Jaap Flier

I found this beautiful short dance film, Miniatuur, through Facebook last week. Created by Jellie Dekker and choregraphed and danced by Jaap Flier, it’s a tribute to Jaap Flier, now in his 80s. I loved the simplicity of it – Jaap dancing on the Turkish carpet rolled out in the middle of the railway station, or on the edge of the docks, and the flashbacks to the young man dancing in the theatre – the power, poignancy, and beauty of old age.
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I knew Jaap Flier over thirty five years ago. He was the head of the Theater School where I was a dance student for a year. I turned up at the dance school in early September 1980 as a ‘hospitante’ – a visitor, and as such I could join any classes for twenty five guilders a month – the equivalent then of five pounds. I was the first English student to take advantage of such generosity – a marvellous training with some of the best chorographers from Europe and America. But in those days Europe was much farther away from home – it took a day, or night to reach by ship and train, three days for post to arrive, and a lot of money to telephone. I was lonely and isolated, and by the end of the first term, rarely speaking my language, I was near breaking point. ‘How are you?’ Jaap asked one snowy morning, when I went into the office before class. Then, taking one look at me, he saw the answer. ‘You need to join a particular year group, you can’t be so alone.’ And he went on to sort out a timetable that fully integrated me into the school. It was a small thing perhaps, but it changed everything for me. I remember Jaap Flier as a kind man, pragmatic, insightful, wise. Seeing this short film brings it all back – that difficult and yet amazing time. That I stayed on and completed the year, I owe to him. And without that training my lifelong involvement with dance and movement could never have happened.
 
vimeo.com/171627124