Day of the Maker

With the Day of the Maker, Circuscentrum, Dag van de Dans, detheatermaker and Het TheaterFestival support artists in their journey to professionalization by offering a day-long space for makers of different generations to collaborate and share expertise in the form of trying out work, pitching a concept, and the like. We invited Madonna Lenaert, Rachid Boulahrir & Dahlia Pessemiers-Benamar to curate this day of doing and thinking.

Within the performing arts, dance, theater and circus each have their own language and their own development. The stage is their home, but one with different rooms.

On this day we want to create the opportunity to work with each other, across disciplines. To sweat and think / think and sweat. To meet each other, to question, to try out together.  What can theater artists learn from circus artists and vice versa? How does the language of a dancer differ from that of an acrobat?

After organizing a day last year around ‘going solo’, we will this year focus on ‘accessibility in practice’. Inspired by the emergence of relaxed performance and trigger warnings or the hotly debated performance of Justina Miles (the sign language interpreter during Rihanna’s superbowl performance) among others, we will consider how accessibility finds its way into everyone’s artistic practice, or just not at all. What choices do you make as a creator to make your performance (more) accessible? How do they affect your creative process? Can you practice accessibility? What if you choose to make an inaccessible performance? 

• Circuscentrum does a lot. From in-service training for teachers to info sessions on the circus decree, from circus heritage to international projects, from CircusMagazine to pitch sessions for programmers. As a support center for circus arts, we are there for everyone involved with circus. As a knowledge center we are driven by curiosity, as a platform we believe in the power of exchange. And as an ambassador we spread the love for circus. And oh yes…we like to work together a lot.

• Dag van de Dans in Flanders and Brussels takes place every year on the Saturday before International Dance Day on April 29. Abroad, choreographers and dancers from our region garner much praise and appreciation. Certainly Brussels, and by extension Flanders, has become an important pole of attraction in the international dance landscape. In our own country, however, distribution and visibility could be much better. Dag van de Dans is an invitation to the general public to get to know the world of contemporary dance, in order to make this art form better known and loved.

• detheatermaker is a development and production platform for theater makers taking their first steps into the professional performing arts field. TM works side by side with the makers in customized multi-year trajectories. Dialogue, collaboration and peer learning are central. Through its 360° guidance TM focuses on the self-reliance of artists. In this way TM helps build the arts field of the future.

• Rachid Boulahrir is a Brussels-based artist of Moroccan descent. He is not only a dancer but also practices tricking, a martial art. He has acquired his skills through years of training and experimentation with different styles and techniques. His passion for movement and expression has taken him to various stages and events around the world, where he has showcased his unique style and energy. With his creativity and determination, he continues to evolve and inspire.

• Dahlia Pessemiers Benamar studied at Studio Herman Teirlinck. Since then, Dahlia has appeared as an actress in various theater companies (De Roovers, Walpurgis, Het Toneelhuis, Het Paleis, Action Zoo Humain, Nt Gent…) and worked in productions by Arne Sierens, Jellie Schippers, Mannah De Pauw, Luk Perceval and others. Besides the stage, Dahlia plays in TV series and films both at home and abroad. As a creator, she is developing her own course within musical theater. Dahlia founded Dunia vzw, where she develops her first creations, always with a mixed cast and in which she fuses different languages and musical genres.

• Madonna Lenaert (they/them) will soon graduate as a Master in Drama at the KASK & Conservatory in Ghent. Madonna made their graduation performance, DO YOU LOVE HER?, together with the three other members of the Magdalena Collective, a feminist drama collective. In addition, Madonna hosts the queer podcast Flikker Op together with Joppe De Campeneere (they/them) and is affiliated with a few non-profit organizations such as Rekto:Verso and Larf. Their artistic and academic practice revolves around feminism, queerness, identity and liberation.