Frans Poelstra graduated at the SNDO in Amsterdam in 1984. During the 80ties and 90ties he participated in numerous music/dance improvisation performances with i. e. David Zambrano, Sasha Waltz, Mark Tompkins, Vera Mantero, Katie Duck, Benoit Lachambre, Jennifer Lacey, Steve Paxton. In 2003 he started a collaboration with performer/writer Robert Steijn, together they formed united sorry. In 2004 he moved to Vienna where he still lives and works. Besides his solo performances he collaborates with local artists Krõõt Juurak, Elizabeth Ward, Michikazu Matsune, Alix Eynaudi, Vera Rosner (MixedAbilityDance) a. o. Currently he is collaborating with Oleg Soulimenko, their production The Feeling of Home premiered in Residenz/Schauspielhaus Leipzig in February 2023. He has been giving workshops in different institutions in Europe, SNDO Amsterdam, EDDC Arnhem, ImPulsTanz, Tanzquartier Vienna, SEAD Salzburg, CNDC Angers, ICI Montpellier, HZT Berlin, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Theatre Academy Helsinki, etc.
“Since I’m part of the Mellow Yellow project inclusion started to become a big issue in my life. I’m a cis-man and my privilege became very apparent while working for the project. Mellow Yellow is besides being a mixed-ability art project for schools, also an on-going research project. There are multiple questions we constantly ask ourselves. For example, what can we, as Mellow Yellow do to help our society that inclusion does not become a theme, but that inclusiveness is self-evident, which no longer needs to be discussed? Or, how can we support people who have a non-visible or recognisable disability? People don’t understand so easy the difficulties they face in everyday life. Besides these questions, I believe Mellow Yellow is a straight forward important and great project with a lot of potential to become a front runner for inclusion in Austria.”
16.04.2023
