What does the future hold for Dutch dance? That’s what you discover in DANSLOKAAL: Conny Janssen Danst’s annual talent hub, where talented makers are invited to develop new work with the dancers of the Rotterdam company.
For each event artistic director Conny Janssen selects promising choreographers with diverse backgrounds in collaboration with Dansateliers and Korzo. The contributors to DANSLOKAAL 14 are:
- Lea Ved (Korzo)
- Amparo González Sola (Dansateliers)
- Maciej Kuźmiński (Conny Janssen Danst)*
In DANSLOKAAL they get the opportunity to work on the development of their own signature within the professional context of the company. The result is a surprising dance evening with three new pieces, created for and with the dancers of Conny Janssen Danst.
*Winner Conny Janssen Danst Partner Award @ Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition (RIDCC) 2025.
Lea Ved (Korzo)
— RÊVERIE
A rêverie* begins with our imagination. We hover in between, carried beyond the outlines of here. Somewhere within us is a place vast and unapologetic. We do not make sense; instead, we lose ourselves in longing, in a stormy descent. A rêverie invites us to turn inside out. We become giants, alone and together, laughing as the wind tickles – expelling the known and the forgotten in one braided blur, pouring its waves into the beauty and terror of our open sea.
*dancing, musing, the condition of being lost in thought
There is something childlike about daring to lose yourself in your thoughts, Ved knows, as she lets the children’s voices echo through the speakers once more. Almost enviable, that freedom to briefly escape into your own mind. THEATERKRANT.NL
Lea Ved has a rare ability to perceive the subtleties of everyday life and translate them into choreography that is both emotionally expressive and compositionally precise. As an artist she invites the audience to linger and to observe. Through her work, human-like themes become tangible in the language of contemporary dance. Jimmy-Pierre de Graaf (General Director Korzo)
Amparo González Sola (Dansateliers)
— WHAT DO THESE MUSCLES REMEMBER?
This performance arises from the belief that our bodies store memories of repeatedly performed movements. Not only the movements from our own lives, but also from the generations that preceded us. In this choreography, the dancers embody some of these stored memories. Repetition creates spirals and becomes a spell to bend time. And every so often, it becomes possible to encounter each other in the same beat.
The choreography is surrounded by a healthy layer of mystique, but beneath all that mystery, there is also an unbreakable connection between dancers Noor Argov Dayan, Lucrezia Minelli, and Lola Piret. Like the intricate workings of a mechanical clock, they tick, stomp, and strike their way through the dance. THEATERKRANT.NL
The work of Argentine choreographer Amparo González Sola stands out for its invitation to slow down. Through gestures and movements, she builds a physical language that revolves around muscle tension and transformation and plays with what demands attention. As an audience member, you feel your body, from the edge of your seat to floating through space and time, and you wonder: How are we here and now? Lisa Reinheimer (Director Dansateliers)
Maciej Kuźmiński (Conny Janssen Danst)
— CAN WE BE FRIENDS?
A dance meditation on AI, control, and the fragile line between creator and creation. Like a porcelain figure turning inside a music box, something captivating yet disturbing is set in motion by invisible machinery. As dancers become an uncanny presence suspended between the real and the virtual, balancing on the threshold of consciousness, the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ becomes increasingly uncertain. Caught between fascination and apprehension, we wonder: can we be friends?
With Can We Be Friends?, he has created a wonderfully timely, funny, and intelligent choreography. THEATERKRANT.NL
Social and political themes are often hidden in Maciej Kuźmiński’s work. He knows how to translate these themes and the emotions they evoke onto the stage with compassion. As a result, his performances possess intense expressive power and spark curiosity. I look forward to Maciej’s collaboration with our dancers! Conny Janssen (Artistic Director Conny Janssen Danst)
After a series of performances in the intimate setting of HUIS Conny Janssen Danst in Rotterdam, DANSLOKAAL 14 is going on tour to various theaters. This gives the loyal audience of Conny Janssen Danst the opportunity to become acquainted with the work of these young, up-and-coming choreographers, who in turn can bring their work to national attention.
Dansateliers and Korzo are the creative partners in DANSLOKAAL 14.