The final part of the homonymous tryptic is a climax, built around the search of the physical body. 

As we “moved on” in the second part, we now came to a bold conclusion: We have to love our own body and take care of it as it is the most important physical part of our human existence. Unfortunately society is taking it’s toll when we don’t set our own boundaries. 

As we researched the boundaries for the vessel of our soul, Aniq came up with the idea of a manufactured body which has to go through an assembly line in a factory. 

During her research she got inspired by the Russian constructivists, who also worked with industrial, factory-like settings. Diving into this subject, she found out that there were many common grounds to dig into. For example the graphic and minimalistic style which was used in costumes (Varvara Stepanova/ Lyubov Popova) and scenography (Vladimir Tatlin, Alexandr Rodchenko). 

But also the interesting constructivistic movements in dance became an influence for the choreographer of this piece, Marijke de Vos. Through the process, more and more references of Russian constructivism arose.

Photography by: Mihai Gui 

150 years after the ‘ending’ of slavery, Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld and Malou Gorter take on the roles of Maartje Duin, Peggy Bouva and their relatives, in order to get a grip on the shared colonial history and everything that has resulted from it.

Their meeting is the start of a quest in which they mirror, confront and question each other. Together they go back to a shared past, to the Tout Lui Faut plantation in Suriname, the place that connects their ancestors. It is becoming increasingly clear how the historical inequality between women continues to affect the present. The actresses Manoushka and Malou interpret all of the characters and perspectives, but in the end they relate to themselves and speak out to each other, personally. The spectator gets confronted with a crystal clear fact: that colonial history still has his marks in today’s society in multiple ways. 

For this project, I designed the costumes for the actresses (Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld & Malou Gorter) and the musicians (Shauntell Baumgard & Yariv Vroom). 

Since the actresses are working and struggling towards answers on multiple questions they have, I designed colorful working suits for them. While the musicians played more of the ancestral spirits (winti) as though they were almost mythical creatures. Therefore these costumes are more sculptural.
For Shauntell I created a top with folded fabric, details which are seen in the traditional Surinam Marron costumes. The transparant layered pantalon has a print I created based on the “keti koti”, which means literally “broken chains”. This refers to the chains of the enslaved African people in Surinam. 

photography: Bart Grietens

Choreographer and dancer Marijke de Vos knows better than most of us that you have only one body, and you have to take care of that. That’s why she and her collective Teddy shouldn’t smoke decided to create the multidisciplinary trilogy “Body of Goodbyes” which has everything to do with the expiration date of the body so to say.

To start with part I, “I was old before I was young”. It premiered during the “O’ Festival, at Ubik in Rotterdam.

Annique Nahumury made the costumes for Marijke de Vos and Laure Nygren.

“I was old before I was young” is the result of a research in which Marijke and Laura (show pony) questioned why we can’t be a little nicer to our bodies. 

We become old and we get to experience the boundaries of our physical abilities. Sooner or later the body will protest and that happens in all sorts of professions, not only in dance and sport. 

It has everything to do with the current culture in which people go far beyond their limits to be the best. We always want more and better but where do we stop and start to take care of our bodies?

Interdisciplinary collaboration for the academy for theatre and digitality Dortmund with digital artists Flor de Fuego and Naoto Hieda

Thanks to a Time Window festival, Nahumury met two digital performance artists. Argentinian artist Flor de Fuego and Japanese artist Naoto Hieda.

They were interested in collaborating with Annique Nahumury and invited her to come to Dortmund Theatre for Digitallity to take part in a residency.  

In this residency they experimented with digital art, performance and costumes. The outcomes were inspiring and aesthetically pleasing; from this they discovered new ways of combining the different disciplines into one coherent art work. 

They worked with digital 2d material which became 3d in a black box with scenography and costumes. Working with a 380 degrees camera, they could create 3d projections on 3d costumes and props. Because of the projections, sometimes the costumes started to become 2d from certain angles. With this the three artists were playing while they were moving around the objects and themselves. This together formed interesting visual multi dimensional compositions.

Photography: Annique Nahumury

Choreographer Marijke de Vos, Poet Daan Doesborgh and musician Bruno Ferro Xavier  researched the chaotic, exhausting and unhealthy work ethics/ circumstances of freelancers in the cultural sector. 

They came to the conclusion that this piece is balancing somewhere between a sincere complaint as well as a frustrated love declaration to the life of an artist. 

For this piece Annique was asked to take care of both costumes and scenography. This is something which she really likes as well. In this way she was able to create a coherent image in which costumes and set would visually and aesthetically be more alike.   

Also things were approached differently costume-wise. Because of the “faded glory”, which resonated from the story/concept, this had to reflect on the visual image as well, Nahumury chose to get second hand suits from the nineties and eighties for Daan, Bruno and Marijke. The overall idea was to create an image of a decayed office situation.  

When Bianca enters the office room with a totally ridiculous costume, almost clownish, the intern is cleaning the floor and the kitchen.  Soon their “boss” steps into the room and gives Bianca a look. Bianca immediately takes it off and soon she ends up with the most boring but classical rehearsal clothes for contemporary dance:  jogging pants and a simple top. With this she refers to different layers of how people hierarchically relate to one another in this workfield. Not only on choreographer versus dancer level but also between costume designers and directors, choreographers, dramaturgs etcetera. And people with a permanent contract versus freelancers or even interns and their peers is something reflected in this piece.   

The intern is first a nerdy, eighties office clerk looking wall flower and on the opposite quirky, young and fresh. Therefore Annique Nahumury chose her to wear this which also really fits the scene colorwise. Later when she steps up, she wears a black and tough harness and pants. She is sympathizing with the dancer but she is also showing that she is also a fierce artist who takes over and deserves to get credit for that. 

Important to know is that there were several interns for this role both male and female. Therefore Nahumury chose for a more gender neutral approach however this also a style Terrorkittens is known for. 

Premiered on 28th October 2022 

Photography: Mihai Gui

Annique Nahumury designed costumes for three adults, 3 adolescents and she styled 3 children. She used a burning technique to create a peeling, molding skin-like effect.  She also got inspired by the movie “Annihilation” , which also was a major inspiration for the choreographer, Marijke de Vos. In this movie they talk about “the shimmer”. Annique decided to use this shimmer in the choice of fabrics. The combination of moving bodies in a matte, concrete garage with shiny, transformable fabrics underlines in her perspective the story the choreographer would like to tell. It falls out of tune, yet it’s alienistic vibe creates a symbiose between the choreography, space and costumes. 

Solid, Maybe

“Nothing is more lonely than not being able to trust your own mind”

There are places where reality fades: the waiting room in a hospital. An abandoned parking garage. An airport in the middle of the night. Places where, when taken out of context, the real and fake seem to merge. These places also exist in your own head. People who have experienced depression know them, as well as people with an anxiety disorder. In Solid Maybe, Teddy makes your fantasy and reality dance together. In an underground parking garage filled with projection screens you’ll find three generations searching for a way to deal with their fears. The curious, naive child in all her vulnerability. The rebellious adolescent who’s aware of the danger, but cannot yet get a grip on it. The adult with more tools acquired through pain and struggle – to deal with fear. Solid Maybe takes you on an investigation: who are you in relation to your fear?

Photography by Rosa Quist