Coffee/Networking, Jan Goossens, Cape Town, 29 Feb | February 29th, 2012, at 9:00 am | Posted by

Event Date: February 29th, 2012, at 9:00 am
Notes: Meet Jan Goossens, Artistic Director of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg (KVS), or Royal Flemish Theatre, in Brussels.

Description:

 

A NETWORKING SESSION - for 'theatre types' and the like -

with JAN GOOSSENS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL FLEMISH THEATRE, Brussels

VENUE: African Arts Institute, 25 Commercial Street, Cape Town

TIME: Arrive from 9am for 9.30am start

FREE OF CHARGE

"Brussels is the capital of Flanders, Belgium and Europe and all these various facets forms the basis of the Koninklike Vlaamse Schouwburg's artistic work. The key question for the KVS is ‘How can this diversity in every domain be converted into a broad and diverse contemporary project?' "

Jan will introduce the work of KVS, including an international project in Congo.

Coffee & nibbles served.

Image courtesy: www.diversito.be

 

About Jan Goossens:

Jan Goossens was born in 1971 in Antwerp. He moved to Brussels in 1994.

He studied literature and philosophy in Antwerp, Leuven and London from 1989 until 1993. He started working in the field of opera and theater under Gerard Mortier at  Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels in 1991, where he first met Peter Sellars.

From 1993 until 1995, Jan Goossens worked as assistant and dramaturg on two productions with director and choreographer Wim Vandekeybus and his Brussels-based company Ultima Vez. The collaboration with Wim Vandekeybus continues today at KVS, the Royal Flemish Theater in Brussels, where Ultima Vez is an important partner and frequent guest.

In 1996, Jan Goossens worked with directors Peter Zadek and Peter Mussbach on opera productions at the Frankfurt Opera and the Salzburg Festival.

From 1997 until 1999, Jan Goossens joined Peter Sellars as assistant and dramaturg on five international opera productions in Salzburg, London, Paris and Amsterdam. Contemporary composers were at the heart of these productions : Stravinsky, Ligeti and Messiaen.  Peter Sellars’ intercultural work ( at the University of California, at the LA and Adelaide Festivals) has been a major source of inspiration ever since, and is very much at the heart of the KVS project today.

Jan Goossens started working at the KVS, the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels as a dramaturg in 1999 and has been the artistic director since 2001. Together with his team he has established an artistic project that embraces the intercultural and linguistic diversity of Brussels, a city of minorities, and that makes an artistic contribution to the intercultural city of the future. KVS stresses the importance of developing a contemporary Flemish repertoire, but productions with artists from the Arab and African communities of Brussels have been prominently included in the program. Furthermore, collaborations with the major francophone theaters in Brussels take place on a frequent basis.  KVS extends this vision to all dimensions of its project, which led to a KVS-tour with Brussels actors from African origin to Kinshasa, Congo in September 2005. Since July 2009 KVS organizes a yearly festival (the ‘Platforme Contemporaine’) in Kinsahasa, presenting European and African artists.

Jan Goossens has traveled widely in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa.