an update of the current situation of the dance/performance field in relation to recent developments and to politics that concern the conditions of making work here in the city. We hope to empower and inspire the scene to get together, to find easier access to means of making, to strengthen our dialogue and enhance the quality of our working conditions.On the meeting you share time and space with people active in the field.

A surprising combination of colleagues gets together every time we meet…

So swing yourself on the bike and come over. Spending time together is the secret recipe for surprising ideas. And don't forget to dive into Festival Why Not afterwards....

Start 12:00hrs, De School, Dr. Jan van Breemenstraat 1, 1056 AB Amsterdam

⟩ SED

From 25 September, 2017, applications were open to apply for the third round of the Stimuleringsregeling Eigentijdse Dans (SED) at Cultuur & Ondernemen. This opportunity was for the period between 15 Oct 2017-15 Oct 2018.

Now that the SED is widely known by the dance sector, and the fund is in great need, this year there was a huge number of applicants for the grant. It appears everyone was ready with their finger on the Enter button on 25th September and as a result, the budget was reached within four days. Due to this year’s high level of demand, the applications were processed in order of application. It is now no longer possible to apply for the third subsidy round of the SED. Mark it in your calendars for the new round in 2018

⟩ AMSTERDAM DANCE SECTOR IS COLLABORATING TO CREATE A NEW FUTURE IN AMSTERDAM NORTH

Due to the accumulation of lost subsidies, two key areas within the dance filed have been affected: talent development in the dance field has been put at risk and the location of Dansmakers is at threat to close. The Amsterdam dance field has joined forces to action against these risks, and are joining forces to particularly prevent the closure of the location. The writers of the plan want to keep the building in use for the whole of the dance field.

Dansmakers Amsterdam, Veem, Bau, The National Ballet, ICK Amsterdam, ISH, Danstheater Aya and the Academy for Dance and Theater (AHK) have jointly written a plan to keep the building at the Gedempt Hamerkanaal in Amsterdam North. The space is currently run by Dansmakers Amsterdam (DMA). In addition to these core partners, this plan is supported by Leine & Roebana, NB projects, Festival Why Not, Cinedans, DATschool, Julidans, HJS, Theater Bellevue, Theater Frascati and the Sandberg Institute. It is also supported by all the young makers who are represented by Dansmakers Amsterdam, Veem and Bau.

Due to a large decline in the grant award to Dansmakers Amsterdam for the Kunstenplan period 2017-2020, it is no longer possible for DMA to fund the property that was fully renovated in 2015. The municipality has, for 2017, granted an incidental rent subsidy with to Dansmakers Amsterdam. DMA, in conjunction with the National Ballet, has delivered a plan for September 2018-2020, which shows cooperation for maintaining this location for the dance sector.

The new jointly written business plan for post 2020 outlines solutions for a stronger future, in which the building in Amsterdam North will provide a wide range of dance and performance, independent of Dansmakers as the organisation that currently runs the building. The goal is a fully-fledged new production house for dance and performance in the new Kunstenplan 2021-2024, widely supported and utilised by partners in the Amsterdam dance field.

With sufficient resources and infrastructure, the aim is a major production house with a national and international reputation, hosting a broad vision of dance and performance. The centre will present urban, modern, contemporary and classic presentations and will actively encourage cross pollination and creative interactions. It will be a vibrant place where young and innovative talent can develop, which will in turn contribute to the future of the dance sector locally, nationally and internationally.

Over the next three years (2018-2020) the following steps will be taken:

2018

• Dansmakers Podium will take a new name: IJ-Podium. It is hoped this new name is open enough for other parties to present themselves in the building.
• The core partners will jointly develop a new operating model for the IJ Podium. At the same time, a plan will be developed for the Production House 2.0. For a new legal entity, a 2-year application will be submitted to the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst  (AFK) in the summer of 2018.
• A new organisation and structure of the IJ Podium management foundation will be put in place.

