| Curator | Sue-Ann Bel |
| Duration | 120 min |
Sue-Ann Bel takes over Korzo
New perspectives, new ideas, new creations. With Korzo x, we hand the keys over to a maker who draws our curiosity and interest. This time, it’s award winning, Rotterdam-based theatre maker and performer Sue-Ann Bel, who will curate her own program tonight.
Sue-Ann invites guests and you to practice in embracing all layers of our identity, in talks and performances. It can feel like you can only be one thing: Dutch or Surinamese, sensitive or powerful, man or woman, introvert or extravert. But what if you don’t have to choose? What if the rhythmic tones of the Surinamese music- and dance genre Kaseko make you dance, but you’re also touched by Western classical music?
Sue-Ann invites mimers Ayrton Fraenk, Erwin Boschmans, Dwayne Toemere and Daphne Masé to join a conversation about using all your identities in artistry, a convo led by moderator and fellow mimer Dionne Verwey. Sjaid Foncé performs some of his own work and talks with Ritzah Statia. We'll watch and listen toe a poem of Elten Kiene and multi-instrumentalist Shaynah researches how layers collide and coalesce, in compositions where her voice merges with Kaseko and western music. And Sue-Ann's mom Henna will serve up a small bite!
Sue-Ann invites you to marvel at the complexity of our identity, to deepen our understanding of what we don’t yet know about ourselves and to celebrate the beauty of everything we are.
Sue-Ann Bel (1993) is a Rotterdam-based theatre maker with Surinamese roots, who graduated studying Mime at the ATD. Bel works as an independent maker and player under the wings of Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam and Maas Theater en Dans, inspired by greats such as Nina Simone, Grace Jones and Maya Angelou.
Bel engages with themes that touch on her own life experiences, transforming them into visual, physical and musical works. She uses the stage to connect to the person within herself and the person standing across from her. Bel works from within with a deep conviction that there is an ever-present need to share.
‘Our roots makes us who we are and how we move. Two worlds collide within me. The Netherlands is the place where I was born and where I live, Surinam is the land of my parents and ancestors. I studied Mime in Amsterdam, where the basic premise is the white, Western body. I myself am a Black woman. I carry multiple ways of moving in me, because of my background and cultuur. It often occurs to me that I have to choose a side. But I want to eat my Dutch stamppot with Surinamese spices. I want to listen to the music of the Dutch band Blof while I am en route to a twerk session. I want to coalesce and to embrace it all at the same time.’
‘Learning to embrace it all started for me by learning more about my Surinamese history. That’s why I will be travelling to Paramaribo next year, the native soil of my parents. For this night in Korzo, I would like to invite several guests who inspire me in this quest of mine. It will be a night full of inspiration, with music, some food, a performance and a talk with each other and you, the audience. I would love to take your words, thoughts and presence with me in my search to coalesce.’
Korzo Zaal