Biography

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Art is an essential pillar in society because it forces people to come together, to exchange thoughts, to learn, to be amazed and to be enriched with new insights and perspectives

Jorinde Keesmaat is a stage director of theatrical projects, (opera) performances and staged classical concerts. Jorinde Keesmaat creates multi-disciplinary performances that have a search for relationships between the individual spectator and the actors and musicians. Within her projects she looks for possibilities of an individual approach to the chosen audience. Conventions as well as the established boundaries between classical concerts, opera and theatre performances have moved to the background. The performances are merely characterized by a cross-fertilization, stylization and abstraction of art disciplines. In addition to regular theatre and concert halls her performances regularly take place in a lighthouse, factory, staircase, water stations, and regional assemblies.

Jorinde Keesmaat wants people to look at each other, she hopes to amaze and confuse. Keesmaat: ‘In this chaotic and complex world I create moments that slow down and take root, they put the finger on a sore spot within society and bring the viewer closer a personal emotion.’

In 2003 Jorinde Keesmaat graduated at the College of Arts ArtEZ, theatre direction department. Her graduation performance The Honey Makers was shown during the one-act play festival Vital Signs at the Vital Theatre in New York. After graduating she made, among other performances: Terminal (Schouwburg The Hague, 2006), a youth theatre performance Troje-Argos 0-1 (6x Oresteia, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 2007), the perfomance Dobre Tanie (2008), the location performance Carrefour (Tamtam, Toneelgroep Amsterdam 2010) and the musical performance Het Hemels Leven, on Memorial Day at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (in collaboration with Grachtenfestival, Amsterdam Ensemble, Ramsey Nasr, 2011). Jorinde Keesmaat is the permanent director of the concert series Tracks at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam,

Besides her projects she organizes a four-part series of art festivals every year, like The Water Festival – Water in Kunst (water theme, 2009) and Festival Kunstlicht (fire theme, 2010). For the first edition of this festival she made the short film Off Shoulders.