Keep an Eye Masterclasses in collaboration with the Amsterdam Cabaret Festival
From 2018, Keep an Eye will collaborate with the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival and support an inspiring and instructive series of master classes specially designed for young and promising cabaret talent. This collaboration is not only of great value to the participants, but also contributes to the strengthening and renewal of the cabaret sector as a whole. It provides a platform on which new talent can develop and present itself to a wider audience.
During this intensive and in-depth master class series, Keep an Eye and the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival work closely together to guide young cabaret artists in their artistic growth and professional development. Here, attention is not only paid to the creative and substantive side of the profession, such as acting, text and stage presence, but also to the business aspects needed to build a successful career in the cabaret world. These include developing your own style, finding an audience, dealing with the dynamics of the theatre world and creating opportunities within the sector.
In this route, the Amsterdam Kleinkunst Festival acts as an essential link between arts education and professional practice, enabling promising artists to find their way onto the cabaret stages of the Netherlands naturally and effectively. This guidance and encouragement not only gives young creators the chance to further refine their talent, but also prepares them for the realities of the professional field.
Every year, the festival selects six exceptionally talented semi-finalists, who get to prove themselves in the prestigious competition for the AKF Sonneveld Prize and the AKF Audience Award. These awards are an important recognition point within the cabaret world and can be a major springboard for the participants’ further careers. In this way, the cooperation between Keep an Eye and the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival not only contributes to the development of individual artists, but also to the future and quality of Dutch cabaret as a whole.
Keep an Eye seminar Artist in Business
A collaboration between the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival and renowned conservatories, in which these art institutes jointly organise a day full of workshops on the business side of being an artist, especially for (starting) musicians and artists.
In the past, Wende Snijders, Benjamin Herman, Fay Claassen and Annette van Dongen, among others, have been invited to speak about the business aspects of their profession during the seminar. What would they themselves have liked to hear when they were still studying? What business skills and insights did they need to develop before they were where they are today?
Besides the AKF seminar, there are also the Keep an Eye Masterclasses, given by experienced professionals from the world of cabaret and theatre, such as Wimie Wilhelm, Raoul Heertje, Herman van Veen and Theo Nijland. These master classes offer young talents the chance to learn from the best in the business and develop further both artistically and professionally.
Try-out stage BIES
For young talent as well as for those who have been in the cabaret world for some time. Every month, Klein Bellevue, better known as the cabaret basement, hosts a unique evening where new and established artists try out their material. There is no place where the atmosphere is as intimate and where, as an audience, you are as close to the artist as here. Klein Bellevue has a rich history as the breeding ground where countless cabaret artists have taken their first steps on stage.
Each evening is chatted up by an enthusiastic host, who ensures a smooth transition between performances. The line-up is different every month, so no two nights are the same and you will be surprised every time. You might come face to face with big names like Sanne Wallis de Vries, Paulien Cornelisse or Daniël Arends, but young talent also gets the chance to show themselves and prove that they are the future of cabaret. Expect an evening full of variety, experiment and pure performing arts.
Be surprised, bring your friends and immerse yourself in an evening full of humour, energy and inspiration. You might even witness the birth of a joke that will later become famous. At the end of the evening, you can proudly say, ‘I was there, I saw that joke being born!’
Bis means ‘one more time! The word bis comes from Latin and means ‘twice’. Although you don’t often hear it these days, it used to be a popular exclamation in opera houses. When the audience loved an aria so much they wanted to hear it again, they would shout loudly, ‘BIS, BIS!’ – a plea for an encore, a repeat of the evening’s finest moment. Klein Bellevue is also about that desire for more: more humour, more talent and more magic on stage. An evening that tastes like next time.
‘Keep an Eye Kleinkunst Concertjes’
Young musicians have a huge need for playing experience. Not just the experience they gain during their training, rehearsals or performances in front of smaller groups of fellow students, although these all contribute to their growth as artists. Ultimately, it is essential that they have the opportunity to reach a wider audience and develop further in a professional setting. Keep an Eye supports them in this by not only connecting them with a wider audience, but also by giving them the opportunity to gain practical experience and prove themselves on stage.
Since 2020, the Keep an Eye Foundation has launched a series of concerts at the Studio 150 Bethlehem church. This former church, located in Amsterdam-North, was recently transformed into one of the most impressive and leading studios in the Netherlands – and even beyond. Its acoustics and atmosphere make it a unique venue for musicians to present themselves in a professional environment.
This concert series began just after COVID-19 abruptly ended all live performances. To still give musicians a stage and share their work with the public, the choice was made to broadcast the concerts via a live stream. This way, the music could still find its way to listeners, despite the limitations of the time. Since then, the concerts have become a regular part of the Keep an Eye programme and continue to play an important role in supporting young talent.
In addition to the regular music concerts, the programme is now being expanded to include a number of special cabaret concerts! These are carefully curated and programmed by the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival. This gives not only young musicians, but also up-and-coming cabaret and cabaret artists the chance to perform and further develop their talent. A special collaboration that brings cabaret and music together in a unique location!
