Engagement
I noticed the text in the bottom is quite outdated. Therefore a short update:
While/during searching for a way into theatre and contemporary dance I noticed I wasn't satisfied the way things are going. There is a larger picture which needs attention, more than my drive in becoming an artist. After an intensive course on World Development, a lot of research and all the thoughts in between I noticed I have something else to offer the world. I will never leave my aspirations in art, but I decided my focus for the next years would be to work on project advancing information flow.
In my research I've encountered a lot of ways of thinking and acting, of dealing with health, culture, nature, North and South development, pedagogy. And I noticed those were Islands visited by a limited amount of people. These ways of looking at the world often don't meet, but for the few people searching for a specific answer. Yet I notice they could be enriching one and other. Bridging perceptions I see as one of the main things to do in this world today. That's what I'm aiming for. It means dealing with an incredible complexity.
I must admit was really too much in the beginning. But after a few years of intense research I got a better picture of what is needed. It started making sense. And I noticed the fatality people often feel about big and difficult subjects could be overcome. I feel very eager to start working with this knowledge. To start making connections, to make possibilities in order to weave a better understanding of one and other and of what is possible.
Movement
I think I
was about 10 years old, when I saw a typical mime player in Bokrijk. I was
fascinated by its strange movements, it moved like a robot and it estranged and
at the same time attracted me. I got the same effect as after seeing karate kid
for the first time – I wanted to do that too. Michael Jackson’s movements have
gripped me in the same way. I remember standing on a party of my father’s
company also around eleven, trying to steal the show doing king of pop-wise
imitations. I got applause from the people all right, but I guess it was rather
for “the little kid having the guts to show-off” than because of my technical
brilliancy. A lot later, at the age of 16 I got to know the prodigy. Keith Flint’s
incredibly exotic way of movement gave me the same impulse again, and I started
imitating him.
During the
years I practiced a lot in front of the mirror. Little by little I got a
quality for “sensing” and analysing movement and imitating that sensation. It took me long time to get to technical lessons and typical for me is that everything comes from
the moment and the sensation.
I followed
several saturday courses dancing improvisation with Mieke Huybrechts in Mol
(about five years in total), where I learned a lot about movement principles and
about dancing together. I also did some weekend courses with Wisper (www.wisper.be) and a week in the festival of Montpellier with Danskaai (in Antwerp).
In october
2004 I started off in the mimestudio in Borgerhout (www.mimestudio.com). In seven workshops
I learned practically about the systems in mime
theatre: Decroux, Grotovski, Laban, Stanislavski, Lecock, Meyerhold and Butoh. The second year me and Martin Hoevenaars practiced a lot of Decroux and constructed a duo in wich we showed the evolution of walking, starting at a one cellular level through to animals to human walking. Our Plans are to improve the performance and to show it again at a later time.
I also got in the finals of the mimefestival in Aarschot (www.mime.be). It was a great experience participating.
Next to the mimestudio I followed three years of contemporary weekend dance courses through wisper. The final year we preformed a choreography with Nordine Benchorf.
In 2004 I
participated at “le Grand Bal de l’Europe” at Gennetines (France), a folk dance
festival. I learned there that I actually didn’t know how to dance folk and in
a week I learned how to do it fairly well. Because of the great atmosphere and
teaching, I returned a year later and again I learned a lot.
July 2006 I participated the Tortosa workshop of contemporary dance, organised by Roberto Olivan. I hope to return there this year, because it has been one of my most intense experiences in Dance.
At Gennetines I also got to know Sherley Freudenreich. With her I made two art-movies,
incorporating her knowledge on “the image” and my movements. One was shot in Brussels. In 20 june 2006 we showed a theatre preformance where I moved and Sherley made video images to accompagny the story. We showed it again at the Mayday festival in the CCBE in Berchem. Right now she lives in Barcelona, but I hope
our collaboration will continue, because I already had a lot of fun with
her and she became a good friend.
At the moment I'm constructing a show with Claudia Ossola, a girl I got to know through Tortosa, she's in circus and I did my first "acroporter" number with her.
Music
When I was
4 I had a babysit coming over. I was showing “a piece” I prepared. It must have
really sucked, because I still remember the ashamed face of Joris, my oldest
brother. It shows something typical for me though, which was the most important
thing in my musical development: I liked to experiment and to discover. I
twink-twanked a lot before I got my first piano lesson. When we went to visit
people with a synthesizer I couldn’t be happier then to stay there for hours to
try out all the sounds; I could really be absorbed by the instrument.
