Looking back on the project
Open Space is a new two-week long talent development and research platform organized by NDT and Korzo, that is fully dedicated to stimulate the artistic and creative capacities of its participants. The project is designed as a space for young and/or established creators to explore their creativity by opening the doors to ideas from disciplines outside their traditional realm. For this first edition of Open Space the dancers of NDT 2, together with three choreographers, three composers of the Royal Conservatoire (RC) in The Hague, and astronomers from the Leiden University have explored the connection between dance, music and cosmology. This marks the first time NDT collaborates with the world renown institution of the Leiden Observatory.
The choreographers who worked with the NDT 2 dancers were Antonin Rioche, Astrid Boons and Marina Mascarell. Each group paired up with one of the composers – Eric So, Rose Connolly and Sóley Sigurjónsdóttir – as well as one of the astronomers Henk Hoekstra, Pedro Russo and Omar Contigiani.
In this story, composer Rose Connelly looks back on the two-week long project. To read experiences of the other participants, please visit the website of NDT.
Composer Rose Connolly
“This Open Space project accurately fulfilled its title in every respect. From the start, we didn’t have any expectations, Astrid (Boons, choreographer) and I were completely open to how we were going to approach the creative process and the outcome also. This allowed us to discover new, exciting, and innovative things, with dance and for me, sound. Every day we would regurgitate new material, new ideas and new possibilities with the help of a morning filled with exciting information about the universe from the astronomers.
With the absence of an end-goal or presentation, this gave us an abundance of freedom to discover what we could achieve with music and dance, with the influence of such profound concepts of the universe. The creative process was the predominant imperative, and that was evidently beautiful in itself.
In addition to this, the dancers and I had a beautiful ‘feedback loop’ where we would be in total power over each other’s actions. Although, experimenting with the divergence of a certain reaction was equally as interesting and produced something quite amazing and yet intuitive.
I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with a wonderful choreographer, incredible dancers and astronomers, and it will be something that I will carry with me for the rest of my creative and artistic endeavours.”
Photo header: Fernando Hernando Magadan