Ghaliah Conroy | Justin de Jager | Merel Severs
Presentation: Virtual Residencies
During the upcoming edition of Nederlandse Dansdagen, you will experience dance live on stages in Maastricht and online from Maastricht. The online stage will include three new Virtual Residencies. The following makers have been selected for this edition:
- Ghaliah Conroy (PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant)
- Justin de Jager (Korzo)
- Merel Severs (Moving Futures)
To select the creators, Nederlandse Dansdagen collaborates with three organizations that collectively span much of the talent development in dance, namely Moving Futures, Korzo and PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant.
On Saturday 5 October, the Virtual Residencies will premiere not only online, but also live (on screen). At Theater aan het Vrijthof, after watching the online premieres, you can engage in conversation with the makers.
Admission to this event is free. Registration required
- Saturday 5 October
- 10:30 - 12:00
- Location
- Theater aan het Vrijthof
- Accessibility
- Wheelchair user
- Disabled
- Tickets
- Admission to this event is free. Registration required
Ghaliah Conroy graduated from the dance and choreography course at Fontys in Tilburg. Originally, she has a background in theatre as an actress and singer. Since graduating, she has been looking for how to bring these different loves together in a meaningful way. In the past two years, she danced, among others, in HAMMAM an immersive performance by the Irish company ANU Productions, performed in The Pull of the Stars at The Gate Theatre Dublin and was part of Marian Quinn's film TWIG. At Makershuis Tilburg and in residence at DansBrabant, she worked out her plans for Sunken Works.
Under the title Sunken Works, Ghaliah Conroy is working on a series of works around the theme of the Human Zoo, the 'exotic' exhibitions that took place in Europe well into the 20th century, where people of colour were displayed behind a fence for public viewing. What effect does this history have on black women today? Ghaliah is collaborating with audiovisual artist CJ Roxas for this research.
Justin de Jager is known for his expertise and pioneering within the movement concept of threading. A principle from Breaking where you thread limbs together to create a loop and pass through it with other body parts. Justin is the first choreographer to develop the concept of threading into a language capable of communicating independently, rather than needing another dance style to be expressed in.
For Justin's participation in the Virtual Residencies, he is collaborating with choreographer and documentary maker Constantin Trommlitz, who has followed Justin for the past two years during his 'New Makers' trajectory. In the documentary, Justin takes you through the essence of his movement signature, the obstacles he has encountered along the way and a candid reflection on the journey he has been on for the past two years.
Playwright, performer and martial artist Merel Severs (1991) creates engaged, confrontational and physical performances. She draws inspiration from intersectional feminism, body politics and martial arts. Her unique performance language is built on the strength, flexibility and resilience of the human body.
In her latest performance Coerced & Freely Given (2024), three performers train themselves and each other to withstand the violence of the world and claim space for vulnerability and anger through a system of care and belonging. With her virtual residency, Severs shares these concerns with a wider audience. She reconstructs a selection of performative, textual and choreographic materials from Coerced & Freely Given to create new, even contrasting images. This cinematic translation reconsiders Severs' own narrative and overturns the usual way of looking at bodies under pressure.