2019

• The pilot Production House 2.0 will be launched.
• The IJ Podium will be managed by an independent foundation. The partners will also be users of the IJ Podium.
• A Coordinator will be responsible for programme planning, and future rental of the IJ Podium by other cultural organisations and commercial parties.

In the meantime, this two-year plan will be funded by increasing rental income, improved utilization of the building by dance partners and contributors, and an incidental contribution from the municipality for 2018. The writers of the plan have made a request to the municipality to investigate whether it is possible that this financial contribution may be diverted back to the rent of the location via the Stimuleringsregeling Eigentijdse Dans.

For the period 2019/2020, a two-year grant will be applied to the AFK for the pilot programme of the Production House 2.0. An innovation subsidy will also be requested for the change process, and the research and development of the new model. This will allow for a positive, effective, attractive and broadly developed business plan, and the realization of a production house for the future of dance in Amsterdam.

⟩ FIRST VERSION OF THE FAIR PRACTICE CODE PRESENTED

On 3rd October 2017, the first version of the Fair Practice Code in the arts was presented to Deputy Minister Bussemaker during a meeting at Veem House for Performance, Amsterdam.

Meeting in Veem House for Performance

The meeting was opened by Felix Rottenberg, Chairman of the Amsterdam Art Museum and Composers Association Nieuw Geneco. He pleaded for healthier payment of artists and creatives, and solid investment in cultural facilities in an expiring sector. “Enabling execution also requires reverse Zijlstra operation”.

After the first version of the Fair Practice Code was handed to the Minister, the attendees went straight to work: what does a Fair Practice Code mean to an artist or institution? What conversations do we need to have around payment and fair working practices?

The Fair Practice Code Version 1.0 as a starting point

The Fair Practice Code provides a framework for wages for those working in the cultural and creative sectors in the Netherlands. This is necessary for building a healthy and future-proof labour market, while extending professional practice across the industry. Creative professionals from many disciplines have contributed towards the first version of the Fair Practice Code, a document they hope will be a starting point for all stakeholders to discuss achievable goals of the future.

Minister Bussemaker

The Minister facilitated the development of this document and has put this topic politically on the map. The overall aim is that the Fair Practice Code will be collectively utilised by all stakeholders involved in the cultural sector, including politicians. It is wished with the implementation of this document, Politicians and Directors come together, striving for better conditions for everyone working creatively, from regularly funded organisations to independent artists. 

What now?

The intention moving forwards will focus on acquiring larger support from across the sector and on further developing the code of Fair Practice. This will be done through interviews with stakeholders within the various sub-sectors, and by collecting comments via the e-mail address: fairpracticecode@kunsten92.nl

There will be a website built, whereby existing agreements, best practices and earning models will be available publicly. In the beginning of 2018, the final Fair Practice Code will be ready for general release. The implementation of the code will be monitored throughout 2018.

The Fair Practice Code is a practical outline of the Labour Market Agenda for the cultural and creative sector for which Kunsten '92 was commissioned by Minister Bussemaker in 2016.

For further information or to keep updated with future developments, stay in touch:

www.kunsten92.nl

This source text comes from the Kunsten ’92 website

READ THE FAIR PRACTICE CODE Version 1.0 HERE

⟩ WHY NOT

Futuristic fantasy worlds, defying gravity, bodies melting together, humans becoming machines. Saturday the 28th of October, contemporary dance and performance platform WhyNot presents their sixth festival edition at De School in Amsterdam West. A full day (and night) of dance, performance, installations, talks, films, workshops, great food and (club)music. This year's edition is all about the physical body in relation to our digital world: analogue vs. virtual.

