Mag ik deze dans met jou? (Can I have this dance?)
Verkenning inclusieve danseducatie voor deelnemers met MS en Parkinson
Exploration of inclusive dance education for participants with MS and Parkinson’s disease
With the cooperation of Damar Lamers and Jelle van der Leest, an exploration of inclusive dance education for participants with MS and Parkinson’s disease was completed. Damar Lamers is artistic director of the Dance in Education study programme and founder of StichtingReDiscoverMe. This Amsterdam organisation led by Damar Lamers provides contemporary dance lessons for people with and without chronic illnesses, such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. Researcher and teacher Damar Lamers is the driving force and has had multiple sclerosis for nine years, relapsing/remitting.
The inclusive dance (lesson) practices make dance accessible to everyone in society. By focusing on inclusiveness, these dance lessons contribute to the discussion about the role of (dance) art in a democratic society, as well as contributing to the personal and creative development of the participants. Inclusive dance brings society on a small scale, as it were, to the dance floor.
The social importance and the relevance of inclusiveness is broadly supported in dance education, but the fact that there is still a lack of knowledge and skills for providing inclusive dance education is also acknowledged. In addition, we have insufficient knowledge of what makes an inclusive dance lesson successful and which leaning outcomes participants and teachers experience. In this exploration, we examine whether a case study at Stichting ReDiscoverMe can provide reference points for describing inclusive dance didactics.
Read the full report Mag ik deze dans met jou? (Can I have this dance?) here.
Ik en de Ander (The Other and I)
RDM show 'Ik en de Ander' (The Other and I)
RDM online trailer
Everything is possible, as long as dare to open your eyes. The inclusive dance performance Ik en de Ander (The Other and I) invites you to look at your own body in a different way. Society still points out our apparent flaws and imperfections all too often. Ik en de Ander (The Other and I) presents you with a different approach. If your body is no longer working as society expects and demands, how do you find the strength in that case to embrace that body.
In Ik en de Ander (The Other and I), a diverse group of dancers, with and without a chronic illness and/or physical disability, shows the alternative. A setback is not the end of your aspirations. Change is the only constant in a human’s life, and can actually signify the beginning of something new. As long as you embrace it. In six duets, the dancers show how they have rediscovered the strength in their own bodies, and dare to trust in themselves and the other once again. That all merges together in a dynamic group choreography in which it doesn’t matter what kind of body you have. It’s about what you do with it.
The performance was made by Damar Lamers (artistic director and choreographer) ad Maxi Hill (choreographer). Maxi Hill is a dancer, choreographer and teacher from England, where she studied 1984/88 at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance Limited from 1984-1988 and subsequently in the Netherlands at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) of the Amsterdam University of the Arts. She is specialised in working with young people and people who cannot hear. Maxi danced with, among others, the School of Hard Knocks Company and was involved artistically with the Handtheater and youth theatre company Artisjok/Nultwintig. She has a passion for working with amateurs that she likes to see develop their movement. The emotions simplicity, honesty, rawness, passion and enjoyment are important qualities in her work.
Research into ReDiscoverMe
ReDiscoverMe took part in research into the experiences of dancers with Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis within this inclusive dance group. Read the full research here.
Carapellotti, A. M., Meijerink, H., Gravemaker-Scott, C., Thielman, L., Kool, R., Lewin, N., & Abma, T. A. (2023). Escape, expand, embrace: the transformational lived experience of rediscovering the self and the other while dancing with Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 18(1), 2143611.
Jelle van der Leest
Jelle van der Leest graduated from the Scapino Dance Academy in 1987. He has danced for Opera Forum, among others, and taught Dutch and foreign professionals and amateurs (including classical ballet to teacher training programme of the Academy of Theatre and Dance, as well as to (former) dancers of the National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater). He has had dance centres in Leiden and Zaandam. He currently teaches at the Academy of Theatre and Dance (ATD) in the study programme Dance in Education in Amsterdam.
Publications, presentations and workshops
- Carapellotti, A. M., Meijerink, H., Gravemaker-Scott, C., Thielman, L., Kool, R., Lewin, N., & Abma, T. A. (2023). Escape, expand, embrace: the transformational lived experience of rediscovering the self and the other while dancing with Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 18(1), 2143611.
- m.m.v. Lamers, D & van der Leest, J. (2022). Mag ik deze dans met jou? Amsterdam, NL: Lectoraat Kunsteducatie, Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de kunsten
- Symposium Transculturele Danspraktijken (Amsterdam, 2022). Presentatie Damar Lamers & Jelle van der Leest Mag ik deze dans met jou?
- OBA Theater (Amsterdam, 2021) Q&A Damar Lamers & Jelle van der Leest Ik en de Ander.