About our danshouse 

Ending the Artistic Status Quo

In doing all this, Danshuis Station Zuid is ending the artistic status quo that has for some years now been hindering innovation in Dutch dance culture, which in itself is of a high standard. To achieve this, it operates on the cutting edge between tradition and innovation in order to maintain the good in choosing truly new paths. Aside from ‘high art’, it creates ‘new art’, feeding in part on artistic and social impulses from outside the current dance culture. This will challenge not only existing, slightly ageing audience groups, but by contrast, also young people who will often pass over (dance for) the theatre in their leisure time consumption, culturally omnivorous as they are. Artistic quality is our leading principle in achieving this goal; a sensibility to form, professional skill, innovation and authenticity are our core values.

Mission:  Being a Dynamo for Development

Based on this view, it is Danshuis Station Zuid’s mission to be an ‘initiator for the development and production of contemporary dance, emphasising artistic quality and audience development’. This means: ‘presenting, facilitating and developing various dance projects from the Dutch South and interacting with the surrounding area on a collaborative basis’. Our Dance House aims to build bridges between dance tradition and contemporary dance forms, technologies and creative industries, expressly seeking the connection with a new and younger audience that has inevitably developed different codes and conventions for its cultural consumption.

Aiming for the Heart

Departing from its core values connectivity, diversity and quality, Danshuis Station Zuid aims for the heart of each visitor with a parallel supply of ‘high’ and ‘new art’. To put it differently: with a two-track policy in which we will not only work hard on the more traditional productions but also on the research into and the development of new products. So from the breeding grounds for talent that we have been cultivating at Danshuis Station Zuid, we are looking beyond the borders, literally as well.

Dance Delta

To conclude: Danshuis Station Zuid reinforcing both supply and demand in dance. It is not only a breeding ground for dance artists, but for dance audiences as well. To perform well in both areas it has been ensuring a creative and professional dance environment, investing as a dance developer in talent development, artistic innovation, and audience development, and forging all kinds of connections: between amateurs and dance professionals, between dance artists and other professional art disciplines, between existing audiences and new ones, and especially also between the many international artistic movements that flow into and join up in our Southern Dutch dance delta.