Home ≠ Third Space

november 11th, 2021

September 16, 2021 the article “Home ≠ Third Space” was published by APRIA. Using five poems originally written for the performance Blank Whispers, this text reflects on a situation in which we cannot immerse ourselves in dance and theatre. We are locked up in our homes, and even the privileged can no longer see the world as their home. Our actual homes are more multifunctional than ever, but for this reason, they cannot serve as the Third Space to experience the meaningful interactions the theatre provides. By re-reading and sharing these poems, I hope to revive such an experience. The article can be listened to and read here: Home ≠ Third Space.

In the video I created for Researchers@Work, I introduced the text to the audience of a panel discussion. You can watch the video here:

Verfluisterd in stilte*

april 16th, 2020

Het besluit is genomen om aan de andere kant te staan
Beelden te maken van inzakkende mensen
Gebogen, klaar om te starten
Klaar om te staren, te fluisteren, te dansen, te buigen
Maar waarvoor buig je?
Waar sta je voor klaar?
Wat ontvouw je?
Wat ontvouwt zich voor je voeten?

Een podium voor de man met vragen voor Valerie, voor ons
Over mannelijkheid, over het gebrek van de man
Stelt de vraag, maar luistert niet meer naar antwoorden
Het mannelijk gen is gebrekkig te noemen
Machinaal op te schrijven wat de woorden zijn
Maar niet wat ze betekenen

De houding, verkrampte verhoudingen
En een knip in de vingers vergroot de bühne
Verkleint de ruimte om te vluchten
Uit de wereld waar je invalt
Waar je uit wilt groeien als berkenbomen
Als de asfaltweg naar de horizon
Het pad door de modder

De wereld van de witte muur, witte deur, witte deurpost
Het systeem waar je uit wilt ontsnappen
Dat afgeschaft zal moeten worden, ontvouwt zich
In alledaagse verontschuldigingen en starbucks coffee

Opgewonden gedacht, ongecontroleerd doorgedraaid
Van het uittrekken van kleding tot de mannelijke bevrediging
In een paar seconde fantasie. ‘Mag dit wel?’, denkt de man
Het tuig, het vrouwelijk tuig zet daartegenover
De goten en gaten, om vanuit daar tegen te werken
De maatschappij te verzieken, de man te verzwakken
Het verkrampte verleden, lusteloos aanschouwt in het heden
Radicaal ingezakt verkrampte beelden
Vergezocht, verfluisterd in stilte

* Door Jochem Naafs. Geïnspireerd door SCUM/TUIG door Espen Hjort. Utrecht: Het Huis, 16 oktober 2019

Ik kijk, ik kijk weg*

maart 31st, 2020

Ik kijk
Ik kijk weg
Een hand
Een hand op een kuit
Zoekend naar contact
Schuchter schurend
Over huid

Ik kijk
Ik kijk weg
Om me heen zoekend
Onderwijl voelend hoe
Jouw hand
Jouw mond
Mij onderzoekt
Mij aftast

Wil ik dit?
Wil ik dit wel?
Wil ik jou voelen?
Wil ik jouw zoen?

Ik grijp je
Ik vergrijp me
Aan jou
Terwijl ik wegkijk
Terwijl ik wegdroom
En langzaam thuiskom
Bij jou

  • Door Jochem Naafs. Geïnspireerd door Scopophilia van Fanny Vandesande en Robin Vanden Bussche. Eindhoven, United Cowboys: Seasoning Spring/Lente 2017, 17 maart 2017.

The intimacy of bright blue bodies*

maart 3rd, 2020

Bright blue bodies on white wide canvas
Anonymous encounters
Close, very close, but never intimate
Full on, hard-core anonymity
Skinless sexuality
Posing for
Exposing for
Anyone to see

Touch, touch
Never really touch
But feel touched nonetheless
Moan, groan
Never really go
Into touch nonetheless

We enjoy
We enjoy the feeling
We enjoy the sensation of pleasure
We allow the flow of sex
Naked sex
Heard by you and me
And I see only faces
Faces that feel and peel off
The action of coming

Until only the imagination is left
For us to dance to
For us to jive too
To smile and live
To come
To come to be
To come to be alive
And see each other in the eye

Enjoy being
Enjoy being together
I dance because I want to dance
I dance because you want to dance
I dance because you want me to dance
And dance and dance
And smile and dance
And clap and dance
And jump and dance

I don’t see any chance
To escape
To leave
To leave the intimacy of bright blue bodies
On white wide canvas
To escape
The left over sex after coming

