Sanne van Dijk - Interview

News item | 03-03-2025 | 08:00

'FLOOD' by Sanne van Dijk explores the themes of boundaries, sexuality and the desire to swim against the current. Her performance at Istanbul Fringe Festival brought innovative and impactful puppet and object theatre to a Turkish audience.

Sanne van Dijk - Interview

Sanne van Dijk is an actress, puppeteer and storyteller and has been working for theatre and television for over 15 years, both at home and abroad. She studied at the Amsterdam Theatre School & Cabaret Academy and specialised in puppetry at Ernst Busch in Berlin.

Sanne has performed in a wide variety of shows, from intimate living room performances to large location productions at Oerol and Boulevard Festival, among others. She played the lead role in the science fiction film ‘Gliese 581’, selected for the Imagine Film Festival.
The TV series ‘Dropje (Doopie)’, for which she worked as a puppeteer on the main character of the same name, was nominated for a Televizier Ster, a Golden Calf and the International EMMY Kids Awards.

Find out more about Sanne HERE

The more I dare to open up and really show myself, the more connected I feel with the audience, or with other makers that I got to know during the festival. It can bring unique experiences and insights when working together.

Your performances draw on intimate, personal and sometimes uncomfortable / challenging themes. How did you approach bringing your performance to the Turkish context? Did you make any changes to your performance?

Before the festival there was great contact with the programmer, Zeynep Ugur. In my conversations with her I understood that in Türkiye at that moment there was extra attention in the media to the subject of sexual harassment and assault. We felt my show was a perfect fit, and I didn’t make changes to the performance. It was great that she already knew my performance and that gave me huge confidence beforehand.  

How did you experience performing in Istanbul? What were the main differences between your expectations and experiences?  

It was a fantastic experience. Not only is the city so vibrant and the people really welcoming, I also enjoyed the audience a lot during the show. I expected a more timid audience because of the theme, and maybe also because of the fact I am in a bathtub with only a swimsuit. But the audience was very engaging, and did not seem to mind my choice of costume. I also found the English text was really well understood, even subtle wordplay which I didn't expect because of previous performances in Greece.   Also, there was supposed to be a technician from the venue who spoke English, but he couldn’t be there that day. We immediately got great help, one of the volunteers translated between my Dutch technician and the Turkish technician from the venue. And this went really well.    

What surprised you the most about the experience?  

I expected much more difficulty with language barriers or other reactions to my show because of cultural differences. But it really wasn’t that much of a difference.  

Can you tell us about your approach to cross-cultural collaboration?  

What I love about working abroad, especially cross- culturally, is that I learn more and more that we are all not that different. Even with a very personal story like mine, people can connect to it and we can share a universal question or feeling about it. From that position we can talk to each other, learn from each other, or inspire each other.  


 

Could you share some memorable moments or reactions from the audiences and fellow professionals?

Every time I perform I have conversations with people afterwards who open up to me. This could be someone only pinching my arm and nodding to me with tears in their eyes, or someone telling me about their own experiences of people crossing their boundaries, or not being able to speak up. A fellow professional came up to me and said how they loved how I addressed a heavy subject with humor and lightness.  One of the audience members of the Netherlands Consulate confessed after the show that he didn’t go much to the theater but that he was really moved by the show. I felt it as a great compliment.  I also like to share a memorable moment just before the show started. I use water in the bathtub and we always test that beforehand. When the bathtub was in the right place, we filled it up with some water to see if it would hold, and it did. So about half an hour before the show we filled it up some more and then it turned out there was a leak after all. So water was running from underneath the tub. Within 3 minutes everyone - from technicians, to the volunteers, to the cleaning staff (!) was helping to find and close this leak. And they did! It was amazing to see how everyone pitched in with ideas and helped fix it in time.  

In what ways do you believe that performance can expand and enhance cultural exchanges, where are the limitations and where are the best possibilities?

Sharing stories, watching performances from different cultures, connecting through that safe space of art, can really built an understanding of different cultures, but also make us see that there are so many similarities.    The limitations lie in the fact that often you reach only a certain group of people. With the theater audience in the Netherlands sometimes I have the idea I am 'preaching to the choir'. It is so helpful to get possibilities like these and bring shows abroad, to reach new audiences and expand cultural exchanges.  

What are your future plans and expectations, especially regarding any future appearances in Türkiye and collaborations with Turkish musicians / artistic organizations?

It was such a wonderful experience that I contacted the Istanbul Fringe Festival again to see if we can bring another show to Istanbul this year, a show that is in line with the last ('Nouveau F**K', performed by Cat Smits (Cat Smits Company) and myself. This year, we would like to expand the show with an aftertalk and invite Turkish (feminist) artists and talk with us and the audience about the show’s themes. We are also considering a workshop, suitable for audiences and professionals around the show.  

What advice would you give to other Dutch performers in relation to the opportunities and challenges of performing in Türkiye and collaborating with Turkish performers, venues and organizers?

Make sure to try and be there as long as possible, get a chance to meet other makers and professionals, it is so inspiring to get together and exchange. Fringe Festival is a wonderful place to meet other creatives, you can really broaden and share knowledge by seeing each other's work, or just to talk about it.   Working together with a foreign technical team, you need to come well prepared but also stay flexible for possible changes.