Flip Kwakkel is independent director/cameraman/film maker. Flip graduated from HKU Audiovisual media in 2020 as a director. He has since made several short films and likes to seek connections with other art forms such as dance, music, fashion and poetry.

For this film for the Symposium Health & Performance: Past, present and a hint to the future Flip films interviews with a number of people that have been of significance to the Dance & Health department, now Health & Performance from the Academy for Theatre and Dance (ATD), from 1992 – 2023. And they are:

Wim van Kernebeek: Completed his medical education at the University of Amsterdam in 1983. After his General Practitioner training in Amsterdam, Wim worked, among other things, as an emergency physician at the Ealing Hospital in London, as a company doctor at KLM and from 1991 as a general practitioner in the practice on Reguliersgracht. He has been a medical advisor for the Amsterdam School of the Arts since 1994 and has since been affiliated with Dance & Health, led by Margot Rijven. In close collaboration with the team of physiotherapists of, now called Health & Performance, he provided medical screening for the dance students until 2021.

Angela Linsen: After a long career as a performer, choreographer, and teacher, Angela has been the artistic director of the Modern Theatre Dance department (MTD) of the Academy of Theatre and Dance (ATD) since 2000, replacing Martinette Janmaat (Pietje), the artistic director from 1989-1999. For 22 years under Angela's leadership, the curriculum has developed to reflect the changing landscape of the dance field, student population, and vision of where contemporary dance is evolving. Over this period, health, physical and mental well-being has been a constant point of attention and discussion in collaboration with the health team.

Marleen Grol: is a Mensendieck exercise therapist and has been working in the ATD since the establishment of Dance & Health, as a consultation hour holder and coach of adapted schedule for dancers. Over the past 30 years, she has built up expertise and a large network of practitioners for this specific target group. From 2009 - 2020, Marleen taught Anatomy & Injury Prevention applied in dance technique together with the dance teachers of the various dance departments and a number of “specials” on dance & health at the department “Docent Dans”. She has also given several workshops to teachers in “Teach the Teacher”. For several years now she has been Health Representative for the senior pupils and students of the Dutch National Ballet Academy.

Ellen van Houten: is a movement scientist, psychomotor therapist and teacher. She worked for 25 years at the Academy of Theatre and Dance as a theory teacher in movement psychology and as a study supervisor. In 2003 she set up consultation hours for psychological counseling within the context of Dance and Health and until 2011 she was a consultation hour holder. Nowadays she is a draftsman/illustrator and gives Art Journaling workshops.

Hanno van der Loo: is editor-in-chief and publisher of the trade journal SPORTgericht. As a movement scientist, Hanno was involved from 2004-2015 in the research "The Healthy Dancer Diary" later "My Performance", the fitness measurements of all 1st year dance students and he also acted as an external advisor for the Academy of Theatre and Dance (among others on the research into Hypermobility and its associated screening, in collaboration with the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, and the curricula of the dance courses at the ATD).

Lobke Mienis: Lobke is Exercise Therapist Mensendieck, TRE® provider, myofascial Structural Integrator i.t. and works in her own practice in Amsterdam. Since 2007 and ongoing, she also fulfills various functions at the Academy for Theatre and Dance. Among other things, she is part of the Health & Performance core team, teacher in Experiential Anatomy, she provides some of the consultation hours and is involved in the screenings, providing 1:1 follow-up to the dance students.

Valentina Campora graduated in 2005 at the Modern Dance Department of the Theaterschool of Amsterdam and in 2009 at D.A.M.S. - Disciplines of Art Music and Theater - at the University of Literature and Philosophy of Genova, Italy. She has danced and collaborated, with among others Andy Moor, Keren Levi, Cristina Planas Leitao,  Jakop Ahlbom and is an active participant and collaborator in the Amsterdam music and dance scene. She has been involved in several dance research projects at Danslab in Den Haag. From 2008 to 2014 she worked with Gabriella Maiorino. Valentina is a regular guest teacher at Fontys Academy of Tilburg, and the ATD of Amsterdam. She is currently interested in the relationship between AI technology and theater, the extraction of data from human experience and subjects of ethic, identity and discrimination.