Rotterdam, December 8, 2009

Ton Simons to leave Dance works Rotterdam; André Gingras will become the new artistic director

On 1 March 2010, Ton Simons will leave Dance Works Rotterdam as artistic director. Simons indicated to the board of the company that he felt the time had come to search for a successor. The changed subsidy circumstances of the company underlie Simons’ decision. These circumstances require a new artistic policy. The board of DWR has looked for an artistic director who fits these circumstances. They found an ideal partner in choreographer André Gingras.

New direction for Dance Works Rotterdam
Simons has proved himself to be a master in pure, autonomous dance. He invited renowned and experimental guest choreographers for the company’s repertory and augmented the diversity of the Dutch dance scene.
With André Gingras the company enters a new artistic phase. Gingras puts contemporary dance in a social context: he brings important (moral) dilemmas into the theatre with energetic and raw dance. He strongly emphasizes collaboration and dialogue with organisations that are active in architecture, science, technology and city culture. His international network and experience will give the company a new impulse, with which Gingras intends to contribute to the (international) reputation of the city of Rotterdam.

Ton Simons
Ton Simons received his dance education in Rotterdam and in New York with Merce Cunningham. After dancing for three years with Werkcentrum Dans in the Netherlands he returned to New York in 1978 where he founded his own company, Ton Simons and Dancers, producing annual seasons in New York City and performing at major international festivals. In 1999 he became the artistic director of The Rotterdam Dance Company which he renamed Dance Works Rotterdam. Simons’ choreographies have been performed in the repertory of, amongst others: The Colorado Repertory Dance Company, Repertory Arts Movement St. Louis, The Washington Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Komische Oper Berlin.
Awards he has received include: The Merit Award (Stichting Dansersfonds '79, 2004), the Sonia Gaskell Prize from the City of Amsterdam (1997), a Choreographer’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992 and 1993), an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (1991) and the Dutch Choreography Prize (VSCD, 1990).

André Gingras
Canadian-born André Gingras studied theater, literature and contemporary dance in Toronto, Montreal and New York City. In 1996 Gingras became a regular member of Robert Wilson’s creative team. His first stage work, the award winning production CYP17 (2000), marked immediately his international breakthrough. An extensive tour throughout the Netherlands was followed by numerous invitations from festivals and theatres in Europe, India and North America. In 2002, Gingras collaborated as a choreographer for Peter Stein's production Penthesilea. Later productions such as The Sweet Flesh Room (2002), The Lindenmeyer System (2004) and The Autopsy Project (2007) toured successfully around the world.
As a guest choreographer, Gingras worked with the Rambert Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater 1, Staatstheater Nürnberg and Tanztheater Bielefeld. At the moment he is touring with Hypertopia in China and his production Idoru (2009) and Monsterz (Meekers, 2009) are touring in the Netherlands.