Dutch puppeteer. Based in Dordrecht, Damiet van Dalsum creates puppets from objects and fabrics, imbuing them with a “poetic”, fantastic style.

After studying Drama in Maastricht, she began using glove puppets and rod puppets in the late 1960s. After her production, Lord Wanhoop (1983), she began working with string puppets as well as shadows (Kleine Frederick Little Frederick, 1992) and paper figures (Bubbelbabbelbos, 2003). She played herself among the puppets and manipulated objects, as in Dagdromen (Daydreaming, 1985). Club Medea (2005), directed by Frank Soehnle, with singer Françoise Vanhecke, is a show also interpreted with the puppeteer visible to the audience.

Damiet van Dalsum has an evident sensitivity for children, for whom she intends the majority of her productions, juxtaposing their values with the hyper-rationality of the adult world. Her work has affinities with Surrealism, evident in her first show for adults, Op het oog (In the Eye, 1983), in which she directed live actors.

For 25 years, from 1985-2010, Damiet van Dalsum was the director of the International Puppet Festival of Dordrecht.

(See Netherlands.)