Mission & more
DansBrabant – stimulant and catalyst for dance and choreography – has an international orientation and is responsive to the spirit of the times. We work together with talented choreographers and are keen to create an inspiring dance climate in the Dutch province Noord-Brabant.
DansBrabant embraces the energy that this kind of cooperation generates. We explore and stimulate forms of organisation in which choreographers and companies stand strong together and strive to optimally develop their own individual artistic skills. We move actively and connectively within the triangle of production, presentation and the public, and strive to fulfil a pioneering role in experimenting with the format and climate in which we present our work.
DansBrabant places the human body at the centre of a world in motion. The body we live in; our palpable body as the carrier of all that we experience, feel, think, imagine or negate. It is always inexorably connected to ourselves, others and our surroundings. The significance that we assign to that body is variable and tells us something about the traditions, trends and developments that affect us. DansBrabant is developing a signature that encompasses dialogue, study and commitment and gives clear expression to the urgency and existential anchoring of the arts in everyday life. In recent years we have worked together with many artists including Katja Heitmann, Sabine Molenaar, Guilherme Miotto, Hilde Elbers, Arno Schuitemaker, Jan Martens, Jelena Kostic and Johnny Lloyd. In our region we work together with T.r.a.s.h., United Cowboys, Panama Pictures, Vloeistof and LeineRoebana among others.
DansBrabant is one of the partners and founders of Moving Futures, a power group combining the strengths of five Dutch talent developers who together are bringing out a new generation of choreographers by organising, among other events, the annual travelling festival Moving Futures. Moving Futures is carried by Dansmakers Amsterdam, Dansateliers, Random Collision, Generale Oost and DansBrabant. This collaboration promotes critical dialogue on talent development. The network and the festival feature in the list of ‘best practices 2016’ compiled by the European Dancehouse Network.
In addition, DansBrabant is proud partner to Studiotrade (set up in 2010 during the Tanzmesse), an idealistic European network of companies, choreographers, producers, talent developers, agents and festivals that make a low-profile international exchange possible based on alternative economic models in which the sharing of facilities and experience are central. In this context it forms a platform for sharing knowledge on the position of the arts in someone’s native country.
DansBrabant started out in 2013 and is being supported for four years by the municipality of Tilburg and the province of Noord-Brabant. To realise projects, we obtain extra funding from different funds such as the national Fonds Podiumkunsten. The new policy period starts in 2017. In the period 2017-2020 DansBrabant will continue to work closely together with internationalisation consultant Line Rousseau/A Propic and we will continue to invest in international exchanges. We do this by:
receiving artists and programmes from other countries;
creating international residency places in Brabant;
contributing to finding suitable venues for artists and their associated partners in other countries;
staging international co-productions;
participation in networking.
Regions with which we currently work together in a sustainable system of cooperation and exchange are Belgium (Flanders), Germany (NRW, Leipzig and the tanz.tausch network), and France (Théâtre de Vanves-région Rhône-Alpes). Our wish is to invest in further collaboration with Belgium (Wallonia) and France, and we are engaged in discussions with partners in Italy, Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Canada. Various companies and choreographers in our region maintain relations with Southeast Asia (China, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia).
We are of course particularly interested in finding strong and committed choreographers whose work excels and has the kind of appeal that crosses borders. No matter where they come from.