Dance, movement, expression, performance
Passerelle is a cultural educational organization, officially recognised and structurally funded by the Flemish government. We offer children and young people the opportunity to get to know, delve into and be surprised by contemporary dance. By bringing them together with diverse professional artists, Passerelle turns them into co-owners of the Flemish contemporary dance scene. Over the past three years, we have engaged more than 50 different coaches, who represent the diversity of the Flemish contemporary dance landscape (e.g. Rosas, les Ballets C de la B, P.A.R.T.S., Eastman,…).
Passerelle offers a range of high-quality, tailor-made activities for both educational and recreational contexts, covering the whole of Flanders. We strongly encourage cross-overs between experienced and non-experienced dancers. As we aim to have a long-lasting impact on participants, sector and society, we prefer participatory, long-term projects in which we can share our knowledge of dance education with partners and policy makers. Over the past few years, Passerelle has developed a great deal of expertise in working with socially vulnerable young people.
Below we briefly summarize a few specific examples of our knowledge-sharing, performances and projects.
Our website is only available in Dutch. However, don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested in collaborating with Passerelle. We are always happy to share more information with you. You can reach us at info@passerellevzw.be, or send an email to our general coordinator Pol Coussement (pol.coussement@passerellevzw.be).
Knowledge sharing
Ramon Aboitiz Foundation meets Belgian partners
International Dance Pedagogy Conference
What’s your move
Performances
Between you and me
17 semanas de dança
Death in the Count of 9
Projects
Through the Grapevine XS
A cross-border collaboration between a Flemish and a French school
Young & Furious
Practice guide
social-sports work
The UGent chair Frans Verheeke published testimonials of 125 social-sports workers from all over the country about their visions, needs and dreams. Pol Coussement testified about his experiences and insights.
Mission
Passerelle believes in the power of artists and puts a face to contemporary dance, its artists and methodologies. Dance education and artistic skill go hand in hand.
We help to develop talent in children, young people, coaches, organisations and their environments and make them move. This is done in a challenging but accessible way, tailored to the young person’s context.
Our focus is on the personal experience of dance and co-ownership of all participants. If you can feel it, you can embody it!
Together with the choreographer, young people engage in an inspiring creative dialogue. That way, they acquire artistic and generic competences which make them stand stronger. Agility and resilience.
Passerelle often cooperates with other socio-cultural organizations and schools, but also offers a wide range of workshops during leisure time.
Vision
Passerelle takes time to create depth and to make ideas more comprehensible. We do not teach dance classes, but seek to offer young people insights. We make them move, drawing from their own talents. That’s why we invest in time as well as in-depth processes rather than the quick bite. Our artistic and pedagogic vision complies with Dēmos’ model of ‘participatory art practices’, based on the following four core qualities:
- Participatory: We expect commitment and input from our participants. This makes young people grow, both artistically and on a personal level. It stimulates them to take ownership of the process.
- Contextual: Our practice breaks down barriers and rigid structures, and reaches those groups for whom arts education is not self-evident. We create smart contexts and include young people’s social environments in the overall story. Passerelle educates, connects and expands horizons.
- Artistic: Our coaches’ artistic skills make up the essential foundation of our activities. Because of their approach, young people discover, learn to think creatively out-of-the-box and develop themselves through physical expression. Passerelle works with a large team of coaches who represent a unique mirror of the Flemish contemporary dance scene.
- Transformative: Passerelle has an impact on the participant and his or her environment. However, we prefer the term ‘enduring’ over ‘transformative’. Each project has an enduring impact on the individual, the organisations involved and their environment.
Passerelle is constantly expanding by developing new types of dance education in Flanders, possible collaborations with other socio-cultural partners and inspiring cross-overs between different art disciplines. The organisation stands for an optimal artistic and personal experience of each participant.
Passerelle finds it important to respect everyone’s freedom of opinion, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion or convictions. We treat everyone equally and think each culture is an enrichment for society. Therefore, we make sure to provide everyone with the best possible opportunities for self-development, irrespective of their origins. We think openness is an extremely important value and consider freedom of speech a fundamental aspect of our daily activities.
About us
The driving force behind Passerelle is a small team of employees, supported by a wide group of freelancers and volunteers. Important decisions are taken by the board of directors and the general assembly.
Employees (in alphabetical order)
Judith Clijsers
Artistic Coordinator
judith.clijsters@passerellevzw.be
Pol Coussement
General Coordinator
pol.coussement@passerellevzw.be
Joke Swennen
Administration / Office Manager Genk
joke.swennen@passerellevzw.be
Koen Moerman
Administration / Buda tower
koen.moerman@passerellevzw.be
Sabine Vanhoutte
Administration / Office Manager Kortrijk
sabine.vanhoutte@passerellevzw.be
Elise Willaert
Communication
elise.willaert@passerellevzw.be
Contact
Where to find Passerelle vzw?
Passerelle vzw, platform for young dancers
Kapucijnenstraat 10
B-8500 Kortrijk
T. +32 56 25 50 77
F. +32 57 61 22 26
C-Mine 10 bus 1
3600 Genk
089 21 72 16
E. info@passerellevzw.be
https://www.passerellevzw.be
Feel free to get in touch
Call us during office hours from 09:30 until 16:30 at +32 56 25 50 77 or send us an email at info@passerellevzw.be.
You can reach our general coordinator Pol Coussement at pol.coussement@passerellevzw.be.