5 tips to enjoy culture in May 2024

An article by SPRING Performing Arts Festival
 

When the sun begins to shine, casting its light upon the morning landscape accompanied by the gentle choir of birds replacing your alarm clock, you know that spring has arrived. Alongside the awakening of nature, the festival season approaches with its full force. Immerse yourself in theatre and dance performances, engaging topic talks, and captivating AI experiences during SPRING Performing Arts Festival! Over the course of ten days, the theatres and streets of Utrecht will transform into stages for artists from both home and abroad.

Let us guide you through the 28 performances that will take place!

Tip 1: For those who can not get enough.

Join the opening night! Two international artists will present their latest work. Marta Górnicka with MOTHERS - A SONG FOR WARTIME brings together a choir of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish women: mothers and daughters. A powerful, melodic performance is the result, reflecting on how Russian imperialist aggression affected their lives.
Mette Ingvartsen, presents the Dutch premiere of her most recent work: the SPRING co-production RUSH. The solo was made for Manon Santkin, friend and her regular collaboration partner, therein Ingvartsen reactivates highlights from previous works. Together they search for new meanings and contexts, reflecting on twenty years of performing on stages around the world.

Tip 2: I want to be involved

Topic Talks are deepening conversations on SPRING themes: current issues that matter. What trends do we notice in the contemporary performing arts scene and how do they relate to the world around us? The Talks are for the curious listener, the critical expert, the student and the professional. They are easy to combine with a visit to a performance, but can also be attended separately. They are free and open to everyone.

Tip 3: I’m new to performing arts, surprise me!

Then, let’s have fun! Choreographer Ingrid Berger Myhre comes back to SPRING. Spelling Spectacle is a game where three performers navigate a meticulously devised, yet playful, plan. Sparkling with intelligence and humour, they stage an attempt to look for pitfalls in logic. Should we look at what is in front of us, or see through?

Tip 4: I don’t have much time

With her award-winning latest work, Celine Daemen further develops her unique way of creating transdisciplinary installations in VR surroundings. As a puppeteer of your own body you will be entering a poetic space where the melancholy question arises: is this me passing by moments, or is it rather the moments passing by me? Songs for a passerby is an individual 30 minute experience. Be sure to book on time!

Tip 5: The ‘take it easy’ choice. (Free or 5 euros)

Not in the mood to enjoy a performance in a theatre? No worries, Breathe is a poetic solo of Milla Koistinen in the open air, about the relationship between man and nature, which takes place in a park in the city centre. A second option is The Syncopators; Featuring five performers, the choreography draws from jazz dance techniques and combines them with speculative future fiction from literature and film to inspire new and superhuman corporealities.

For tickets and information, visit www.springutrecht.nl