Nederlandse Dansdagen: experience the rich world of Dutch dance

The festival opens on Friday evening with the Nederlandse Dansdagen Gala, where the country's most important dance awards will be presented. The Innovation Award Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht gives an impulse to emerging talent, and groundbreaking top performances are celebrated with the VSCD's prestigious Swans and Young Swans. This festive evening will be framed by special performances by former award winners, leading creators and surprising guests. The gala will be presented by Anna Drijver. 

Meesterwerken, presented by choreographer/cabaret artist Mouna Laroussi on Saturday evening is the only moment in the year when four top Dutch companies can be seen on one stage: Het Nationale Ballet, Scapino Ballet, Introdans and Nederlands Dans Theater. 

A whole week in the Danstent                          

For the third year, the Danstent returns to the Vrijthof and for the first time this special mirror tent will remain in place throughout the festival. The meeting place for dance lovers and the stage for everyone who wants to dance, battle, club or enjoy dance up close. This time, in addition to daytime workshops, there will be evenings for salsa, tango, line dancing and lindy hop. 
The Nederlandse Dansdagen will also organize an experimental hip-hop battle here, together with the Open Your Mind festival (Eindhoven) and The Notorious IBE (Heerlen). Seventeen dance schools from Limburg will present themselves at the annual Open Podium, there will be a special edition of Dansen in het Park for the elderly and you can attend a wheelchair dance workshop. 

Close to the skin

An important mission of the Nederlandse Dansdagen is to bring dance closer and let audiences experience the art form in different ways. Therefore, on Saturday, October 5, the attractive Sint Janskerk on the Vrijthof will be transformed for a day into a place where dance is presented in its purest form, close to the skin of the performers. Part of the program is devoted to Limburg creators, part to remarkable performances that, despite their eye-catching quality, have hardly ever been seen in the Netherlands. 

Premières during the Dansdagen

DANSLOKAAL is Conny Janssen Danst's annual talent development project in collaboration with Korzo and Dansateliers, in which talented makers are invited to develop new work with the dancers of the Rotterdam company. After its premiere during the Nederlandse Dansdagen and a series of performances at the Conny Janssen Danst House in Rotterdam, DANSLOKAAL 12 will tour various theaters in the Netherlands.   

In Alphabets of Flesh, choreographer Roshanak Morrowatian makes tangible what it is like to be a body in diaspora. Using choreography, language, music and video art, she creates a temporary (t)home for three performers who have left their homeland and within which they relate to their fragmented experience of time and space. A special version will take place Oct. 10 at the Bonnefantenmuseum, when the performance will be presented amid the works of Polish artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, whose work focuses on the celebration of Roma identity, interweaving the mythical with the everyday. 

Winner of the Innovation Award Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht 2023, Junadry Leocaria, will show the autobiographical duet Mi Pret'i Wowo (my eye apple). As research for the work, the choreographer traveled with her father - who was a professional dancer - to Nigeria, the country where part of her roots lie. 

The Ruggeds and Ghetto Funk Collective 

During the swinging dance concert GROOVE on Sunday afternoon, The Ruggeds, voted best hip-hop crew in the world last year, and Ghetto Funk Collective dive back in time 50 years. They take the festival audience on a journey through the evolution of funk & soul, with music from the era of James Brown, Aretha Franklin & Marvin Gaye. During the afterparty in the foyer of Theater aan het Vrijthof, Leroy Rey aka El Rey will present his vision of the roots of hip-hop.  

Motus Mori RELIQUIEM  

In collaboration with Bureau Europa and Marres, Nederlandse Dansdagen brings Katja Heitmann's special project Motus Mori RELIQUIEM to Maastricht. In RELIQUIEM you experience other people's motives in the most direct and penetrating way possible: through your body. In an intimate ritual, you put yourself in the shoes of the archive's many contributors and incorporate their personal "movement relics" into your movement repertoire.  
Motus Mori RELIQUIEM will be presented daily from October 5 to 10 at Bureau Europa.  

 Dansdagen for professionals 

The Nederlandse Dansdagen will organize a large number of debates, roundtable discussions and networking moments for dance professionals during the festival, always in close collaboration with partners in the dance field, including Podiumkunst.net and the Allard Pierson (archiving), the Jeroen Bosch Hospital (dance medicine), the Kunstenbond (fair practice/fair payment), the Urban Dance Days (burning issues in hip-hop), Huis voor de Kunsten (MBO dance education) and ICK Amsterdam (dance research), among others. The full professionals program will be on our website starting August 26.  

Practical 

The Nederlandse Dansdagen will take place from Friday, October 4 through Thursday, October 10, 2024. Tickets for part of the program go on sale May 18. The full program will be announced on August 26, after which sales for the entire festival program will start on August 31. See nederlandsedansdagen.nl.   

Can't make it to Maastricht or can't get enough of dance? Then follow Op Pad met Redo, in which Redouan Ait Chitt (known from Project Dans on NPO 1) reports on the performances for the fifth year in a row, offers a look behind the scenes and interviews artists. To follow via the website. You can also register for the online program on the website from now on. 

• Picture 1, photography by Altin Kaftira
• Picture 2, photography by Sjoerd Derine
• Picture 3, photography by Emile Vrolijk
• Picture 4, photography by MaisonRowena