Marijn de Langen

Researcher Marijn de Langen graduated in Theater Studies at the University of Amsterdam and has been working at the Amsterdam University of the Arts as a theory teacher in the Mime School since 2001. Since 2007, she is a researcher at the Professorship of the Academy of Theatre and Dance, where she leads the teachers’ research group Embodied Knowledge in Theatre and Dance (founded in 2019). 

Faced with the lack of historiography on Dutch mime, she began an extensive historical research project in 2004, to enrich her teaching. In 2017, Marijn de Langen defended her dissertation 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. In 2024, De Langen began researching Asian traces in Dutch Mime. T'ai Chi Chuan teacher Phoa Yan Tiong, who taught at the Mime school between 1965 and 1986, has been a key figure within this development.

Over the past years, Marijn de Langen has been creating practices of care around the archives and legacies of older performers and dancers in the Dutch performing Arts field. In collaboration with the Allard Pierson Theatre Collection, and in dialogue with many older performers (and/or their family (a.o. Frits Vogels, Klaske Bruinsma, Will Spoor, Fran Waller Zeper, Wouter Steenbergen), she has been collecting materials, researching personal collections, and looking for ways to make (parts of) them publicly accessible, through books, articles, public events and a website. 

In recent years, Marijn de Langen has developed practices of care around the archives and legacies of older performers and dancers in the Dutch performing arts. In collaboration with the Allard Pierson Theater Collection and in dialogue with many older artists (and/or their families), including Frits Vogels, Klaske Bruinsma, Will Spoor, Fran Waller Zeper, Wouter Steenbergen, Anne Walsemann and Phoa Yan Tiong, she has collected materials, researched personal collections, and sought ways to make (parts of) them accessible to the public through publications, public events, and a website. 

The website www.mimearchieven.nl is an important window into Marijn's research. It is designed to bring into the public domain inspiring historical resources that are tucked away in archives and personal collections. The website is an important tool within education at the Mime School and at other art schools and universities. 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.

For more information on Marijns research project Mime Archives see: atd.ahk.nl/atd-lectoraat/projects/mime-archives/