Support to Choreographic Center Archauz

I must admit, I am confused!!!

Tuesday June 2nd I opened my mail to find a mail from the Aarhus based choreographic center ARCHAUZ - normally I open these, smile and think YES! - yet another great initiativ - or... nice work Louise, or great performance, or great dancecompany - how did you manage to get them here?!

But, for the art of everyone to follow the story then - lets start with the beginning...

3 months ago there was chaos in the pond aka the dance invironment in our city. The artistic director of the choreographic heart of our city ARCHAUZ, Jens Bjerregaard, had from one day to the other quit his job and the question was what will happen with Archauz now?!
Quickly they temporarely appointed Aarhus choreographer and dancer Louise Friis as artistic director, and plans were from the government point of view, that in June there should be a meeting of what to do from then.

Within no time the dancescene in Aarhus opened up for ideas. Louise reached out to the dance community, with a "lets play" attitude. She opened up and asked, what can we do for the scene? How can we work together instead of hiding away in each our little zone? How can we connect the art scene and not only the dance scene? - and how can we reach out to Mister and Miss's Denmark aka the people who don't normally would come and see a modern dance performance - what does it take???
After former director Jens Bjerregaard managed to use a lot of money - he didn't have, and therefor left Louise Friis with a major deficit, it is only natural that people who understand economy would think - can we make this boat not only sail but also win the race - Or will it keep using without profit.

As an institution of art it can be very defficult to make a profit, we are not as any other firm, and can not be run in a starting fase with only one or two people. Dancers, Choreographers, scenographers, musicians, technicians and more are needed to make a theatre work. And, as hard as it is to start a new company, being dance or not, it is even harder to start one, with a huge minus.
Therefor one can look at Marc Perera Chistensens arguments and say that, considering the fact that, he as the cultural alderman, doesn't know much about the rules of running a professionel dance company, and being the politician that he is, thinking of economics and city planning. - And the fact that he is basing his closing on the former board and not the present, the former budgets and not the present - thinking of all this one could, if serverly brain damaged, understand that he wants to close it.
However if the ministry for culture in Århus has it as a part of their plans that Archauz shall be in front of contemporary dance in Århus now and in the future. And also the fact that Århus plans to be the cultural capital of Denmark in 2017 , then I am bedaffled, confused and wondering - Did Marc Perera Christensen do his Research before publishing this proposal????

As it is now, I understand that the counsil doesn't agree with him and we can therefor hope that the rest of the board will vote in the favor of Archauz, when they meet on Tuesday to discuss the future of the Choreographic House.

Today the dancers of Archauz youth company together with Filomusi Productions will hid the streets of Århus - we need to get some signatures. The queen of Denmark is in town and so is the sun and therefor a bunch of people so lets cross our fingers.

Sometimes to change the world we need to start with our selves, and then we can think further.
So lets join in for this center, this house of creativity.

Check out their webpage
www.archauz.dk
and if you want send them a remark of your support...

Enjoy, the sun, the dance, have respect for your lifes and love as many as you can...
Soon news will come from and about Filomusi Productions, but first thing first, lets work together and save the professional dance community in our city :)

Smiles and Hope

Julie Brøgger
Artistic Director / Choreographer
FP