Sjoerd Derine
Photo exhibition: Kairos

Photographer Sjoerd Derine is celebrating his 10th anniversary as a photographer in the performing arts this year with a special anniversary exhibition entitled Kairos. In collaboration with the Nederlandse Dansdagen, he presents a selection of his most striking, expressive images: moments in which everything came together – exactly as the Greek god Kairos intended. In Greek mythology, Kairos represents the fleeting, decisive moment, the moment when you must act. Not later. Now. It is the perfect moment that arrives in a flash and disappears just as quickly – an opportunity that you can only seize if you recognize it immediately. For Sjoerd Derine, that is precisely what characterizes his work: capturing the essential moment in which the dancer, the light, the space, and the emotion come together. In his own words, Sjoerd likes to talk about his exhibition:

"In addition to celebrating my 10th anniversary, this exhibition reflects on the powerful expression of creators who dare to take the leap."

"Recently, I have often asked myself why I do this work. As a former dancer/performer, I literally stumbled into it, finding my way into the world of photography in the performing arts. What has kept me going over the past ten years, what has given me the strength to continue following my own path? It all revolves around one principle: the courage to go. I am deeply involved in what takes place in and around the theater. The people, the stories, the atmosphere, the culture, everything gives me a feeling of coming home. It is a place where I am stimulated, guided, and shaped, and I send my own stimulated forms back again. It is a communication that is often passed on through intuition, so it is something you can only feel. It is this non-verbal communication that makes me feel so at home among performing artists. We communicate using other means and are able to reach each other and our audience in this way. It is probably this feeling that makes me feel at home in this world and that I convey to the people who ultimately stand in front of my lens, a feeling of understanding. Because just imagine standing there, in a vulnerable moment, on stage with sometimes hundreds of eyes focused on you. A collective tension of stress, expectations, and nerves coursing through your body. I know this feeling from my time as a performer, which is why I have so much respect for the people who stand on stage day in, day out, striving to satisfy their own sense of perfection. Physically and mentally, it is often exhausting, but they stand there and dare to dive into the moment. I see that, I feel that, and I respect that. This is what is central to my exhibition, the moment when people dare to stand on stage and dare to go for it. Sometimes with small steps, sometimes with big leaps, but always with dedication. It is therefore an honor to capture this movement in art and to present a collection here in which vulnerability is transformed into a pure form of art and inspiration, hopefully allowing you, like me, to be captivated by that one moment.

Sjoerd Derine (42) began his artistic career as a sixteen-year-old performer with the Utrecht youth company DOX and later found his way into the hip hop community as a performing dancer for both underground and commercial assignments. Drawing on his deep-rooted knowledge of movement and performance, he developed into a photographer with a unique perspective: he feels the rhythm, moves with the dancers, and anticipates that one image that speaks. In his own words, he is not a technical photographer but rather a photographer trained by his dance experiences. “I didn't study at a photography academy, but in clubs, studios, and on the street. My teachers were the dancers, the DJs, the artists, who taught me the art of feeling. Through this apprenticeship, I developed my skill and was able to convey that feeling in images.”

His specialty in dance photography is utilized by collectives and individuals throughout the performing arts landscape, and his work is used by international dance festivals, appears on the covers of many different dance magazines, and is published in leading critical media such as NRC, de Volkskrant, Het Parool, Theaterkrant, and other online media. Wherever there is movement in art, Sjoerd is there to capture it, obsessive not to lose that moment. In the exhibition Kairos, Sjoerd Derine shows work that not only captures dance, but also its soul. Each image is an encounter, a fusion of timing, technique, and intuition. With this anniversary exhibition, he invites the public to recognize Kairos — and perhaps even seize it themselves. Kairos can be seen during the Nederlandse Dansdagen and is a visual celebration of a decade of dedication to the art of sensing the right moment.