This season Vraja Sundari was absolutely honored to receive the request by BKD to give an exclusive interview for the Amsterdam ISKCON newsletter and the international news page of ISKCON known as ISKCON News and naturally Vraja was more than happy to do so! The inspiring and detailed interview can now be found in the most recent ISKCON newsletter (2012-No. 19) or by visiting news.iskcon.com.

On Tuesday May 8 Vraja Sundari and Annlydie Groenen had the absolute pleasure to view the beautiful premiere of Vraja Sundari’s latest choreography ‘PreS’ created for the first year students of the Teachers Department at Codarts and what a delight it was! The students not only did an excellent job, they were simply shining and it was truly inspirational to see the results of months of dedicated work and research lead by the excellent rehearsal director Annlydie Groenen! The title ‘PreS’ is Sanskrit for ‘pressure’ as well as ‘moving up’ and the concept was based on a fragment from Marutvati Keilman- Jorqua’s diary (see the text below). Not only did the students rock the choreography, the entire evening was a success and all choreography’s were an absolute joy to watch! Especially seeing the 2nd year students which Vraja was honored to teach last year was just a great delight as they had developed so nicely over the last year and rocked the highly physical material severely! It was a touching evening and we couldn’t have been more proud of the students and their wonderful dedication and skills! Thank you Ben Bergmans, Ingrid Stoepker, Ellen Dijkstra and all students for the wonderful experience, the continuous support and the inspiring performances, we look forward to many more wonderful performances!

‘PreS’ will be uploaded soon so keep an eye on our News Page to view the magical performance of the talented students of Codarts!

‘We are really attached to have the capacity to choose, very important for us, and that makes us live under pressure. We make that pressure; pressure of being good in every way.’ – Marutvati Keilman-Jorquera

This season Vraja Sundari was selected by the artistic directors Feri de Geus and Noortje Bijvoets of the intercultural dance company Le Grand Cru to perform and give an exclusive interview for their video installation ‘Dance/Devotion/Deviation’, a unique video installation in collaboration with filmmaker Eric van den Broek and designer Pink Steenvoorden. With this installation Noortje Bijvoets and Feri de Geus display in a new dimension their preference and specialization to work in an intercultural setting. Twelve performing artists arising from 50 years of migration in the Netherlands show the richness and diversity of culture and religion in contemporary Holland. Artists include a.o. Muhanad Rasheed (Gouden Zwaan for production ‘Mourning’), Ederson Rodriques Xavier (Zilveren Theaterdansprijs 2002), Kalpana Raghuraman, Bryan Druiventak (Solid Ground) and Guy Weizman (Club Guy and Roni). A poetic and personal portrait dealing with friction, questions and divine inspiration due to their living in two cultures. Read more »

Photo and Design: Karen Scheffers – Dancer: Liam O’Callaghan – Pants and Jacket: Upper Mansion; available at boutique Airfashion @ Hairfashion Amsterdam by Leo NG

From May 18 to Sunday May 20 the 4th edition of the unique dance festival Open Dans will this year take place at the Mini Mall in Rotterdam and Samadhi Dance Company is happy to announce their participation in the diverse program of the festival on May 20 at 17:30! Vraja Sundari and the Samadhi dancers were honored to receive Janne Erakers request to present a 5 to 10 minutes fragment of our latest production ‘Mohini’ and although the festival is scheduled exactly during Samadhi’s try out and premiere of ‘Mohini we are very happy to be able to join the program during its last day and experience this one of a kind event!
Every year on alternating locations Open Dans proudly presents what Rotterdam has to offer on the area of dance, making the festival a unique event show-casting the richness of Rotterdam’s dance climate spread over three entire days! This year’s program will consists of various dance styles and acts such as tango, modern dance, live music and many more enlivening and outspoken performances! And feel free to kick off your shoes and join the fun in one of the featured workshops and rehearsals!

More information concerning the festival’s program can be found at  www.opendans.nl, www.opendans.nl/2012/programma/info/190-Mohini and www.festival.nlagenda.com. Tickets can be purchased through the website or at the door. Hope to see you there!

