PRESS RELEASE
Amsterdam, 25 September 2024
American choreographer Trajal Harrell (Douglas, Georgia, United States, 1973) will be the associate artist for the 78th edition of the Holland Festival in June 2025. Harrell is one of the major contemporary choreographers internationally. His unique style combines elements from various dance traditions, fashion, music and visual arts. With universal human emotions and themes like interconnection, tragedy, tenderness and vulnerability, Harrell’s pieces often move audiences on a deeply personal level. 2025 will see the Holland Festival working with an associate artist for the seventh consecutive time: an international artist with a broad perspective and their own cutting-edge and interdisciplinary artistic practice, who will collaborate with the festival for one edition and present new work that is co-produced by the Holland Festival. The associate artist acts as a conversation partner for the programme team.
Trajal Harrell on his role of associate artist:
“Amsterdam has always held a special place in my heart, as it’s the first place I toured outside of the United States. I’ll always remember that. It has a long history of contemporary dance, a good feel for experimentation, but also respect for tradition. Dutch audiences are open-minded and discerning. I look forward to being in Amsterdam throughout the whole Holland Festival. It’s a rare privilege for an artist to be given the opportunity to take on this role.”
About Trajal Harrell
Harrell became internationally known from 2009 with his Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church, a series of works in which voguing - a dance style that came out of Harlem’s ballroom scene of the 1980s - and early postmodern dance form the basis.
He presents his work in theatres, galleries and museums throughout the world and has given pop-up performances in unexpected places, like a Paris bookshop.
In his recent work Harrell weaves theoretical elements from voguing with movements and ideas from early modern dance and butoh, a minimalist and socially engaged form of dance from post-war Japan that was developed by Japanese dancer and choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1996) in the late 1950s. Harrell’s work explores the overlap between these seemingly divergent dance cultures and puts the body at the centre as a locus of memory, the past and historical influences that shaped his dance practice.
Emily Ansenk, Holland Festival Director: “Trajal Harrell is a groundbreaking, charismatic choreographer of the current age, who has been building a one-of-a-kind oeuvre for more than 20 years. Harrell challenges the spectator’s perspective - he invites us on a journey in which he touches on the great themes of the human condition through dance.
He’s a favourite maker and performer at the Holland Festival. This year will see him creating a highly unique project in Amsterdam together with his dancers, titled Welcome to Asbestos Hall.
Welcome to Asbestos Hall is more than a performance. Rather, it’s an expression of Harrell’s take on art and the artistic practice as something that comes into being in collaboration with others, and emerges from mutual passion and inspiration. The pieces Trajal Harrell made in recent years, including the Porca Miseria trilogy or The Romeo, mark the long journey he made surrounding Hijikata’s artistic legacy. This makes Welcome to Asbestos Hall an important expression of Harrell’s artistic philosophy, while also marking the end of an era. As co-producer and partner for this project, we at Holland Festival are pleased to be able to contribute to this development in Harrell’s artistic biography.”
Welcome to Asbestos Hall is inspired by Tatsumi Hijikata’s original Asbestos Studio, a space Hijikata used as studio and living room, for debating, experimenting, but also drinking bouts and movie screenings. Welcome to Asbestos Hall will likewise be a place for experimenting, developing, artistic encounters and presenting new work by Harrell, his dancers and other artists, and will be open all throughout the festival. Harrell is set to work on a Welcome to Asbestos Hall in Brussels and Zurich as well.
Trajal Harrell was featured at the Holland Festival before with Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure) / Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M2M) (2014), The Return of The Modern Dance (2015), Porca Miseria (2022) and The Romeo (2024).
Harrell was a resident choreographer at Schauspielhaus Zürich from 2019 to 2024. In 2024 he founded the Zürich Dance Ensemble with its headquarters in Zurich. It’s the first time in Harrell’s international career for him and his company to permanently tie themselves to one city.
This year Harrell was awarded the Silver Lion at Venice’s Biennale Danza. The jury statement on his work: “His performances are the result of extensive research and, like so much other sensitive, hybrid and joyous art, draw from fashion, pop culture and avant-garde artists. With his unique mix of genres and surprising juxtaposition of forms, Harrell evokes a wide range of emotions. He takes us on an emotional rollercoaster where one minute we’re laughing, the next we’re in tears.” In 2018 the influential Tanz magazine chose him as its ‘Dancer of the year’.
Klick here for a portrait of Trajal Harrell. Videocredit: Rianne Super and Gijs van Dooren.
Previous associate artist
Previous associate artists include Christiane Jatahy (2024), ANOHNI (2023), Angélique Kidjo en Nicolas Stemann (2022), Gisèle Vienne en Ryuichi Sakamoto (2021), Bill T. Jones (2020), and Faustin Linyekula and William Kentridge (2019).
The festival’s 78th edition will take place in June 2025 at various locations in Amsterdam.