Keep an Eye Circus and Performance Awards
From 2019, Keep an Eye went on the air!
Or at least, some of the future winners of the Keep an Eye Circus and Performance Awards. In collaboration with the Academy for Circus and Performance Art (ACAPA), part of the Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts, Keep an Eye is committed to giving young circus talent an extra push. This initiative offers talented students the chance to take their graduation projects to the next level and make a professional start within the circus and performance world.
Every year, an expert jury selects three students, or groups of students, who excel in artistic quality, creativity and technical skills. These selected talents are given the opportunity to participate in an intensive mentoring programme, in which they can develop their graduation project into a fully-fledged performance under professional coaching. During this residency, they are not only supported artistically, but also guided on a business and production level, so that they can start their careers well prepared.
A special highlight of this trajectory is the premiere of their performance at Festival Circolo in Tilburg, the largest and most prestigious circus festival in the Netherlands. This festival offers young circus creators an excellent opportunity to present their work to a wide audience and professionals from the sector, which significantly increases their visibility and network. But the adventure does not end here: the ambition is that these productions will actually go on tour after the festival, giving the artists a flying start within the professional performing arts.
With this initiative, Keep an Eye and the ACPA not only want to support young artists, but also contribute to the future and development of circus arts in the Netherlands. By offering them a stage, network and guidance, they hope to give the next generation of circus artists a solid foundation to grow and conquer their place within both the national and international circus and performance world.
New in the Keep an Eye tent: TENT!
In early 2023, TENT Circustheater Productions presented for the second time the national festival for contemporary circus in Amsterdam: This is not a circus.
From 12 to 15 January 2023, this four-day festival took place at Theater Bellevue, right in the heart of Amsterdam. It offered a unique opportunity where the latest generation of circus creators could present their work to both a wide audience and professionals in the field. For four days, the theatre was entirely dedicated to innovative and experimental circus, immersing visitors in a world of spectacular, poetic and groundbreaking performances.
The festival was the meeting place for contemporary circus talent in the Netherlands. Here, young circus makers were not only given a stage to show their artistic work, but were also encouraged to enter into new collaborations and further develop their discipline. Through commissions and co-productions, connections were made between circus and other art forms, such as dance, theatre, music and visual arts. This is not a circus thus succeeded in positioning contemporary circus as a multifaceted and contemporary art form that appealed to a wide, curious and especially young adult audience.
The official kick-off of the festival was traditionally given with A Day at the Circus, an exclusive day especially for professionals within the circus world. On this day, artists, programmers, producers and other stakeholders came together to discuss new developments, trends and opportunities within contemporary circus. This gave This is not a circussignificance not only as a festival, but also as an important platform where the future of circus arts was shaped and where creators and programmers interacted to explore further collaborations.
With a varied programme filled with experimental and innovative performances, the festival paid tribute to the versatility and artistic power of contemporary circus. The festival showed how this art form was constantly evolving and innovating, and offered a stage to emerging talent ready to surprise and conquer the circus world. Thisis not a circus was thus not just a festival, but an inspiring and dynamic event that made an indispensable contribution to the future of circus as an art form.
Proudly, Keep an Eye supports this festival from now on.
Over Het IJ Festival
We are very proud to announce our collaboration with the Over het IJ Festival, a year-round festival that presents adventurous and groundbreaking art productions. These productions are always directly related to urban themes and take place at exciting, unexpected and inspiring locations in Amsterdam. Over het IJ invites you to look at the city with new eyes: the festival inspires, enriches and amazes. It takes you to unfamiliar places, introduces you to special people and shares stories that will change your view of the city and its ongoing development. For anyone who believes that art, connection and encounter contribute to a better and more beautiful world, this festival is a special experience.
For years, Over the IJ Festival’s Sea Container programme has been an essential springboard for young, promising site-specific theatre talent. (By the way, how many points would you score in Scrabble for that?) Within this unique programme, eleven (groups of) makers get the chance to develop and present a full-fledged mini location theatre performance or installation in a short time. This takes place in, on or around a shipping container, making the limited space a challenging backdrop for their creativity. During the process, the creators receive intensive guidance on both artistic and production levels, focusing on the development of young and starting theatre makers. This gives them not only the space to experiment, but also the chance to further develop as artists and find their own signature within site-specific theatre.
What inspires the participants? The changing city and its dynamics. The iconic NDSM wharf acts as a testing ground and backdrop, where the young makers investigate the transition of the city and translate it into theatre and visual art. This programme allows them to reflect on urban developments and the way people relate to them. Through their performances and installations, they explore how art can not only be a representation of the city, but also engage in a dialogue with its inhabitants.
Through this collaboration, we hope to provide even more space for emerging talent and further strengthen the impact of site-specific theatre. We are enormously looking forward to exploring new artistic possibilities together with Over het IJ, supporting creators and continuing to emphasise the importance of art in the urban context. It promises to be an inspiring collaboration where imagination, creativity and innovation come together!