With: Kristin Ryg Helgebostad & Laura Marie Rueslåtten, Dario Tortorelli, Nicole Beutler, Floris Kaayk, Katja Heitmann, Coralie Vogelaar, Andreas Hannes, O.T.T.O.T.T. (Genevieve Murphy, Gunar Gunnsteinsson, Emile Frankel, Isadora Tomasi), Marija Sujica, Giulio D'Anna, Youri Peters & Marie Khatlib-Shahidi, Cinedans, Joana Chicau and more.

www.festivalwhynot.nl

⟩ DID YOU KNOW THAT

• We have a dance / performance agenda on the BAU website?
• We have a jobs and calls page on the BAU website?
• You can have your information put on our website so you are easy to find? database@bau.amsterdam

WE LIVE HERE

From 10 - 14 July 2017 the summer academy WE LIVE HERE took place in the BAU Studio’s. It’s a platform for artistic encounters initiated by Nicole Beutler, Marijke Hoogenboom and Andrea Božić, produced by NBprojects and co-produced by BAU.

As in previous editions professionals active in different fields of the performing and visual arts were invited to join this temporary community. With WE LIVE HERE we want to keep creating space to come together, to encounter, to work and think together beyond the scope of individual projects or production agendas.

The summer academy takes on a slightly different shape each year. For this edition, we invited Mala Kline again to set up a study room where we will together explore emergent language or ways to articulate knowledge that emerges from embodied practices.

Instead of using given forms such as academic writing, we took a look at what are other ways of articulation and emerging formats of writing that make more sense and are closer to knowledge gained through artistic research. The hexagon shape of the honeycomb emerges due to the material conditions of wax and surface tension. What then is a singular form of writing that emerges from the materiality of every of our singular embodied practices?

This question is explored throughout the week through a combination of communal dreaming and reading sessions, excursions, guest lecturers who introduced different forms of writing and seeing performances at Julidans.

Mala Kline is a performer, choreographer and writer. She holds MA in theater (DasArts, Amsterdam) and PhD in philosophy (UL, Ljubljana). She is an artistic researcher at a.pass research center in Brussels and a volunteer post-doc researcher at Faculty of Arts and Philosophy (UG) as well as a member of S:PAM research center in Gent. She is a certified practitioner and teacher of Saphire™ practice (SOI, NYC). All her artistic and theoretical work is embedded in the practice of dreaming. In her author-based choreographic works she uses Saphire™ to facilitate individual and communal dreaming in order to create unique singular worlds weaved from and generated through the language of our dreaming. She has a private practice in Brussels and teaches Saphire™ internationally, in diverse educational, research and production contexts and settings.

Update BAU

It is time to update you quickly about a couple of things going on in the city and with BAU.

On may 23rd there has been a conversation at Het Nationale Ballet about the situation of the production house in Amsterdam. About 30 people from the dance field were present. As outcome of that meeting we can say the following:

The idea is that soon there will be a meeting between Veem House for Performance, BAU and Dansmakers about the creation for a new plan for a production house in Amsterdam.

Some points.....

• Are you a performer, a choreographer, a director, a technician, a dramaturge, a lighting designer, a composer, a manager, or in any other way connected to the dance and performance scene in Amsterdam? Do you have a favourite physiotherapist? Healer? Magician? Then place your name in the list of professionals on the BAU website by sending info to: database@bau.amsterdam
• Are you busy with a performance, a new work and would like to share your unfinished experiment with the scene? We help you organise a BAU tryout! Send a mail to info@bau.amsterdam for more info.
• Do you have a performance coming up? Do send all your info to agenda@bau.amsterdam! It's a month calendar, so please send us your info in about a month ahead. Our beautiful website www.bau.amsterdam is visited by 2000 people a month, so do not hesitate to send your info and you will get more people to see your work.

We’re very happy to announce our new BAU AIR residents for 2023. Last year we launched again the open call for this residency that offers a professional mid-career performing artist the possibility to do research in our BAU studio for four weeks. From all the incoming applications a selection committee, consisting of Selm Merel Wenselaers, Artun Alaska Arasli and the BAU team, has chosen Michele Rizzo and Esther Mugambi as residents of 2023.

All residencies will conclude with a public sharing. Dates and time to follow.

