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2: dialogue with lucinda
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BEUTLER ONE STEP REMOVED FROM LUCINDA CHILDS DANCE LANGUAGE
Beutler (one of the more interesting new dance makers in the Netherlands) exposes choreographic processes: the dancers’ sense of themselves and the way the audience looks upon them. And this is the conceptual message that lies at the heart of her dance. Beutler’s cover is a veritable feast of physical suspense.
Sander Hiskemuller, 29 march 2010, De Trouw (Dutch national newspaper)
Download:TROUW lucinda.pdf

SPIRITED PLUNGE INTO THE WORK OF A DANCE REBEL **** Four stars
Nicole Beutler adapts two choreographies by Lucinda Childs, creating a highly engaging work.
Mirjam van der Linden, 26 March 2010, De Volkskrant (Dutch national newspaper)
Download: Volkskrant Lucinda.pdf


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1:songs
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The reviews of 1:songs are not yet translated, for Dutch click below
Download: SONGS volkskrant recensie 4nov09.pdf **** Four stars
Download: de-morgen-tjonck_web.jpg **** Four stars


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lost is my quiet forever
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A visual experience, wherein every second is fuelled with a complete sensation… Especially remarkable is the way Beutler uses the qualities of her performers. How she stages Hester van Hasselt crying as if it was real; it produces a rhythm, shivers down the spine and is in combination with her movements a powerful and beautiful image… The dazzling costumes, the music, that blows away the edges of the space, the atmospheric lighting – with a little bit of humor. All this makes Lost is my quiet forever a very satisfying end to her trilogy.
Leonie Kuipers, 8 Weekly.nl, 2.10.2008

Beutler knows how to translate what is essential into subtle movements and images… It is remarkable that especially the music of Purcell touches the heart with reflections on desire, lost loves and loneliness.
Miriam van der Linden, Volkskrant, 22.9.2008


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les sylphides
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LES SYLPHIDES was selected amongst the TOP 5 dance-performances of the season 2007/2008 in the Netherlands by the dutch magazine Theatermaker in September 2008.

The classical movement phrases, usually observed from great distance on a big stage, appear with more fragility – especially when one of the dancers asks for support from the public. But at the same time this piece also underlines the virtuosity of the form. This combination shines another light on the classical dance and results in an intimate and very fascinating experience.
Marcelle Schots, De Theatermaker, september 2008


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Enter Ghost
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The extremely bizarre world of Nicole Beutler

The ungraspable, the suspense, the poetry, the strange: it is associations with the unknown that are constantly present in every detail. In light, sound, image, movement as well as in the three women themselves. It is suggestive and light, this conceptual dance, and it excels with such strong images, they seem to be choreographed by the millimeter. Even though a classical and well known theatrical effect – Nicole Beutler could not have chosen a better closing scene than the dry-ice-mist.
Mirjam van der Linden, Volkskrant, 30 April 2007


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the exact position of things
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the exact position of things was selected into the shortlist of the TOP 5 dance productions of the season 2004 – 2005 in the dutch theatre magazine TM Theatermaker.

Licht, Raum, Teppich – Christoph Schütte, FAZ, 11th March 2006:
Daß es um Alzheimer geht in Beutlers Stück, teilt sich dem Publikum schon nach wenigen Minuten mit. Doch sind es mehr noch die damit verbundenen, über die Krankheit hinausweisenden, prinzipiellen Fragen, an das Theater, die Kunst, die menschliche Existenz, die mehr und mehr ins Zentrum der mit einem feinen Gespür für Rhythmus und Tempo konzipierten Arbeit rücken.

Marijn van der Jagt, Vrij Nederland / 5 March 2005: ****(four stars out of five)
Standing motionless in the dark, endlessly sighing that you’re stuck. This is the place where dance begins for choreographer Nicole Beutler. In her new performance, two young women are portrayed foraging for old movements. Walking around in the space. Staggering like stiff old people. Fighting with a rolled up carpet. They end up discovering a powerful, but somehow nonchalant swing to the subtle, minimal electronic music by Gary Shepherd. It comes as a reward.

Sander Hiskemuller, De Trouw / 20 April 2005:
The festival takes us with the biggest ease from hiphop to the dance of ideas of Nicole Beutler. In her strong performance the exact position of things two female dancers are positioned in a twilight of a loss of reality and disorientation… Sometimes they get ecstatically carried away in ‚bad’ dances, that underline the mental alienation in a hilarious, yet surprisingly touching manner… Both, book and performance, articulate a desolate universe, where words have lost their meaning and people, in order not to loose grip, hold on to imposed forms.

Raymond Frenken, Etcetera/16 April 2005:
Nicole Beutler made a performance on a gliding scale of what dance could be. The moment where you say: this is dance, will be different for every spectator… But there is no escape, and maybe that isn’t necessary anymore. While the women slowly rob along the floor, one of them states the following: You are in your home and in your head you have knowledge of the whole world. The world is very small… In my head, I can go to Zambia….

Isabella Lanz, NRC Handelsblad / 25 February 2005:
More down-to-earth is the theme of Nicole Beutler’s the exact position of things, based on, amongst others, Bernlefs Out of Mind. Beutler emphasises the feeling of disorientation in this duet. The performers Hester van Hasselt and Esther Snelder shuffle across the stage like old women, muttering fragmented sentences and words. They are in a place beyond time and space. This realistic – sometimes comical – play is followed by an abstract play of movement, performed as leptosomic dances, that are purposefully inexpressive. The most successful part is the end, where the two engage in a pointed conversation in dark twilight, using words whose meaning is long lost.

Daniel Walton, Dance Europe / June 2005:
I found it a thoughtful study of the incomprehension of reality, a female duet both curious of and lost in its surrounding space. The choreographer is the German Nicole Beutler, trained in visual arts and latterly at the school for dance development in Amsterdam. She clearly has a strong eye for pace and knows how to draw out one theme before subtly shifting it on to another. There is an almost dreamy quality in the resulting blend. What strikes is how a minimum of action can maximise the potential involvement of the space itself. Take the simple task of walking, which takes up much of the first section of the piece. It is done dryly and then with a hunch of uncertainty, yet constantly gives clarity to the surroundings. Beutler has an ability to dress the most basic of gestures with an extra layer of interest. So, as the two women sit on chairs, yawn, and freeze, the energy expands rather than diminishes. Similarly, a sardonic wit frequently snakes forth, denying the work any sense of pretentiousness. Two women slowly rolling up a carpet is hardly a crowd-winner, yet this gradually descends into farce through the addition of husky hag voices.
Only in the later stages does something resembling movement enter (if you were actually still concerned by such matters). It occupies a curious space between the everyday and the stylised, a series of rhythmic, repetitive jolts over layered beats. Once again, humor seeps out through the most bizarre body-locking routines. The performer then lands in first position, in grave danger of discovering the plié. Risky business indeed! Only at the end does the structure waver, the completion somewhat forced. Otherwise this is well-considered work, avoiding any affectation with a knowing smile, and aided by two strong, honest performances from Hester van Hasselt and Esther Snelder. Their projection of text and movement is precise yet never overplayed. “But is it dance?” I hear you cry. It is a movement piece, and if dance is merely a stylized form of movement then Beutler shows us the limitations of the art. You even get an accompanying book of photos and stories.