Guiding principles
DansBrabant supports choreographers on their way to a strong professional practice and an independent position in the regional and (inter)national dance field. The dancehouse puts the choreographer and his/her development first. In doing so, DansBrabant relates to current trends that influence how we experience our bodies (globalisation, technology, media). On this basis DansBrabant chooses artists and projects and opens up diverse and challenging perspectives in dance.
DansBrabant invests in different generations. Together they work on a broad-based, multiform structure in which seasoned, less mature and starting choreographers share their knowledge, expertise, networks and facilities optimally. A structure in which individual choreographers strengthen themselves and each other.
Being there for each other, that is DansBrabant's mission and vision, which takes shape in a continuous critical dialogue and questioning on artistic, business, strategic and social positioning. In addition, it offer workspaces, support in the field of production, p.r. and marketing, also in international residencies and co-productions. In this way DansBrabant works towards a sustainable position for choreographers in the region, in the Netherlands and abroad.
History
DansBrabant started in 2013 as a talent developer in dance and has so far succeeded in always doing what is necessary in an arts field in motion. Thus, in addition to being a talent developer, it also became a genre developer and is now a house for groundbreaking dance.
In its international residencies, some 25 choreographers from outside the Netherlands have so far found space for research. Its International Choreographers Week grew into a valued annual knowledge-sharing platform for choreographers from here and elsewhere. In its annual project Making Space, DansBrabant pays increasing attention to working in public space.
From 2017-2019 DansBrabant participated in its first European project: Performing Gender: Dance Makes Differences. From there DansBrabant is also involved in Performing Gender 3: Dancing In Your Shoes (2020-2023). In 2020-2021 the dancehouse is partner in the European project: Micro Macro Dramaturgies in Dance.
Also Dance&Dare, its reflection program in which creative writers from different backgrounds write about what they experience during dance performances, is gaining an increasingly international dimension with partners Performing Criticism Globally (Norway) & Tanzweb (Germany). It leads to inspired, personal essays that are also recited live and invite audiences to share their own viewing experiences.
You can find blog posts from Dance&Dare here.
Building and facilities
DansBrabant is located in Tilburg, a former textile city in the south of the Netherlands with 220,000 inhabitants and a large student population. In the middle of the city centre, DansBrabant had an office and a studio space in the mansion that is part of Theater De Nieuwe Vorst. The theatre with which DansBrabant works closely together has a well-equipped flat floor auditorium with 144 seats and a small auditorium with a visitor capacity of 60. DansBrabant also regularly uses the many other spaces in the theatre as presentation space.
At the beginning of March 2020 DansBrabant moved its base to Club SoDa (it’s name comes from Southern Dance and southern hospitality), a place with studio, office, work- and storage space, at a ten minutes walk from Theater De Nieuwe Vorst and the train station, and also located in the city centre.
With Club SoDa, DansBrabant has turned its former annex into a dynamic place for meeting and exchange. In addition to the meeting space with flex workstations for those who want to, there are opportunities to show work-in-progress and organise studio presentations. In Club SoDa DansBrabant stimulates an active dialogue with the audience and interdisciplinary meetings.
Picture: flex workspaces at Club SoDa, copyright Annelies Verhelst.
This open-access glossary is the result of a collaboration between six European contemporary dance organisations exploring micro and macro dramaturgy in dance as a creative and socially conscious practice.
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