Mission statement

Dance Day strives towards a durable support for (contemporary) dance in Flanders and Brussels to safeguard the prominent position of dance that Belgium occupies at an international level. This is to protect the legacy of the previous and present generations of choreographers and performers as well as to offer the new generation the opportunity to fully develop themselves. By bringing more attention to dance in our own region, we hope to be able to offer dancers and choreographers the necessary facilities, advice, venues to perform and training.

The mission statement is based on four important pillars on which we focus upon:

  1. Visibility & distribution

  2. Connection & gathering

  3. Bridge professionial-amateur field

  4. ‘Deproblamise’ dance

  1. Visibility & distribution

    Kanaries in Actie vzw wants to make dance more known and loved. It strives for greater support for the art of dance among a broader and more diverse audience in Flanders and Brussels. Over time, this builds on higher public attendance, more performance opportunities for dance and offers an answer to the 'distribution problem' of dance in her own region. In addition to making the public more familiar with 'dance', Kanaries in Actie sensitises programmers of cultural houses about the spread of dance. In the long term, we want to become a point of contact and information for programmers in Flanders and Brussels and encourage them to program more dance at a local level. We enter into a dialogue with them about what prevents them from programming dance and how Kanaries in Actie can make a difference in this regard.

  2. Connection & gathering

    Kanaries in Actie vzw is convinced of the power of dance and carries it out. Dance as a lever for community building is the basis of its activities. It strives for the recognition, anchoring and appreciation of dance and contributes to the development of a healthy, transparent, innovative and diverse dance field. On the one hand, we want to bring dance to the audience, regardless of age, background and (dance) experience. On the other hand, we want to connect the field more strongly and bring together different perspectives from the dance field - educational, artistic, programmer, etc. - and allow them to enter into dialogue with each other. By opting for (dance) encounters, Kanaries in Actie hopes to make the hearts of those who are not yet familiar with dance beat faster.

  3. Bridge professional-amateur field

    Kanaries in Actie vzw stimulates collaborations between non-professional and professional circuits. The gap between the amateur and the professional dance is (too) big. Dance is a widespread art form practised by many, yet professional stage dance evokes connotations such as 'difficult', 'elitist' and 'hermetic' for many. Despite the high number of dance schools, dance students in part time art education or dance enthusiasts, too few amateurs find their way to a professional performance as a spectator. We try to bridge this gap through projects such as Dance Day and Hit the Stage in collaboration with various partners.

  4. ‘Deproblematiseren’ dance

    Kanaries in Actie vzw wants to ‘deproblemise’ dance. Dance is sometimes labelled as elitist, complex, difficult, hermetic, abstract, inaccessible. It is contradictory that for wordless medium, the words we use are so important. Exactly that is what makes communication about dance so complex. We want to show through events as Dance Day and Hit the Stage, by bringing dance to the audience, that dance does not have to be difficult or complex. Together with the dance field and art educational partners, we think about how we can make dance more accessible to the public.