Dans Brabant

© Anna van Kooij

Nienke Rooijakkers succeeds Lisa Reinheimer as artistic leader of DansBrabant.

Nienke Rooijakkers will succeed Lisa Reinheimer in the position of artistic leader as of November 1, 2022. Lisa has been artistic coordinator at DansBrabant for the past 2.5 years. Together with general director Wim van Stam, the team and the artists, Lisa searched for new pathways for new dance and was able to connect dance more firmly with society by building local communities, linking dance and care and actively participating in international exchanges between European dance houses.

DansBrabant wishes Lisa a lot of fun and success in Rotterdam in her new position as director at Dansateliers and warmly welcomes Nienke Rooijakkers who, in her role as new artistic director, will continue the plan of making DansBrabant a more artist-driven organization.

Wim van Stam: “Nienke Rooijakkers has been involved with DansBrabant from the sidelines for some time. She coached various choreographers and also gave feedback to others. She also thought and wrote the first plans for involving artists in the artistic policy of DansBrabant. We know Nienke as a careful observer and innovative spirit. She has broad experience with various disciplines and a warm personality. We are building with her on the future of DansBrabant with confidence. The first artist to take on the role of co-thinker about the artistic direction is the Fleming Karel Tuytschaever.”

Nienke Rooijakkers: “I have a great love for theater that colors outside the lines. Dance, movement, body: A language that communicates directly and does not care much about any narrow-mindedness.”

“In the coming period, building on the path that has been taken, I will work together within the team on a sustainable story for the future of DansBrabant: an organization in which the voice of the artist resounds strongly and which offers an open space for research, meeting, exchange and experiment.”

Nienke Rooijakkers has a background as a theater maker and dramaturg. After her studies at the theater school of the Amsterdam School of the Arts, she followed DasArts, the master’s program of the same university. Over the past 10 years, Nienke has increasingly focused on dramaturgy, coaching and talent development. Until now she worked at Cinedans, an international platform for dance film. Together with Martine Dekker she developed Cinedans LAB, the education and talent development division. For this she designed teaching programmes, workshops and research trajectories for students and professionals, which she also led for the most part. In recent years she got to know the Dutch dance schools – and their students – up close. In addition to her work at Cinedans, Nienke is coordinator at the Performance Technology Lab, a workplace and research place for performing artists who want to involve technology in their creative practice. Nienke succeeds Lisa Reinheimer, who will start in Rotterdam on 14 November as director of Dansateliers and in her new position will continue to work hard for a polyphonic dance field, with trust and solidarity as the underlying motto.

DansBrabant:
DansBrabant works on long-term sustainability and supports talented choreographers in developing a hybrid and future-proof position in the regional and (inter)national dance field. As a development institution, DansBrabant works on a vital dance climate and opens challenging and diverse perspectives in dance. DansBrabant works intensively on diverse projects within local, regional and (inter)national networks and partnerships.