MASTERS Magazine #43 is ready to land on your doorstep, featuring the intriguing choreographer duo Marne and Imre van Opstal. As children they collected signatures from the dancers of the Nederlands Dans Theater, their dream was to one day dance there themselves. And that dream came true. Photographer Rahi Rezvani made them dance in front of his camera, exclusively for MASTERS.
What kind of family did you end up in?
Marne: “It's interesting that you say 'end up', because that's how we feel too. My mother believes that children choose the parents they are born to. Myrthe (1987) and Xanthe (1992) also chose them as parents.”
Imre: “We are truly a family of doers. Both my father – an engineer – and mother like to get things done, they are people who like to do things themselves. The renovation of their house? They don't hire painters, but do it themselves.”
Marne: “They are very sporty: my mother swam for the Dutch youth team, my father likes skating, windsurfing and volleyball. And they are creative too. My mother attended the cabaret academy and loves painting and sculpting, my father plays piano and guitar and was in an African band. There were eight big drums in our house and every weekend we would bang on those things. The neighbors must not have had it easy, haha. We had such creative influences around us from an early age. My mother always motivated us to play with clay or finger paint. The four of us did a lot of things, we didn't need friends to play.”
You grew up in Velden, a Catholic village near Venlo. How was that?
Imre: “We had quite a few eyes on us: a father who played the drums, a son who danced… The strange Van Opstal family. But our parents always fought for us and our individuality. I was bullied at school because I was different from other girls and mainly played with boys. Besides, they thought I was stupid. I had been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADD, but at the time it was not yet known what that meant. In my third year they dropped me. My mother made sure I got into Marne's class. Then my scores went up a lot. Not unimportant, because in order to go to dance school, I needed at least a HAVO recommendation.”
Marne: “I was also bullied. 'Boys don't dance', that's the kind of thing I was told. But I am very stubborn and also quite tough: I went against it. When I was in group 8, I went on a theater tour with Introdans for Youth, my first real professional experience. My class was invited to watch. From the moment they saw what I did, I felt that there was understanding and appreciation for what I had been working so hard on all those years.”
What did you do on weekends and holidays?
Marne: “We always played outside. Building huts, catching frogs, jumping ditches... The rule was: when the street lights come on, you come home. We didn't always do that. Then my mother would drive around the village in the car to see where we were hanging out.”
Imre: “During the summer holidays we always went to the south of France with our Volkswagen van. We were there at the campsite for six weeks.”
MASTERS #43
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MASTERS #43
