In seven years, the dance program at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland has developed into one of the leading academies for contemporary dance in Europe. The program of both the undergraduate and graduate programs was shaped - at the invitation of the college - by Holland Dance Festival director Samuel Wuersten, Swiss by birth.
For the first time in the Netherlands
For the first time, the dance talents selected from around the world from the Swiss bachelor's program are now performing in the Netherlands. Especially for this occasion, a program has been put together with creations by choreographers working in the Netherlands - and particularly in The Hague - in order to give an extra stimulus to talent development and international exchange, two pillars that Holland Dance Festival has been promoting for years.
Deepening and refining
In 2014, Hague-based Isabelle Chaffaud and Jérôme Meyer created the first choreography for the then newly established dance school in Zurich. They now re-study this highly varied and successful collage work, From Zurich with Love, and in addition they create a new duet. The program also includes a duet by Neel Verdoorn from The Hague. She is known for her extremely musical movement language and for constantly challenging young dancers to further deepen and refine their qualities.
Very own movement vocabulary
The fourth contribution in the program comes from Serbian-Dutch Dunja Jocic, winner of the Zwaan for “Most impressive dance production 2021,” who is creating a new group work for the young dancers in Zurich. Jocic, who first made her name in the Netherlands as a dancer with the Groningen-based Club Guy & Roni, developed into a striking choreography talent in recent years. Her work has a very specific movement style, but is at the same time extremely theatrical. Frenchman Antonin Rioche - partly trained in Switzerland and a regular choreographer at The Hague's Korzo Theater since 2017 - is also creating a new group work for the young dancers, in which, because of Rioche's very own movement vocabulary, they will be challenged in a completely different way again.
