19th July 2024 – Despite their artistic value and important public function, Holland Dance Festival, Kalpanarts, OFFprojects and Another Kind of Blue have not received a multi-year subsidy from the Performing Arts Fund for the period 2025 – 2028. This is a threat to The Hague’s Dance City.
Holland Dance Festival, Kalpanarts, OFFprojects and Another Kind of Blue sounded the alarm and yesterday, Thursday, July 18th, The Hague councilor for Finance, Culture and Economy Saskia Bruines sent an urgent letter in which they jointly express their concerns about the future of the companies and the dance infrastructure in The Hague.
The success of The Hague Dance City
‘The Hague Dance City’ is viewed with admiration nationally and internationally. Holland Dance Festival, Kalpanarts, OFFprojects and Another Kind Of Blue ensure a healthy, flourishing and sustainable dance climate and each play an important role in The Hague’s cultural landscape. They contribute to the appearance and impact of The Hague, the city of dance, peace and justice. This is essential for the cultural vitality and social cohesion of The Hague.
The cutbacks of the Performing Arts Fund mean a major impoverishment for the dance sector in The Hague and for the entire dance chain. This loss not only limits diversity and innovation in the dance sector, but also reduces opportunities for the development of a rich cultural ecosystem in the city. It leads to capital destruction and is harmful to The Hague’s economy. Removing one building block from this ecosystem can cause the whole to collapse, with serious consequences for the dance climate, flow within the field, talent development and creativity in the city.
Councilor Bruines is desperately needed
With the urgent letter, the four institutions request Councilor Bruines to defend and safeguard The Hague’s strong dance profile by finding a suitable solution. The modest amount of €905,000 has saved the survival of four dance institutions in The Hague. The management of The Hague institutions Amare, Korzo, Nederlands Dans Theater and the Royal Conservatory endorse the urgent letter.
Willemijn Maas, business director of Nederlands Dans Theater: “As a dance company based in the basic infrastructure in The Hague, we recognize the crucial role that companies such as OFFprojects, Kalpanarts and Another Kind of Blue, as well as Holland Dance Festival, play in strengthening the dance landscape of our city. The preservation of these companies and the festival is essential to guarantee The Hague’s position as a leading dance city in the Netherlands. It is therefore worrying that the Performing Arts Fund is undermining the support of the Municipality of The Hague to the dance sector by cutting back on these important players. .”
Gemma Jelier, general manager Korzo & Leontien Wiering, general manager Amare: “The Hague has developed into the dance city of the Netherlands, with a unique collaboration between various organizations. The municipality states that it wants to maintain and improve the strong dance profile of The Hague. This also includes the current dance infrastructure that provides space for (international) excellence, good dance programming on large and smaller stages, experimentation and (top) talent development, education and social connections. The title ‘The Hague Dance City’ is proudly worn by us all This creates a stark contrast with reality. We call on the municipality to continue to support the dance infrastructure and the strong dance profile of The Hague and to contact the Performing Arts Fund to defend the budget for The Hague’s dance sector.”
Geographical distribution
The Performing Arts Fund advises on various criteria, including geographical distribution. However, the system used creates skewed relationships. If you are located in The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht or Rotterdam (G4), you get 0 points. This method of assessment should promote a better spread in the performing arts, but results in zero dance companies in The Hague and the loss of an international dance festival. And that in the third largest city in the Netherlands. The Hague will now be the only city within the G4 without FPK-funded dance companies. It is remarkable that, for example, in a city like Tilburg, with less than 50% of the population of The Hague, it falls outside the G4 and three dance companies have been honored there.
Due to the lack of points on this criterion, G4 institutions are missing out on essential points. For Kalpanarts, who ended up just below the financial cut-off point with a positive recommendation during the assessment, this could even have made the difference between financing or not. The municipality of The Hague did honour the plans of the four institutions, but these amounts are insufficient to keep a fully-fledged institution alive.
