Dakota's Winternachten Story Festival: Stories from Afar

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The Winternachten Story Festival at Theater Dakota came to its festive conclusion on Sunday afternoon. 'Stories from Afar' was a large and varied programme with stories, music and dance from and about India, Turkey and the Dutch Indies. The programme had two parts: before the intermission you chose one of three country programmes, each in a separate room. You heard music and stories of writers and local residents about their country of origin.

The India programme included an appearance by writer Arshia Sattar. She's an expert on the Ramayana and a great storyteller. Dancer Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen, pupil of Sangeet Natak Academy Awardee Guru Geetanjali Lal, performed with a music ensemble consisting of Viresh Kisoendajal (tabla), Lehra (sitar), Martijn Barendregt and Shivant Jhagroe (harmonium) en Ilyas Nadjafi (vocals).

The Turkey programme included appearances by writer Ciler Ilhan, currently famous for her story collection In Exile, and vocalist-ud player Duygu Alkan. Wieteke van Dort told the most beautiful stories about the Dutch Indies. After the break came a stunning finale for all visitors. Francis Broekhuijsen introduced performances by all the above-mentioned and more artists in the great hall of Theatre Dakota: music by Hindi pop band Shagun, the choir Turkuaz from Escamp and The Hague-based singer-songwriter Jhilani Wijsman. When you reserved tickets, you also chose the country programme that takes place before the intermission. Your ticket was of course also valid after the break.

Information

Date and time Sunday 20 January 2019 from 14:30 to 17:00 hrs
Location Theater en Filmhuis Dakota

Line-up

Arshia Sattar

(India, 1960) teaches and writes about classical Indian literature and has a deep knowledge of the myths and traditional stories of India. She has a PhD in South Asian languages and literature from the University of Chicago. Sattar translated many text from Sanskrit, including Valmiki's 1996 Ramayana. More recent publications include Lost Loves: Exploring Rama's Anguish (2011) and Uttara: The Book of Answers (2016). She also writes for children: her Ramayana for Children (2017) has been published worldwide. In 2008 she co-founded Sangam House, the first and only completely financially independent writer's residency programme in India. Every year, Sangam House moves to a new location; in 2019 it is in Bangalore.

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Francis Broekhuijsen

(The Netherlands, 1970) is a presenter, producer, actor and voice-over artist specializing in music, literature, arts and culture. After graduating as actor from the Toneelschool Amsterdam he was a member, among others, of the ensemble of the Nationale Toneel. He was a presenter at Amsterdam-based broadcaster AT5 and a radio producer with the KRO on national network NPO Radio 1. He narrates audio books, and was shortlisted for the Storytel Award 2019 for Best Audio Book with his reading of Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's novel Grand Hotel Europa. Until last year, he presented on radio station Sublime the daily morning show Sublime Sunrise, the Instagram poetry programme Sublime Smooth and evening show The Sublime Experience. In 2025 he wrote and hosted the tv-series Kringlopen met Francis on regional Dutch broadcaster NH. Broekhuijsen works for Writers Unlimited as festival curator and presenter.

Go to the website of Francis Broekhuijsen
Instagram: @francisbroekhuijsen
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Çiler Ilhan

(Turkey, 1972) writes novels, essays, reviews and translations for various newspapers and magazines. She studied international relations and political science in Istanbul and hotel management in Switzerland. In 2006 she debuted with the short-story collection Ruya Tacirleri Odasi (Chamber of Dream Merchants). Surgun (Exile, 2010) won the EU Literature Prize and was published in 24 countries. Its short stories - some of which are only a page or two in length -  form a novel in which ordinary Turkish citizens speak about feeling alienated from their homeland, their families, and the community to which they belonged. In 2021 she published Nisan Evi (Engagement), a novella about lives lost under the weight of power factors in eastern Turkey.
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Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen

is a Kathak dancer and teacher with a mission: to deepen, develop and present the North-Indian classical Kathak dance form in the Netherlands. She realized this in the process of working together with artists from the Netherlands and beyond. She teaches dance in The Hague at her Indian dance academy Niembooda and organizes workshops and Kathak immersion classes  with international artists. The performances she develops are aimed at spreading Indian philosophy and the meaning and relevance of Indian symbolism in daily life.
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Shagun

is a young HIndi pop band that mainly plays Bollywood songs, but in a Western manner. Shagun -- a word originally meaning "auspicious" -- believes that a positive attitude brings good luck in life. The aim of the group is to convey this philosophy via music. Shagun returns to the core of the music and transfoms it into a real listening experience.
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Wieteke van Dort

(Indonesia, 1943) is an actress, writer, visual artist and singer. She became nationally famous due to her performances in Dutch television programmes. Her Dutch-Indonesian character Aunt Lien from De Late Late Lien Show is especially well known; the show featured sketches, songs, traditional dances and stories about nostalgia for the Dutch Indies. Her best-known song is "Arm Den Haag" ("Poor The Hague") from 1975. Her first volume of poetry, Handen (Hands), appeared in 1958; at the time, she was celebrated as the "youngest poet of the Netherlands" in the media. She wrote and illustrated various children's books including De toverbal (The Magic Ball, 2002) en Kleine wolk (Little Cloud, 2005). In 2003, she published Kind in Surabaja: Indische herinneringen (Child in Surabaja: Indonesian Memories) and in 2014, Java revisited in 133 Haikus.
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Duygu Alkan

(1990) is a singer and oud player specialized in Turkish Classical, Ottoman and Anatolian music. She completed her Bachelor in Turkish Music and Voice at the conservatory in Izmir and is now completing her Masters at Codarts Rotterdam. Since 2019, she has performed with with various musicians in countries including Turkey, Iraq, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Cyprus.
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Jhilani Wijsman

(1987) translates sincere emotions into laid-back songs with a Nether-pop sound in which Soul plays a big role. The singer-songwriter knows how to reach his audience with his singing and his guitar. Inspired by musicians such as John Legend, Bill Withers and Beres Hammond, the Hague resident has performed on various stages and local festivals and won the "Best in the Neighbourhood" competition. With his single Mijn stad Den Haag (My City The Hague), this musician is ready to conquer not only the rest of his city but the whole of the country.
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Turks koor Escamp

brings music and song from Anatolia. The Turkish choir from Escamp, Den Haag, performs to musical accompaniment. The members of the choir, from various parts of Turkey, interpret Turkish folk repertoire.
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Mark Kalsbeek

is a programme curator, writer and poet. He worked at the Amsterdam theatre Carré and is a programmer and programme curator at The Hague's Theater Dakota. Mark is the regular guest poet during Oma Greet's talk shows in Theater Dakota and Studio De Bakkerij. His poems and short stories were published on Krakatau, in literary magazine Schoon Schip, in his own poetry collection Vlek and in the collection Bestemming.
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