Photo: Karen Scheffers - Hoodie: Upper Mansion

On Friday May 18 and Saturday May 19 the Samadhi cast will be up and ready to perform its try out and premiere of its latest production ‘Mohini‘ and we all can’t wait to rock the stage! As mentioned in our previous blog Mohini promises to be a surprising, colorful, playful and a bit crazy performance which will surely tickle your mind and warm your heart! The dancers are all very much looking forward to be back in the beautiful and spacious theater of the Podium Mozaïek where they were lucky to experience several wonderful Samadhi performances of productions such as Bho and Saranagati, so coming back almost feels like coming home. And we all especially can’t wait to share the results of a long, intense and eye-opening work process !!!! Joining our technical team will be our main light designer Ronnie van Kempen and our fabulous backstage team consisting of Carla and Herman Stuut, Karin Vanderkerckhove, Desiree v/d Berg and stagiare Maartje Fijen to mention a few. Tickets are €16 per person and can still be purchased through our online Mohini ticketshop at https://samadhidancecompanymohini.paydro.net/or by reserving seats through samadhidancecompany@gmail.com. The performance will be around 50 minutes in total without intermission and will commence at 20:30 hr but we recommend all audience to come on time as to avoid delays and long queues at the register.

So be ready for a surprising, touching and somewhat crazy adventure and join the cast members of the Samadhi Dance Company on this exciting new journey at the beautiful Podium Mozaïek!

Photo and design: Karen Scheffers – Vest: Upper Mansion; available at boutique Airfashion @ Hairfashion Amsterdam by Leo NG.

We are extremely excited to announce that from this season on Samadhi will have the honor to perform in exclusive items by designer label Upper Mansion, a high fashion brand brought in straight from Hong Kong! The sponsoring was organized by fabulous hair artist Leo Ng from the Hairfashion salon in Amsterdam where unique items of this innovative collection can be found in his exclusive high fashion boutique known as Airfashion. The designer of the unique label Calvin Kwong was very enthusiastic about the results of the eye-catching photographs made in collaboration with Leo NG and the amazing photographer Karen Scheffers and Leo was happy to suggest this unique partnership to Vraja Sundari where both Samadhi as Upper Mansion would have the opportunity to get the best out of both! Items of this unique collection can be viewed here and can soon be admired during the performances of Samadhi’s playful and extra-ordinary new production ‘Mohini’ as well! The sponsoring will surely add a sophisticated yet artistic touch to the performance and we are all so excited and grateful for such a wonderful partnership! So keep an eye on our new photos of our upcoming performances as they will give a glimpse of the wonderful addition and extra dimension of the Upper Mansion wardrobe! And be sure to have a look at the colorful boutique of Hairfashion at Rokin 105 in Amsterdam if you happen to be around, it’s surely worth the visit!

For more information on Upper Mansion and Leo NG’s Hair fashion and Airfashion please visit www.uppermansion.com and www.hairfashion.nl

Photo: Karen Scheffers

This year Samadhi will be presenting a most unique and entirely different production titled ‘Mohini’, a performance filled with light, love and laughter. After an intense and emotionally charged year due to the passing of Samadhi’s mentor Marutvati Keilman-Jorquera, artistic director Vraja Sundari Keilman felt a strong urge to create an enlivening and playful production counterbalancing the deep and intense production ‘Saranágati’ as well as to celebrate the spirited, colorful and truly inspiring character of Marutvati, embracing another side of the company’s vision. For this production Vraja decided to work with a smaller cast of performers and also to introduce more elements of mime, gestural and comical theater. Also, the addition of colorful decor and characteristic music accompanied by live accordion will surely lift up both the audience and dancers and bring all to a whole new world!

