![[Translate to English:]](/media/the/_processed_/8/f/csm_Banner___Celebrating_Indigenous_knowledge_-_July_2024_-_Indigenous_Fashion_Show_ATD_Lectorate_x_Wasjikwa_2_-_photo_Eduardo_Hamauhu_a5efe0a612.webp "[Translate to English:]")
Mime Archives
Mime Archives is a research project conducted by Marijn de Langen at the ATD lectorate, in dialogue with the professional field (mime companies, makers, actors, producers etc.), the Mime School in Amsterdam, and the Allard Pierson Theater Collection at the University of Amsterdam.
Dutch mime
Dutch mime is a vibrant theater genre, with internationally renowned companies such as Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot , Jakop Ahlbom Company, Schweigman&, Bambie. The genre developed in the 1960s, when under influence of the mime corporel technique of the French mime innovator Etienne Decroux, a modern mime movement emerged in the Netherlands. The School for movement theater based on Mime, founded in 1965 by Frits Vogels and Arnold Hamelberg, is the forerunner of the current Mime School at the Academy for Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam, which has existed since 1968. This school is at the foundation of the Dutch mime tradition. Dutch mimes explored interdisciplinarity in theater in innovative ways in the 1960s. Using the body and movement as a starting point, they sought to cross-pollinate with music, visual art, poetry and architecture. Dutch mime has historically been an experimental theater form, often trading the traditional theater space for outdoor or on-location play. Since the 1990s, Dutch mime has become increasingly intercultural. Students from all over the world study at the Amsterdam Mime School.
Faced with the lack of historiography on Dutch mime, Marijn de Langen began an extensive historical research project in 2004, to enrich her teaching. In 2017, she defended her PhD Mime thinking: Dutch mime as a way of thinking in and through theater practice (Utrecht University). During 2019-2021, thanks to a postdoc grant from SIA/NWO, she was able to work toward an illustrated public version of this thesis. With the support of several funds, including the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund, the book Dutch Mime (and the Dutch version Nederlandse Mime), was published in 2022. The book, published by Amsterdam University Press, is the first standard work in the field, runs to 352 pages and is richly illustrated.
To learn more about this vibrant history order Marijn's book Dutch Mime.
Mime Futurity Symposium
In the same year, the Mime Futurity symposium was held. The 5-day Mime Futurity symposium was curated by Marijn de Langen, in collaboration with artistic director of the Mime School Dwayne Toemere, Gerben Vaillant and Floor van Leeuwen. The symposium involved students and teachers of the mime ba program and other bachelor programs at ATD, as well as the professional Dutch Mime community. The program consisted of lectures, performances, workshops, interviews, talks, parties etc. The event took place in various locations, at the Academyof Theatre and Dance, at Club Church, at De Ruimte, and at Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, thereby showing the interconnectedness between the school and the city. Output of the symposium consists amongst other things of video’s of lectures and interviews and texts written by mime performers and makers. All of the resources can be found on the website www.mimearchieven.nl.
The website www.mimearchieven.nl is designed to bring into the public domain inspirational resources that are tucked away in archives and personal collections, and to which current generations of mimes and creators have little access. The website is an important tool within education at the Mime Opleiding and at other art schools and universities. In addition, Marijn de Langen's research and the website mimearchieven.nl makes a relevant contribution to the Dutch theater and dance field: the research is an important case study in the current discussion about theater and dance heritage and the urgency of dealing with it in sustainable ways.