* Inspired by To Come (Extended) by Mette Ingvartsen. Utrecht: May 17 2018. Author: Jochem Naafs

The future is watching the present*

februari 25th, 2020

The future is reading these words
While she sits in front of me
And I’m not sure she knows English
But I am sure she understands me

The future stares friendly and smiles
The future talks with the past
The past may be her mother
And it is not sure if it lasts

While I am writing these thoughts
And try to be present and here
She’s distracted and gets off
And decides the future is near

And I fall, I roll, I run, I call, I enter the hall

When I enter, there is a disco ball
Creating the form of phi
A future fireplace to warm me
To take the panic away
White lit singing
To disturb the familiar feeling of home

I cry, I cry
I cry my pop music
And create glass structures
And ritualized burning
I cry little compromises
The smoke slowly rises
And nature revises
My gaze

A future that’s here to stay
And simultaneously walks away

Keep being curious
Or we all die
But don’t we all die anyway?
While we move towards the future
Well, at least we could postpone it
While we are sitting here

Postpone the future by moving
Postpone the future with care
And gently lie down on his body
Lie down
And get up
Dive slowly into the floor
Feel its presence, its body
You are not here alone

You may think it’s just the two of you
Pushing and pulling
Limps and heads
And curls and noses
Are you okay?
In preparing
Are you all right?
In a fall

Two hands, four feet and the floor
Four feet that are trying to crawl
How do we get ourselves where
Where a future is present
Where our bodies lay bare
Keep in touch, throw away
Come to me, make me stay
Where is our future?

Where is our future?
Is it a digital drawing?
Slowly appearing in front of our eyes
As a microsoft paint sketch
From the past

Clenched polished nails
Openly closed
Closely opened
Openly opened
And smiling

As a red dot on the tip of the nose
Searching for playful narratives
Of dancing and jumping
Of swimming
Of all the animals I remember
From my past experiences
And present memories

The expectation that will last
For six minutes
While I listen to past sounds
That predict the future
Of what I will see
While we think back of well-fitting
Trousers in various colours
And a not so well drawn
Dog or cat or whatever it was

There she is, blinded by eyelids
Doing what she rehearsed in the past
In the present
Exactly resembling a resemblance
Exactly resembling, reassembling a balloon
Into the not so well drawn
Dog or cat or whatever it was
Whatever it was to you in the past

Whenever I close my eyes
She is wearing a belt
And dances like a bird
Jolly hop to 5th!
But first she stands on her right leg
Holding her left with two hands, aligned
Pointing towards our common past
Pointing forwards to her you: me
Nice and easy
To the next
Objective affair
To the next
Disappearing photo
Slowly appearing in front of our eyes
Of a non-caring dog or cat
Or something grant, or something blank
Or a flamingo

Asleep
When you sleep there is not future
No past
And when the lights tick away
You awake to a
Of past reality
And future streams
Into your current being
Alone, asleep
Together in a stream
Of unconsciousness

Your feet get up before you want to
As they realize your fear before you do
As they know your thoughts before you do
When you finally get up
You’re already caught
Caught in an act that is beyond you
As if your future controls your present state
You’re caught in between the light
In some kind of liminal gate

A quietness, a togetherness
Searching for a path in the raw
The response is blue and sculptured
The effect is a reconfigured law
Where someone could actually leave
The present of what we just saw

* This poem is inspired by the opening night of Moving Futures Rotterdam 2017 on Thursday February 23rd. While getting to Rotterdam I was sitting in front of a little girl wearing a pink woollen hat. She was looking at me while I was writing. This became the starting point for this poem on the relation between future, present and past. The performances that inspired the remainder of the poem were: Geisha’s Miracle by Jija Sohn, Nautural by Aida Guirro Salinas and Jefta Tanate, BLANKS by Ingrid Berger Myhre and Shango Trio by Guilherme Miotto. The poem was published on the website of Moving Futures: https://movingfutures.nl/avond-poezie-jochem-naafs/

Quadrupedal*

februari 25th, 2020

On all fours, all aligned
He stands here and it’s all fine
A right leg rises, an effect on an arm
Whenever it moves there is an alarm
Another limb must move, another end moves up
Fast or slow, bottom or top
Fingers and toes, they all seem to know
Which way to go and when
When he sits down, I wonder why I am bipedal

*Inspired by Fine Line by Šuka Horn. Rotterdam: Dansateliers/ One Night’s Dance: December 7th 2019.

