[issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true documentid=121213134439-f8bd1854358c464f94994c4713bfb835 docname=magazine2012-4 width=420 height=297 unit=px]

Because I was off air for about a month, loads of news just stayed on the shelves of dansant.org. So for the next weeks you folks will get more than one post a week to keep up.

The first thing I would like to mention is my band new article for the december 2012 edition of Danspunt.Magazine  (only in Dutch).I got the chance to take an extensive interview with Cristoph from ‘La Machine à Recoudre le Temps’ . The article only reflects the general ideas discussed. Nevertheless, it offers a interesting look in the fascinating world of a self-made couturier.

You can run throught the pages using the plugin above.

After all the aggravations and headackes, we can proudly announce that our new blog is live! All the posts of the ancient blogpost are imported, but not readily available. You can still read them at the old site, where they will remain for a little while. In the mean time I hope to find the time to transfer them one by one.

But let not linger in the past. This blog is already about the past enough. What’s new in this blog? To begin with: it is available in Dutch and in English. A deliberate choice. English is more than ever the lingua franca among scientists. And because this blog pretends to be about history in a scientific way, I had no other choice. By the way, I learned by four years blogging experience, that clinging to dutch more or less places one on an island. Even more so when one chooses to write about such a niche subject as dance history most certainly is. Forcing myself to write in English regularly, serves of course also another goal: learning to write English properly. So don’t blame me for the many mistakes to come. Kindly send them to me by mail. I will most humbly correct them and – so I hope – learn to become more proficient in English.

Not all the posts will be available in English though -it would be madness to translate the whole backlog of this blog – but all new articles will be. Nonetheless, I hope to find the time to translate some representative articles for you. You will be forewarned by consulting the ‘What’s new?’ pages.

This blog doesn’t allow posting comments. I you want to comment on the articles you can share on some social networks and post them there. I don’t have a dedicated facebook page either. If I would want that to work work properly, it would cost me too much of my precious time. Both are deliberate choices. Writing articles and doing research is my focus, not entertaining half the world I don’t even know in person. If you think your comment is very important, or you want to contribute, you can always consider the burden of sending me an e-mail.

And because nobody works alone, I would like to thank my wife and my mother helping me to achieve this huge task, providing the artwork and the administration for my organisation. Have fun!

Today was a lovely day. Shopping sunday in Antwerp and the perfect weather, with a watery sun coming out to even augment the good spirits we already were in. Our rendez-vous was at half past one in Antwerp Central Station. We met with some peoples of a AMV (Musical Education) class from the academy of music in Genk (Limburg, Belgium), learning about folk music. They wanted to learn about dancehistory in practice. Some years ago I developed a guided tour especially for this kind of groups, visiting historical dance halls in Antwerp. To be honest: today this are rather shops, mall’s, ect. that were built years ago as dancehalls or ballrooms. And there are many of them when you walk from Antwerp Central Station towards the center of the city. At least when you are a good observer. Which was exactly the goal of the tour: learning to observe historical buildings and identify them.

The tour ends of course in the Museum Vleeshuis, where I worked years ago as a scientific researcher to help creating the current permanent exhibition. Down in the cellars one kan admire a true dance hall, where the history of popular social danceculture between 1800 & 1960 is explained. This is the result of the Dans’ant project, which eventually lead to the foundation of Dans’ant.org.

Every object in this dancehall has added multimedia content, combining video, photo’s and soundclips to enhance the experience. The visitor is asking the questions. The museum answers them with all the time one or more options available to digg even deeper. Every visitor receives a handheld computer at the reception. A pandora’s box indeed! Once started, there is no way back. So much music and so little time! Lucky for you, you can come back every next time you visit Antwerp. And the next time. And the next.

Yesterday I came home from Paris thrilled with impressions. Makes it hard to choose. Where to start? With the work in the archives proving a most kafkanian experience ? Or with the great exhibitions we stumbled upon in our free moments? Let’s try to begin with some good news. ‘L’impressionisme et la Mode’ running in Quai d’Orsay for the time being (until the 20th of January 2013) is a masterpiece of an exhibition. More than worthwhile a trip to Paris. The mis-en-scène of Robert Carsen is fantastic, not to mention the rather impressive amount of masterpieces presented. One can dream away quite a few moments strolling along the crème-de-la-crème of the impressionist movement.

Where to start? First you enter a room draped with about a dozen of original dresses from between 1860 and 1870. The hayday of the second empire style in Paris. These originals are confronted with fashion revues on the one hand and on the other with contemporary photography. Even without any knowledge or experience, the comparison makes sense, running from design (sketches by fashion designers), over marketing (fashion revues) to the result in real life. But the best is yet to come. At the far end of the first exhibition room the influence fashion exerted on the impressionist painters becomes tangible. Albert Bartholomé’s painting ‘La Serre’ (The Greenhouse) – photography above – shows his wife wearing a splendid dress, which actually is presented side by side with the painting. It is completely unthinkable of course to show a painting and the original dress worn by the model at a distance of a mere 130 years. Hence the choice of thy exhibition makers not to try to repeat this trick another time. By the way one can very well consider both trades as independent art forms and the contrasts or the differences would do no credit to any of them. Except for this special case. Astounding!

Next one get’s lost among theater chairs and mirrors and not to forget an exuberant amount of masterpieces on show. Personally I was most impressed with Alfred Stevens. A rather lesser known painter today and, being a Belgian, perhaps not fitting entirely in the picture of what impressionism was about, created by the French. But what an amazing talent! And especially a top notch sales talent. A trait causing him to be envied by many of his artistic friends. Besides that he used to have quite some success with women, fancying none less than Sarah Bernard. And pour la petite histoire, he ended up dedicating more than one major work to her, among which a picturesque portrait of her taking a bath.

Let me not forget to mention the catalogue. France remains, of course, the nation of the written word par excellence€. The well balanced discourse in combination with fabulous editing. I know. Of course it has to do with public attendance and numbers, etc. But even then. One should recognize that they realize the promise every time and time again. Who, by the way, would be so crazy as to en-lace some quire of matte paper into a volume filled with gloss only because fashion prints of the second empire could stand out a tad better? Hardly believable, isn’t it?

I didn’t read all of the articles of course, I’am even not tempted to do so. Entre autre€ because essay’s on aesthetics are mostly boring to me. To say the least. Besides that, the background reading has been superb so far. I was most attracted to the essay’s of Françoise Tétart-Vittu, being real eye openers to me. I seldom read such a captivating socio – cultural report on the Belle Epoque period. Most authors writing on fashion history are sporting about all kinds of details like the way a typical dress was cut or knitted together for the first time or something. Nothing of all this nonsense with M. Tétart-Vittu. Bone-dry analyses is what one gets. About the development of the French fashion industry. About how designers became more prominent over time, dislodging the fabric commerce. Or about how shop owners, fashion press and order – by – mail companies worked hand in hand. Selling millions of crinolines worldwide. Out of the box. DIY. Wasn’t the household knitting machine invented around the same time? They sent out Paris fashion to every corner of the globe. Making it available, affordable and contemporary for the masses. Here and know.

Today we more than ever complain about the world going mad. Forget about it. ‘Modern Times’ started yesterday of even the day before. From then on, nothing went slow again. Rather reassuring I think. So: no excuse, off to Paris, without delay, between a coffee and a cigarette. Hurry! Life is greedy after all.