About WhyNot
WhyNot is a platform that stimulates innovation in the field of contemporary dance and performance and creates an open and accessible environment to encounter these art forms. WhyNot takes dance and performance out of their "natural" theater habitats and places them in carefully chosen locations that offer a different perspective on the work. In addition to the biannual WhyNot festival, WhyNot organizes various activities throughout the year and produces interdisciplinary works to experiment with new formats. WhyNot aims to open up the dance scene from within by connecting dance and performance art to other creative worlds and disciplines, letting new forms emerge.
Until now, WhyNot has organized seven festival editions, (Bimhuis, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw, W139, De School, Tolhuistuin, Mediamatic a.o.), multiple interdisciplinary events (Paradiso/ADE, LavaLab), and workshops. WhyNot also produced works like the dance film Leave Body Behind (Cinedans, EYE), an interactive movement app (Van Gogh Museum), an interdisciplinary dance/electronics performance (Trigger), a dance /photography project and a choreographic audio tour (Astronaut in me), and curated dance performances for De Ruimte, Holland Festival, We Are Public, Pllek, Julidans, and other venues and festivals.
In 2019/2020, WhyNot focuses on the body and movement in relation to architecture and space, with the WhyNot production A Question of Ma by Amos Ben-Tal & Gosse de Kort, the online publication Moving through the middle by Katía Truijen about dance, art and architecture and the 7th edition of WhyNot Festival from 22 - 25 January 2020 at Bimhuis, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and W139.
In 2021/2022, WhyNot will built on this previous theme and focus on the movement of the landscape in a number of activities. During OFF VENUE in July 2020, our yearly collaboration with the Julidans festival, we already touched upon this new theme, placing dance and performance in green inner-city gardens and connecting the body with the organic elements. Next we move on to Landscaping, a sensory research project about the moving landscape. WhyNot brought together artists and thinkers from different disciplines to experiment and learn from each other during a three-week residency in the Tolhuistuin and a 10-day working period in the Amsterdamse Bos. On 5 August 2021 the audience could immerse itself in the knowledge of thinkers and artists of nature, matter, life, and landscape at the evening The Body Beyond the Landscape in the Tolhuistuin. And, after a 10-day working period at the Amsterdamse Bos, the collective WhyNot selected for this project, created a series of interlinked performance interventions at the setting sun in the Amsterdamse Bos from 31 August - 4 September. On the premiere night we presented the publication Moving Beyond the Landscape by Daphne Bakker.
Check the events en production sections on this website for upcoming projects.