I studied
classical piano for 8 years, one year with Simon Willems and afterward with An
Camps in the local music academy. During that time I got periods when I
practiced a lot, but I was always improvising much more. I preferred the faster
gratification from improvising over the often boring practicing. But although
it was a way to push the exercising part in front of me (often until the last
half hour before Class) I learned most of my improvisation skills all by
myself. And in the beginning I did study - on my public exam I had a whopping
92 percent; I was second best of my year.
In the year
2000 I studied a preparatory year “Pop-Jazz” in “de kunsthumaniora” in Antwerp. I studied little but I learned a
lot about music. I got some great teachers: Hans Vrancken (Clouseau), Bart Van
Caeneghem (de frivole framboos), Koen Mertens (drummer of K’s Choice). The
school holiday after that I took a pop course with the Haleweyn Stichting,
where Michael Shack thought me how to really enjoy drumming.
After that
I played the keyboard in a coverband, “Come & Getsum” which was a lot of fun
but wich unfortunately never really got of the ground, same as the drumming duo
I had with Wesley Lenaerts, “The Drum And Basement” (because we rehearsed in
our basement). I had a few gigs with both of them and the one I remember most
is the 3 hour gig in “café de kroon” in Eindhout wich had a set of about 20
songs.
In may 2003
I started playing and rehearsing with Inspinazie ( www.inspinazie.com ), an improvisation
theatre based in Leuven.
A lot of fun to do - actually one of the most rewarding things to do
for a musician, because it gives a lot of freedom. End of november 2005 I
quit inspinazie, wich was hard to do, but at the same
time it gave me the chance to put my focus on my moving body.
In September 2005 I started piano lessons again in The Trix Music centre in
Borgerhout with Phillipe Mampuya. He playes most classical pieces I know by heart and he has a great idea about music.
My
electronic music.
In 1997 I
bought a Korg X2 synth and Cubase Score. A few years ago I also bought an Emu
E5000ultra sampler. Today I must have about 400 songs, a lot of them unfinished.
Most of my songs only use the Korg as instrument, but I’m planning to buy a new
one.
In 2002 I made a cd with Tom Verheyden in studio “Soundlab” based in the youth
house “de Bogaard” in Geel. He did a really good job. The result you can
download in the “music” section. Gratis! For Free!
Musical
Inspiration:
In
chronological order (starting of when I was really young)
10+
Synthesizer
greatest
The
TV1-tunes (really!)
14+
Trance
songs with happy tunes and piano-melodies.
16+
The prodigy
Orbital
Moby
Underworld
Aphex Twin
BT
Fluke
Front 242 and other electro
21+
Wim Mertens
Arvo Paërt
Miles Davis
Cinematic
Orchestra
Muse
Radiohead
(I must admit – I only really discovered it last year)
Ambient
Liquid
morphine or Matthew Florianz
There is a
lot more I like, But these Are artists I have much listened to, it really
influenced my thinking and feeling about music.
INSPIRATION in life
Many thanks and apreciation to: Mama en Papa, Luc Van Tolhuyzen (for
the many
performances I get to see with him and for the encouragement), Jan Ruts
(for the incredible chance he is giving me), Sherley, Alexis (for
listening), Ruth, Luc en Mieke
uit borgerhout, Martin (for being so passionate about moving theatre), Ive,
Harlinde, Margriet - Christine en Jessica, Bernard Cocklet (to organise
one of the greatest festivals I know), Steven en Joris, Patrick uit
Deurne, Silke, Sabijn, Tom uit Gent, Anke, Sofie Vervloet, Joachim Côme
(for his inspiring different view), Mieke Huybrechts en
mededanseressen, Ann Alexandra en iedereen van de wisperdanscursus, Pé
Vermeersch, Nathalie Gordon, An Camps, Ludo Van Passel, Simon Willems,
Phillipe Mampuya, iedereen in inspinazie and the guests of the
festival, de zangers en zangeressen van de Lunatics, de trawantelkliek
van Westerlo, Nicolas, Wesley Lenaerts (for a most daring endavour)
Annuska, Zita, Els, Elisabeth
en alle mensen die ik schandelijk vergeten ben.
Deep respect too: Arvo Paert, Joseph Nadj, Herman Verbeeck, Andrei Tarkovsky...