Jan Marten talking about his favorite places in nature
Anita van Dolen: An important theme in FUTUR PROCHE is the relationship that humans have with nature. What does nature mean to you? What are your five favorite places in nature?
Jan Martens: Dance is city work. They generally don’t build theaters in the middle of nowhere. But nature is for me a kind of theater, as I go there for inspiration, peace, and beauty. Here 5 places which I love:
Woods are rare in the area in which I live. A lot of fields and cows, but not a tree to find. Therefor I go and run in Clingse Bossen, a beautiful old forest just over the border in The Netherlands
Some nature of the past sticks to me. When studying dance in Tilburg, The Netherlands, a place to go to are Loonse en Drunense duinen. It’s a national park with dunes, even though it nowadays is far away from the coastline. It is a very weird feeling to walk around there, on a hot day it can feel like a desert.
3. Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Wales
For my first holiday with my boyfriend 12 years ago, we hiked a part of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. I love Wales. Rough coasts, silky hills. Sun, rain and clouds. Emptyness. Vastness.
To finish, there are two spots I discovered during touring. When I have the time, I go for a hike on a free day or before a show. It needs some planning, but by practice I got so familiar with finding out local bus services. Praia Da Ursa near Lisbon was such a discovery. Not reachable by car, but a bus service from Lisbon brings u very close, and then a 20 minute walking descent through beautiful landscape, brings you to this beautiful secluded beach.
5. The Alpes (the area around Revel)
Work brought me last September to Grenoble. I took a day off and went into the Alpes. The area around Revel with a lot of small lakes was beautiful, little cold swims to make the muscles recover, with nobody around.