Category: Blog

Meet the Dancers: Joëlle Rozema

Joëlle
Photography: Rick van Woudenberg

Welcome back to our Meet the Dancer series!  Have you ever wondered how different talents and personalities come together to create our shows?  Our dancers have origins all over the world and contribute eight different styles to help us tell our story.  This week, we introduce Joëlle!

Joëlle’s cheerful attitude brings joy and positive energy to all of our rehearsals.  She’s a hard worker and always open to trying new (and sometimes scary) things.  Joëlle is developing a unique style and is stepping up to choreograph for us this year! We asked her some questions and here is what she had to say:

Name: Joëlle Rozema
Primary style(s): Modern with urban influence
Day job: Student, Dance teacher, and McDonald’s employee
Earliest dance memory: As a child, I always danced to songs from K3. I knew all of their dances by heart.
Fun fact: Before I started dancing, I was a synchronized swimmer.
A note about “The Shape I’m In”: It’s beautiful to see how different every dancer is but how we thereby form a whole.

Unison

Theaterzaal - 13
Dancers: Jolijn Calle and Joëlle Rozema; Photography: Rick van Woudenberg

In a quick moving piece, when we capture these moments of perfect unison, we are proud of how hard work and attention to detail has led us, if only for a moment, to look the same.  When the choreography is synchronized, we aim to match each other perfectly.  But this sameness is an illusion, and we do not want to cover that up.

We are twelve diverse individuals.  There is a twenty year age gap between our youngest and our oldest dancer.  We come from different dance backgrounds and different cultural backgrounds.  We speak different languages and practice different religions.  We are different shapes and sizes.  We identify as different sexual orientations.  We express our genders differently.  Each of us is whole.  But we are also part of a whole.

We revel in the synchronicity and yet we celebrate the freedom to go rogue.  Embracing the individuality of each of our dancers and members of our community is an enormous part of the Project Blank identity.  Thank you for being a part of it!

Want more Project Blank content? Follow us on social media by clicking the icons on the right side of the screen.

Meet the Dancers: Lin An

MTTLin
Photography: Rick van Woudenberg

Welcome to our Meet the Dancer series!  Have you ever wondered how different talents and personalities come together to create our shows?  Our dancers have origins all over the word and contribute eight different styles to help us tell our story.  Over the next two months, we will introduce each of our dancers, one by one.  This week, we begin with Lin An!

Lin An has been a marvellous addition to our team, with her empathetic nature and creative spirit.  On the dance floor, we can’t help but notice her beautiful lines as her remarkably long legs whiz past us!  We asked Lin An some questions and here is what she had to say:

Name: Lin An Phoa
Primary style(s): Contemporary
Day job: Researcher/Student in Linguistics
Earliest dance memory: I was ten years old and performing for the first time ever at my theater school. It must have been a choreo about rain, as I danced with an umbrella and with rain boots on.
Fun fact: In my first theater production, I played an apple that was afraid of falling from the tree. It was serious musical drama.
A note about “The Shape I’m In”: The show is very diverse. I love how every dancer contributes to it in their own way and style. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

Stepping Back Into the Studio

Stepping back into the studio
Dancers: Matt Adams and Lin An Phoa; Photography: Rick van Woudenberg

We are back with a new cast and new talent but the same old Project Blank spirit! Already connected, already in unison, and in love with the vibe in the studio. This year, the music is affecting, the stories are real, and the movement is captivating. Stay tuned for more updates on our shows and sneak peeks into our time in the studio.

Want more Project Blank content? Follow us on social media by clicking the icons on the right side of the screen.

AUDITION ANNOUNCEMENT

Project Blank seeks experienced amateur and semi-professional dancers for our 2019 production!

We are a creative collaboration of dancers and choreographers from ALL DIFFERENT STYLES, who come together to create a production, featuring a fusion of techniques. If you are a force in your own style, we want YOU!

The audition will take place on Sunday, April 14th, from 14:00 – 17:00 in dance studio 019 at the UCK on Domplein in Utrecht. We ask you to prepare a solo of at least 30 seconds, in your own style.
Read all the audition information here. 

See photos and videos from previous projects and shows.

Questions? Email us at projectblankdance@gmail.com

See you on the dance floor!

Meet the Dancers: Celesta

The newest member of our 2018 crew is sunny Celesta! Only one month prior to the show, this superwoman in dance clothes stepped up and agreed to be a substitute for Ely in our December 1st matinee. For the past weeks, she has been bringing fresh energy to our rehearsal, absorbing every step, twist, jump, roll and turn. Luckily, this contemporary dancer has major talent for picking up and mastering choreography quickly.