Library of the Academy of Theatre and Dance

Did you know that it's possible to visit the Library of the Academy of Theatre and Dance
(location Das Graduate School) as a non-student? In this case loaning is possible by appointment.

collection
This small library has a diverse collection of books (around 2,600), magazines (around 30 titles), videos and dvds (around 1200), focusing especially on English books and magazines about theatre, performance, dance, philosophy, artistic research and fine arts. The collection is particularly drawn up on the basis of purchasing titles that are related to the curriculum so far, supplemented with standard works on performance art.

With the exception of the magazines, the complete collection is available through the online catalogue of the Amsterdam University of the Arts.

Would you like to make an appointment?

Telephone: +31 (0) 20 527 7666

Email: john.meijerink@ahk.nl

Visiting address
Overhoeksplein 2
1031 KS Amsterdam

Fair Practice Label in the Arts

Fair Practice Label in the Arts is an initiative under development by United We Stand, a collaboration of Platform BK (NL), State of the Arts (B), Koalition der Freien Szene (D), Marijke Hoogenboom, Anne Breure, Lara Staal and Het Transitiebureau (NL), inspired by a similar Flemish initiative. The label is a reaction to the current situation in the art field, where most of the artists are earning way less than a modal income. The working conditions are bad and the number of burn-outs is increasing. Measures from higher up like the Kunstkeurmerk (art quality mark) by union FNV in 2008 and the Governance Code Culture have not made much of a difference. The solution seems to need to arise bottom-up.

The goal of the Fair Practice Label in the Arts is to create institutional ethics and sustainable working conditions for professionals working in the cultural scene. Common values about fair wage, working conditions, division of money, and sustainability can be secured by a Fair Practice Label. That way the label would also act as a guideline that associated organisations would have to stick to and could be a precondition for the allocation of funds.

The idea arose in 2014 in Belgium to start some kind of union that would fight against unfair treatment of artists at events, festivals and in temporary/flexible situations. State of The Arts, oKo, NICC, ACOD, Hoogtijd, and Kunstenpunt together put in effort to set up a fair practice label that would guarantee solidarity, sustainability, diversity, and transparency. The label itself is not seen as the solution, but as a way to make the problems in the scene visible. Solidarity encompasses equal payment and division of money, minimum wage, and fair contracts. Sustainability stands for durable developments, collaborations and the environment. Diversity is not only about people, but also about including all the different subgenres of art like experimental and interdisciplinary. Transparency means involving the artists in decisions and being open about collaborations and sponsors.

Sources

De Roover & Vanderbeeken, 2015 Link

Interview with Anne Breure Link

Report from the IETM Amsterdam Plenary Meeting, 14 – 17 April 2016 Link

COME TOGETHER #3

Over the 18th, 19th & 20th of January 2017, the third edition of COME TOGETHER took place in the Frascati theaters in Amsterdam. Fifty performance makers from different fields came together over these days to share ideas and present their work.

What started in 2014 as a mini-festival by initiators/peers Nicole Beutler, Keren Levi and Andrea Bozic, to gather and show their work alongside each other, grew into a second edition in 2015 including works by Amsterdam artists of all generations and disciplines such as music, dance and contemporary art. 

"We are now at the beginning of a new arts funding period - an exciting time full of uncertainty and questions - COME TOGETHER # 3 grows again and acts as an appeal to the Amsterdam art field to come together and demonstrate that the field is still very much alive and kicking. COME TOGETHER # 3 is a performed manifesto and celebration of the many innovative contemporary makers that Amsterdam hosts. Over these three days approximately 50 independent choreographers, musicians, artists, dramatists and thinkers from different generations and backgrounds come together to share knowledge, develop concepts, meet coleagues and present their ideas to the public. The participants will utilize the space and time in a way that has not been possible elsewhere in our current and recent climate. The works will offer a range whether it is a short try-out performance, an interdisciplinary dance piece, a multimedia lecture, a workshop, an artistic manifesto or a performance in print; rough, unpolished, exploring, visionary and challenging. During COME TOGETHER #3 both creators and audiences get the chance to discover and experience the work in all its facets within one context."

COME TOGETHER is produced by NBprojects, Frascati, NeverLike, TILT, BAU and Veem House for Performance, supported by ICK.