‘Mohini’ – Sanskrit for ‘illusion personified’ – is inspired by poetry of the Persian poet Rumi and the performance tells the vivid story of an absurd yet touching dream. The theme deals with the individual interpretation of events and the illusive quality of this temporary and deceptive world. The viewer is taken on an energetic journey through the unconsciousness of the main character, complimented by an innovative combination of contemporary ballet, break-dance, acrobatics and as mentioned, a touch of comical drama and theater. ‘Mohini’ is dedicated to the Indian goddess Srimati Radharani, the original source of inspiration according to Vedic knowledge and has a total length of 50 minutes. ‘The production is suitable for all ages and promises to leave all viewers with a warm heart, a tickled mind and a generous smile on their face! Read more »

Photo: Karen Scheffers – Dancer: Annlydie Groenen – Vest: Upper Mansion, available at boutique Airfashion @ Hairfashion Amsterdam by Leo NG.

In the latest edition of the CJP magazine SYTYCD-star and soloist of Isabelle Bernaerts ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ Raquel Tijsterman gave an exclusive interview and we are absolutely honored to know Raquel recommended our new performance Mohini for this season! The article can be viewed in the coming edition of CJP magazine which will be published during the beginning of June 2012 where you can read all about the beautiful Raquel and her latest dance adventures! And don’t forget to get your tickets now for our coming try out and premiere of Mohini held at Podium Mozaïek in Amsterdam this Friday May 18 and Saturday May 19 as count down to this wonderful event has started and is only a few days away! As Samadhi generally perform its productions only a few times a year in an actual theater, we definitely recommend all not to miss this opportunity as Mohini promises to be a one of a kind adventure that will linger on for days!

This year Samadhi decided to go for an entire different atmosphere yet still remaining the characteristic elements of the company such as the particular use of music, the unique vocabulary and the use of versatile and charismatic dancers. This resulted in a very special and highly talented team of artists where all members had a very specific role and character to play. The group of dancers consists of Samadhi’s expressive contemporary dancers Annlydie Groenen and Vraja Sundari Keilman, the hyper-flexible and acrobatic dancers Rasarani Keilman and Jeffrey Stuut , our latest addition to the group of dancers aka the explosive break-dancer Liam O’Callaghan and our new and special addition to the cast, the talented theatrical actor and singer Chris/Caitanya Caran Das Kuijken. As Chris performed in many theatrical pieces and is currently a professional singer and accordionist in the nostalgic music group Isophone, it all came about very natural and the compatibility of the group has been an absolute joy for Vraja Sundari to work with! Backstage pictures will soon be published so keep an eye on our updates to join the fun!

View now our 3rd selection of fabulous photos in our Gallery from the stunning series made in collaboration with renowned artists Karen Scheffers and Leo NG from Hairfashion in Amsterdam. Leo was so kind to present several unique items from his fashion collection Airfashion, a wonderful collection brought in straight from Hong Kong known as ‘Upper Mansion’ and the dancers were honored to work these items to the fullest!
All collages of the individual dancers have been designed by the visionary Karen and portray a vivid and dynamic expression of the beautiful dancers. Next selection of the series will be published mid/end April 2012 so be sure to check out our Gallery and/or Facebook Page next month to view the fourth selection of these unique pieces of art!

Photo and design by Karen Scheffers

On Saturday April 21 our fabulous Samadhi dancer Jeffrey Stuut will be teaching an exclusive workshop at the beautiful studio of the Balletschool Marut Jorquera in Baarn and we would like to invite all young and eager girls and boys to join!

Jeffrey Stuut (1987, NL) received his dance education at the Pre-Education and Hogeschool Dansacademie Lucia Marthas in Amsterdam from 1992 to 2008 and has performed in many (inter)national productions and musicals such as ‘Musicals in Ahoy’ with Vanessa Williams, ‘Saturday Night Fever’, ‘Oebele’, ‘Tarzan’, ‘Dans der Vampieren”, ‘The Best of Musicals’ and many more. Jeffrey Stuut has been a member of Samadhi Dance Company since the summer of 2007 and has performed in several productions of the company such as the award-winning ‘Saranágati’ of 2011. Jeffrey is known for his structured yet fun approach to dance and his pleasant and calm ways of teaching and coaching students and we are all very excited to have him teach such a unique workshop! Read more »