picture by Marcel Buunk
Choreographer and graphic artist Aafke de Jong blends dance and any other imaginable art form in her bespoke performances. Sometimes her work is site specific.
Her work shows a close attention to detail and resonates a sensitivity towards her surroundings. Processes in nature - and therefor within ourselves - are a great source of inspiration and comfort for Aafke's life and work.
Whilst spending quite some time behind a digital screen herself, with AFK | Away from Keyboard*, Aafke invites us to step away from it for a moment and take some time. Time to look. To look around us and to really see who and what is there.
Perhaps what we see surprises us in many different ways.
Perhaps it has already been there for a long time, but now we look at it differently . . .
In especially designed workshops she combines looking at nature with art forms and shares with us that elements like space, rhythm, line and structure are to be found in nature, our body, as well as in our surroundings (for example architecture). She likes to challenges you how we can translate them to a blanc piece of papier or into an empty space.
Aafke also makes images and murals in multiple mediums that express her love of subtlety of beauty and the diversity of life. Nevertheless there is often an unexpected twist that raises questions about our inner thoughts, our acts and outer appearance.
De Jong spent five years of her life in Indonesia - mostly on Bali - to study and work. Immersed in the Island life she has gained a deep appreciation of ways so different than her own. Balinese culture provided a large influence in her outlook to life and dance, although this is not always visible in a direct way. Her performances, inspired by the the gods and demons of the volcanic island chill your spine and energize the audience with it’s mystical atmosphere.
During the years previous to her journey to Bali she was formally educated in western contemporary dance styles at Codarts Dance Adademy (Rotterdam, The Netherlands).
This study, combined with her experience in Indonesia, paved the way to an alternate perspective on the traditions that gave birth to her current work.
Here you can learn more about Aafke's motivation and background and how she implements in an associative way her vision on various aspects of life.
* The son of a friend of Aafke's always used to call her 'AFK' , which stands for 'away from keyboard'. It is an acronym used in the online gaming world to let your gaming partner know that you want to have a break from the game for a while.