GRIP
GRIP is a choreographic platform under the direction of choreographer and dancer Jan Martens and business manager and coordinator Klaartje Oerlemans.
GRIP produces and supports in the first place the work of choreographer and maker Jan Martens, who quickly made himself a name in the performing arts field by following an intense, international and non-conventional parcours. His performances play in that grey zone between concrete stories and abstract concepts. The focus often lies on people who try to find their way through life, showing both vulnerability and strength.
GRIP furthermore endorses four choreographers in developing their artistic trajectory: Bára Sigfúsdóttir, Steven Michel, Cherish Menzo and Michele Rizzo. The artistic director and business manager decide jointly what artists join GRIP. In doing so they seek to reflect and broaden the diversity and variation in the landscape of contemporary dance and performance.
Besides the dance makers there are five supporters: a business manager and coordinator (Klaartje Oerlemans), a production supervisor and tour manager (Sylvie Svanberg), a production intern (Marie Luyten), a communications manager (Sam Loncke) and an advisor and house dramaturge (Rudi Meulemans) who acts as a sounding board for the makers, independently from the production dramaturges. There are also a number of freelance collaborators, among them a rehearsal director, production dramaturges and indeed the dancers and performers.
GRIP is a nomadic structure. GRIP does not have a studio of its own, but makes use of the existing infrastructure in the performing arts landscape by forging alliances with theatres, co-producers, production companies and residency venues. The creations always emerge in different spaces and in interaction with the different professional contexts.
GRIP is active in several countries. GRIP is a non-profit association based in Antwerp and in Rotterdam. GRIP receives structural subsidies from the Government of Flanders (2017-2021) and has several international co-producers as well as many partners in Europe and North America.