Slowly, very slowly*

februari 25th, 2020

Slowly, slowly you rise
White light, bright light
And while we wait
And the light flickers
You speak.

Ununderstandable words
Alienating appearance
Unknown to most
You practise, you practise
Wearing the other sex.

Vierter Tag:
Dressing up to appear for a generating god
– Of all species, of man and woman, of nothing in between –
That wanders the earth in circles to the beat of the bass.

And the white-shirted, beard-braided priest
And the red-skirted, high-heeled lady
Challenge the norms
Cross-dressing shoes
For now.

Circling goatees
Circling ponytails
Reconfiguring species
Reconfiguring spaces
In between

Aligning the binary into the chaos of trans
The non-orderly, the non-ordinary bodies
Organic materials
Tattooed and scarred
Projected and doubled
Uncontrollable voids
Of nothingness.

Black holes of ununderstandable fluid nudity
Recreated, regenerated from within
To be able to match
To be able to get rid of
This other body
This other sex
To be able to embrace
This other body
This other sex
To the fullest extent
And beyond.

Merging through
Cross-dressing
Merging through
Colliding
Merging through
Bumping
Through caressing
Through rocking
Through braiding.

And slowly, slowly you rise
And come at ease
With each other
With yourself
With all attachments
With all attached
And connected.

And slowly, very slowly
You leave
You leave us to rethink
The norm.

*Inspired by Körper Körper, NEON (Nanna Hanfgarn Jensen & Leon Emil Franzke). Arnhem: Theater aan de Rijn, May 10th 2017.

Next to each other*

februari 25th, 2020

Two men on stage
Sitting
Both sitting
They are both sitting
Still

Two men on stage
Moving
Both moving
They are both moving
Still

Still they are moving
On their chairs
On their stage
To the sound of
No music

A score in a notebook
The rhythm
The tempo
A score in a notebook
The words
And numbers
The words
Are actions
The words
Represent actions
And they
They are
Acting

Two men on stage
Both bold
Almost
Wearing identical shoes
Almost
Moving identically
But just

Hand gestures
And arm gestures
And poor gestures
Rich gestures
No legs
They are too expensive

Two men on stage
Sitting
Both sitting
They are both sitting
At home

Rehearsing and repeating
Repeating and rehearsing
They are not meeting
Yet
They are not meeting
Often
They are just sitting
Next to each other
And moving

* Inspired by Both Sitting Duet, Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion. Arnhem: Theater aan de Rijn: February 1st, 2016.

I want to believe

oktober 31st, 2012

I wrote a text for the new publication of pietmondriaan.com. It is available for online reading and as a download (.pdf).

I want to believe was a night of performances that took place on September 15, 2012, during the Incubate Festival in Tilburg (nl). The performing artists were selected by pietmondriaan.com. Their works are defined by gestures and tend to blend with daily life, at times appearing inconspicuous. They are carried on through stories – perhaps the most powerful proof of their existence.

Download I want to believe.


Lichaamskunst en barokke sculpturen

april 11th, 2012

Springdance biedt dit jaar weer de ruimte aan jonge makers om hun werk te tonen. Europe in Motion (EIM) geeft makers uit het Verenigd Koninkrijk, Nederland, Turkije en Oostenrijk de mogelijkheid om kennis, fascinaties en methodes uit te wisselen. Bovendien tonen deze 9 makers hun werk op een van de drie EIM avonden. In het laatste weekend van Springdance vindt de Spring Dance Marathon plaats. Op twee avonden tonen afgestudeerden van SNDO en P.A.R.T.S. – waaronder Roger Sala Reyner, Simon Tanguy en Florentina Holzinger – hun werk in een vier uur lange marathon.

Body art and baroque sculptures – young dance makers at SPRINGDANCE
By Jochem Naafs

This year’s Springdance will once again be offering young dance makers an opportunity to present their work. Europe in Motion (EIM) will be giving dance makers from the UK, the Netherlands, Turkey and Austria the opportunity to exchange their expertise, their fascinations and their working methods. And the twelve dance makers will be presenting their work at one of our three EIM nights. During the final weekend of SPRINGDANCE 2012 there will be a For Your Eyes Only – Young Makers Marathon. During these two nights graduates from SNDO (Amsterdam) and P.A.R.T.S. (Belgium) – including Roger Sala Reyner, Simon Tanguy and Florentina Holzinger – will be presenting their work in a four-hour marathon.

Read more on Springdance Stage