Mats & Rebecca
Artists in residence | Teacher contemporary
Nationality
Dutch
Bio
Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum are an award-winning choreographic duo. Since 2018, they have collaborated internationally, creating works that combine dance, theatre, and cinematic language.
Their last duet, CLAY, received the Club Guy & Roni Partner Award at RIDCC, the Nationaltheater Mannheim Production Award and Tanzlabor Ulm Performance Award in Hannover, and the Stray Birds Award in Taiwan. Last season, they created new work for Nationaltheater Mannheim and Club Guy & Roni’s Poetic Disasters Club. Their most recent piece, SAINTS, received a Critics’ Choice from Theaterkrant and a five-star review from de Volkskrant, which also named it one of its top five dance works of the season. In 2026, they founded ShowCrow, a dance-theater company for their creations, collaborations, and educational work.
Their research examines how reactivity and composition interact. Play is a big part of it: they’re interested in how performers can inhabit a piece and respond to what happens within it, rather than simply follow choreography. During their residency at HUIS Conny Janssen Danst, they’ll continue this research while developing new work in the studio. They’re going into a playful dialogue with the dynamic character of the beautiful city of Rotterdam.
About their class: Play in Process
Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum open the door to their creative process. Working with material from their current residency, dancers will move between guided improvisation and material the duo has already begun to develop. The tasks provide structure, but the material is there to be explored, changed and shaped together.
The class is physical, theatrical and playful, with a focus on transformation: how a shift in physical quality can change a character, suggest a story or alter the world around them. Each dancer brings something of their own to the research. It’s a chance to experience how Rebecca and Mats make work, while helping the material find new directions. They encourage curiosity and risk, valuing the attempt over perfect execution.