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May 4, 2021
Multidisciplinary graduation: together towards a fine production
‘I was raised with the notion: a person is a person, period. No ifs, ands or buts; you judge someone by their actions and nothing else. To me, the concepts of racism and xenophobia are really incomprehensible.’ The fact that these themes are present in society was the reason for Pim to make a graduation performance about them: Verboden Sophia te zijn (Forbidden to be Sophia). Pim: ‘My play is about persecution and tells the story of refugees. From different interviews with refugees I made one story that will be performed by music, theatre, animation and dance. You see how someone tries to survive but is thwarted in everything to be who she wants to be. The protagonist Sophia is a fictional character. Perhaps Sophia is a girl. Perhaps the character represents all black people, or all homosexuals, or all refugees. You as a viewer get to decide who Sophia is.’
Pim Limburg
Interdisciplinair Programme
Pim composed the music for the performance himself: ‘Everything in my production is built around the music, that’s the foundation. Reinier Maliepaard’s Auditive Analysis classes were very important for this. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to create the performance.’ During the performance, Pim himself sings and conducts the ensemble, which also includes dancers and actors. Pim: ‘I love how certain disciplines can perfectly depict parts of the story. Every discipline has its strength in it.’ During the Interdisciplinary Programme, a project of the Music in Education, Fine Art and Design in Education, and Theatre in Education courses, Pim came into contact with other disciplines and established the first contacts for his graduation project. By now, Pim’s production consists of forty members, mostly students from other ArtEZ courses such as Animation Design.
Satisfaction
‘Everything around music is my expertise and discipline, I don’t let anyone else do that. So I lead the band rehearsals myself. Other than that, it’s simple: I can’t animate, so I got the right people for that. We spar very well together. I can’t say about an animation: I want this particular transition here, and this effect there. But I can tell if it’s what I’m looking for or not. In this way you can achieve a result by working together. I make sure to be at dance rehearsals as much as possible. The biggest challenge was planning: how do you approach a dance rehearsal? What do dancers need? How long do they keep something up? Managing the project is time-consuming and sometimes there’s no time for making music. Still, the arranging work gives me satisfaction, because that’s also part of the creation process – so that the result is a fine performance.’
Dance repetition
Steady skill set
Pim sees his entrepreneurial spirit reflected in his fellow students: ‘Taking a Music in Education course doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll become a teacher. You can also become Then you teach courses or workshops and are often also a performing musician. The course encourages you to adopt an entrepreneurial attitude. I now have a very steady skill set that allows me to go in many directions in music. I can teach, but also conduct, write and arrange. I’m someone who likes to be involved in lots of different things, so the breadth of the course really appealed to me.’
A little friction is okay
Just making music or teaching is not enough for Pim: ‘I also think it’s important to leave a message. When the refugee issues surrounding the war in Syria and the reactions to it came up, I thought: I want to do something with this. Racism or xenophobia is sometimes concealed in small things. That it takes a lot of thought before you realise: I may have inadvertently handled something awkwardly or miscommunicated. That’s actually pretty interesting: how you don’t mean bad, but it can still go down the wrong way. That’s what I’m trying to create awareness about. My project is successful when people walk out of the performance actually feeling a little bad. A little friction is okay.’
Poster 'Verboden Sophia te zijn'
Finland
And when the last spectator has left the room? Pim: ‘Then my gap year begins. I will be saving up money for a year to study game music in Finland. It’s not that my projects must have social relevance, but that’s often the case. The lyrics of my band songs tend to have such a theme unconsciously as well. So it could just be that I’m watching the Finnish news and think: heavy subject, I have to do something about that.'
‘Verboden Sophia te zijn’ (Forbidden to be Sophia) is staged (corona measures permitting) on 18, 19 and 20 June in Grote Voort 8 in Zwolle. Keep an eye on Pim’s Instagram account for info.
