”Is there someone inside this piece of wood?” asked the old carpenter Gepetto when he heard a voice coming from the block of wood he was carving into a toy.
Thus begins the life of Pinocchio, the puppet. He longs to go to school, to learn, and to help his father. But he keeps getting tempted to go on exciting adventures. He ends up in a puppet circus, is deceived by a cunning fox and cat who want to trick him for money, and even finds himself inside the belly of a shark. How will things turn out for Pinocchio?
This well-known and beloved story from Italy is so relatable: you set out to do something, but get distracted by outside influences, persuaded to turn your attention elsewhere.
How can you stay true to yourself in this world? And what does it take to stand firmly on your own two feet?
With our version of Pinocchio, featuring texts by Imme Dros, live music, and song, we want to offer children and adults courage, joy, and trust.
DeDae is a young eurythmy dance company consisting of five talented dancers.
The performance is available for booking.
Credits
Choreography: Gia van den Akker, with support from Tanja Rudenko and in collaboration with the dancers and musicians
DeDae dancers: Marie-Pierre Murigneux, Juliette Reijnen, Susanne Visbeen, and Marthy Hecker
Musicians and speakers: Daan van der Sande and Andreani
Set and costumes: Marie-Pierre Murigneux and Tanja Rudenko
Technical support: Jonathan Siegmund
Sales and tour coordination: Juliette Reijnen
Artistic direction: Gia van den Akker
Translated from Dutch
Response from a teacher in Eindhoven:
I thought it was fantastic: it hit the mark exactly in terms of what we should want for the children at our school (and, really, at every other school as well).
Everything about it was right. The story, in all its simplicity, captured the children’s imagination. The choice to work with a narrator was very effective—beautifully and modestly told, without playing on strong emotions, leaving space for the children to experience and interpret it in their own way. The music was wonderful: at times providing subtle support in the background, adding color and melody to the story being told; at other moments becoming, as it were, the “narrator” itself. The dance and acting were fantastic: in every large and small gesture, always subtle, yet clear and precise, beautifully creating space for the children’s imagination. Truly gifted artists!
At last, a performance that does not force some message upon children or explicitly confront them with today’s major problems, but instead seeks to nourish the soul with subtle beauty of the highest quality, so that children’s innate sense of beauty and their imaginative capacities can be nurtured.
We should want tomorrow’s adults to be immersed daily in the formative power that emanates from performances like this (and in our everyday educational practice as well).
Children today are exposed to so much hysterical ugliness that it is impossible to overestimate the importance of performances of this quality.
Many heartfelt thanks.