In her daily life, Celesta is making the world a better place as a member of a young and dynamic team called “De Ruimdenkers” at the municipality of Utrecht. Her open-mindedness extends to her dancing, as she loves to combine and mix the most eccentric styles. She’s helping to take our show to a different level. Come and see this talented lady at our Saturday afternoon show!

> Get your ticket now

Celesta’s dancer passport

Height: 1.70m
Work/study: working at “De Ruimdenkers”, a self-managing team that leads all sorts of projects within the municipality of Utrecht. (Celesta: “It’s quite vague, but truly awesome!”).
Dance styles: contemporary is her favorite by far, but she loves to combine it with other styles, like urban and show.
Super dance talent: quickly picking up new choreography
Extra talents: coordination and communication
Fun fact: Celesta cries when she laughs. So don’t worry right away when she is teary-eyed – it might well be that she’s just very much entertained!

Curious about the other dancers?

Check out our earlier Meet the Dancers posts below:

We have come a long way

More than three years ago, the idea for Project Blank sparked. Well, we didn’t have a name for it yet (and arguably still don’t!) but we knew we wanted to start. The desire grew to bring together talented dancers to create epic dance productions. We weren’t sure how but we decided to go for it.

We made a plan based on a meager budget and started to set things into motion. At some point, we felt the pressure to come up with a name and ‘Project Blank’ was born. We chose it because we started with a blank slate and wanted to start every new production the same way; open to new dancers, ideas, talents, and opportunities.

In our first year, eight amazing dancers believed in our crazy idea and decided to join us for the ride. We are so thankful that they believed in us. Together we created our very first dance production; with two sold out shows it was a big success!

The second year, our team grew and new talent joined us on our journey. We upgraded our rehearsal and theater space and went all in. We wanted to be bigger and better in every way. Together we created a tight knit team and put together our second dance production. And it worked! We had so much fun creating and performing our second show and the audience loved it.

Now, we are on the brink of bringing our third production to hit the stage. I can honestly tell you that we have never been so proud of something that we created. We have added choreographers, interesting new styles, and a heartfelt story.

Here is a little recap of our journey so far, enjoy!

We are really proud of what we have created for you this year and hope you will come and enjoy the show in Theater Kikker with us.

Meet the Dancers: Floor

This year we are featuring not one, but two beautiful ballerinas. Next to Naomi, who we introduced earlier, there’s energetic Floor. She has been dancing with Naomi for years, and so it shows: this happy duo is perfectly aligned when it comes to their elegant lines. Besides Floor’s busy study schedule, with volunteer work for several committees on the side, you can find her in the dance studio in most of her spare time.

Being a true ballerina, Floor stands out with her graceful posture. She makes dancing on pointe shoes look like it’s easy (though we all know the truth!). In addition, Floor is the one who comes up with new ideas when the rest of us seem to have run out. Her energy is an inspiration for all of us!

> Buy your ticket now for ‘What I Meant To Say’ on 1 or 2 December!

Floor’s dancers passport

Height: 1.69m
Work/study: veterinary medicine
Dance styles: classical ballet
Super dance talent: jumps and floor work (what’s in a name!)
Extra talents: always brings energy and enthusiasm
Fun fact: Floor has mastered the fascinating skill of doing an… eyebrow wave!

Curious about the other dancers?

Check out our earlier Meet the Dancers posts below:

Meet the Dancers: Annelies

Annelies joined Project Blank after she wowed us with a beautiful audition, in which she showed us her unique movement styles. Now that she’s on the team, she also comes up with interesting choreography thanks to her diverse background and creative mind. She is great at defining a story and translating it into movement.

One thing that we appreciate about Annelies is her initiative to be a social connector. Whether it’s planning to practice lifts in the park or a group dinner, we know that we can depend on her to push us to have a little fun! In our show, “What I Meant To Say,” Annelies gets to play a mysterious and epherial character. Did we pique your interest? Then come and watch on December 1st or 2nd!

Annelies’s dancer passport

Height: 1.56m
Work/study: ecologist
Dance styles: jazz ballet, classical ballet, modern jazz
Super dance talent: easily picks up new styles
Extra talents: outdoor sports
Fun fact: this power woman does research on bats. Accordingly, she used to work as an actress in the Amsterdam Dungeon…

Curious about the other dancers?

Check out our earlier Meet the Dancers posts below: