Performing Gender
After participating in Performing Gender: Dance makes differences (2017-2019), DansBrabant and partner Boulevard joined the three-year follow-up programme in 2020: Performing Gender - Dancing in Your Shoes, the third edition of the European project Performing Gender. With 11 partners from 9 European countries, we worked together in '22/'23 to develop and strengthen the connection between cultural dance professionals and their local communities. Each city builds its own community, with questions around gender being the central theme. The aim is to strengthen the identity of the participants and promote mutual solidarity. Exchange between the different communities is part of the larger project.
From the Netherlands, DansBrabant pulls up for DIYS with Theatre Festival Boulevard, which works from Den Bosch with its own community.
Community Tilburg
Since January '22, DansBrabant, in collaboration with performer and choreographer Nikita Maheshwary, has been working on a community of Tilburg women, diverse in terms of social and cultural background and coming from different neighbourhoods in the city. Nikita, originally from New Delhi and a graduate of Fontys' master's in Performing in Public Space, has been working and living in Tilburg since 2017. Wishing to meet other women and explore the city together, she and DansBrabant initiated 1-on-1 walks through different neighbourhoods, with Nikita Maheshwary's shoe size being the starting point. These encounters were starting points for the formation of the community.
Besides Nikita as choreographer, Lotte van Oudheusden was closely involved in the process - on a coordinating, production and artistic level. Lotte is a Tilburg-based maker, a graduate of Fontys' Theatre teacher training programme.
Friday morning sessions
Every Friday morning, the group meets with a regular core of about 10 women at DansBrabant's studio for a movement session. Leading themes are gender and empowerment. Together with Nikita, the themes are explored through dance, movement and personal stories. Knowledge is deepened, involvement in the topic and in each other is increased. The sessions always end with a joint lunch.
Guest choreographers
Last winter, two guest choreographers visited Tilburg and Den Bosch to give workshops to both groups. They included Spanish dancer, choreographer and dance teacher Javier Vaquero, as well as Slovenian choreographer Vita Osojnik. Participants from both groups reported that the workshops released a lot of energy. Saskia de Haas wrote a report on the meetings with Javier Vaquero and Vita Osojnik.
Working towards a production
Performing Gender is concluded by all communities with a production. A closing event will take place during Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch, where the different communities will meet and show each other their work. There is also the possibility to visit a city of one of the other European partners with the production and thus show the work abroad as well.
The production of the Tilburg Community:
Residu(e), what we leave behind...
From July '23, the Tilburg women's community is working towards the development of a production: Residu(e), what we leave behind... Based on personal stories and memories arising from the experiences and encounters of the past year, material is being developed.
When the group got to know each other, the main focus was on the question 'where do we come from' and themes such as caring, womanhood, freedom and limitation came up. Now that the group has become more of a community, the conversation has shifted to 'where are we going (together)' and 'what do we want to leave behind'.
Residue(s) becomes a poetic dream of a shared and multicoloured future. The motley collection of stories is interwoven with scenes about small triumphant actions. A mix of movement, spoken word and multimedia.
Last September, the community performed once at KOMMA in PARK. Even then, textiles and weaving formed choreographic starting points. Residu(e) retains this point of departure - as a starting point for both design and choreography.
Co-funded by the European Union's Creative Europe programme.