IMDL

IMDL \ Improvised Music Dance Laboratory

A laboratory for real-time creation across cities, disciplines, and borders

We read the room, then move.

We read the room, then move.

We listen first.

We risk not knowing.

We create in real time.

Doors between communities

We do not build one house. We build doors between communities.

Gather / Exchange / Trace

GATHER: Tribes find each other here.

EXCHANGE: We grow by giving.

TRACE: Holding what disappears.

Audience

The audience sits close enough to feel the decision being made.

Encounter / Score / Senses / Archive

01, ENCOUNTER: Artists who have never worked together meet in a small room, often matched at random.

02, SCORE: A single guideline, such as temperature, density, silence, or threshold, or a draw made on the spot, sets the terms. No fixed choreography, no notation.

03, SENSES: Light, shadow, projection, text, food, ritual enter alongside sound and body.

04, ARCHIVE: Every session is filmed and credited. Before the next curator builds a score, they watch what came before.

Many scenes

Many scenes.

No single root.

One ground.

Since

Real-time composition has lived in Amsterdam for decades.

IMDL grows from that ground, carrying it into new combinations of sound, movement, and inquiry.

Collaboration across disciplines, not within them.

Next

IMDL began in three Dutch cities.

The next step is beyond the Netherlands: local curators, shared practice, open invitations.

International

This is already moving. New circles, in new countries, are joining the conversation, and talks are under way.

If your scene is ready, join us.

We Choose This Now

01: From icon to unique. The single visionary gives way to many irreplaceable ones.

02: The Now cannot be twice. Each action is singular, and it belongs to whoever makes it.

03: We share weight instead of dividing roles. Connection runs horizontal, not from the top down.

04: We archive what disappears, so the process stays visible after the room empties.

05: Every performer creates, equally, irreplaceably.

Miri Lee, Leader & Founder

Founded and led by Miri Lee, IMDL is held by four curators together.

Deep Practice. Open Encounters.

Deep Practice. Open Encounters.

We see through our own lens. We give form to the experiment itself.

Marc, Maria, Iris, and WenChin are IMDL's key curators.

Hosting

Three venues have taken turns hosting.

Grond: an art space and collective in Amsterdam Oost, built around collectivity and process.

Splendor: a house run by its musicians.

Tempel: a former theosophical temple in Amsterdam-Zuid, flat floor and no fixed seats, now a home for experimental performance.

IMDL Archive

All films were filmed and edited by videographer Jongkag Park.