De Dansers
We are De Dansers. A dynamic band of dancers and musicians from Utrecht, led by choreographer/dancer Josephine van Rheenen and composer/musician Guy Corneille. We are known for our ‘dance concerts’: organic gatherings of modern dance and live music. Performances by De Dansers tell accessible, intuitively compelling stories about liberation and surrender, in which playful anarchism is never far to seek. We shake loose what is stuck or still where attention is needed.
De Dansers wants to inspire physicality and personal connection, especially in a society in which we increasingly live on screens. We do this by simply making contact and providing energy in everything we do. De Dansers particularly believes in the value of dance at a young age. Then your body is full of movement, asking for running, jumping, touching. Then the imagination must be able to run wild in your brain. What you miss out on as a child, you won’t make up for later. We create work that appeals to children’s zest for life and reawakens adults’ forgotten desires for surrender and physicality.
“De Dansers is a dynamic band full of raw dance poets, a young group that rocks, swings, rolls, sings, rages, sighs and rhymes.” – de Volkskrant
“We meet a pleasantly mixed cast, who create a playful and relaxed atmosphere but at the same time focus and work closely together.” – Het Parool
De Dansers is an expert in the first contact with dance and makes work for adults and children/families. We find our audience everywhere. We play at (pop) festivals with national reach and theaters throughout the country. We play many school performances in theaters and gyms, in towns and cities, in which we connect with education and sow and nourish passion for movement and creativity; and we work with partners in Utrecht in custom-made outreach projects. In this way we help build the dance audience of the future. With more than 150 performances a year, De Dansers reaches 20,900 visitors annually.
The work of De Dansers includes:
- family performances that sow a passion for movement in theaters and schools throughout the country
- performances for adults that can be seen at leading dance venues and (pop) festivals
- performances on location in full dialogue with the environment, at festivals such as Oerol and Over het IJ Festival
- international tours in our neighboring countries but also at festivals in Italy, Indonesia or America
- education in particular in the partnerships with schools in Utrecht in the context of Cultural Education with Quality. View the education offer 2024-2025 here
Josephine and Guy have made a name for themselves since 2014 with their own genre of ‘dance concert’. The far-reaching mixture of modern dance and live music touches the audience time and time again, as is also evident from various nominations and prizes (including: Gouden Krekel 2017 for Corneille’s role in The Basement, Harm Lambers Bouwsteen for Special Art in Utrecht 2022, Zilveren Krekel 2022 for Hold Your Horses, twice the choice of Wijkjury Utrecht theater season 2019-2020 and 2021-2022, two nominations for a Jonge Zwaan 2022 for VIER).
The board of De Dansers follows the Code Cultural Governance.
De Dansers receives funding from:
