The Belgian writer/critic/filmmaker Eric de Kuyper has established a wide-ranging critical career over forty years. He discussed myriad cultural subjects in different genres, reaching from ballet and modern dance to musical and film to opera and theatre. His professional life as a dance critic started in the early sixties, when modern dance was hardly accounted for in Belgian newspapers and magazines. The presence of Maurice Béjart and the first traces of American modern dance called for a new and more profound approach: De Kuyper became one of the first professional dance critics in Belgium. Moreover, De Kuyper was perpetually seeking for the meaning of these events in a wider artistic and cultural context, and paid particularly attention for popular art forms, such as musical and film, as an entry to the 'high arts'.
In May 2003, Sarma started to anthologize the critical oeuvre of Eric de Kuyper with a selection of a hundred reviews and essays, on dance, musical and criticism. They were printed mainly between 1963 and 1977 in a range of newspapers and magazines, such as De Nieuwe, De Standaard, Kultuurleven, Kunst & Cultuur and Streven.
The writings of Eric de Kuyper can be accessed here.
Poetics by Eric de Kuyper: Lopen, gaan en... piekeren.
Video Lecture Eric de Kuyper. In 2008 Sarma invited Eric de Kuyper to comment upon the Anthology Dance at Expo 58.
Editors: Myriam Van Imschoot and Jeroen Peeters Editorial assistance: Tom Janssens Copy editing Hans Cottyn. Co-production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts Thank you: Caroline Bauwens, Veerle Bosmans, Özlem Dogru, Jelle Geerts, Katelijne Goris, Eva Leemans, Kristien Magdelijns, Karlien Meganck, Lara Rogiers, Joeri Smet and Kaaitheater.