Joost Vrouenraets
Joost Vrouenraets was born in the Netherlands and studied at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. He then trained at the Rudra Béjart School in Lausanne before joining Maurice Béjart‘s Compagnie M and later the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in 2004.
In 2005, he founded Gotra Ballet with his dance partner, Maïté Guérin. His company has been invited to perform at many schools, companies, and European festivals. During Gotra’s 13 years of activity, the choreographer created nearly 89 ballets.
Joost Vrouenraets has been invited all over the world by other companies as a guest choreographer. In 2009, he created his first work, Ex Orbis, for the Béjart Ballet Lausanne at the request of Gil Roman. His career is marked by major works: The Rite of Spring (Southern Methodist University Dallas, 2013), Schwarze Heimat (commissioned by Nanine Linning for the Stadttheater in Osnabrück, 2011), Heroes Quest, a recital in collaboration with Steinway pianist Gloria Campaner (Borletti-Buitoni Trust & Renzo Piano Theater l’Aquila, 2014), West Side Story (Theater Aachen, 2014), and Fall of a sparrow (SCAPINO Ballet Rotterdam, 2021). He has been invited by the Vietnamese company Ho Chin Minh Ballet every year since 2017.
His choreographic work is very diverse. In 2015, he created Kokoro, a dance marathon he performs himself: he danced this solo from Heerlen to Maastricht, two cities in the Netherlands, over 29 km and for almost nine hours. From March 2020, during the pandemic, he collaborated with David Peskens, a photographer for National Geographic. Their Red Circles project led them to perform in all 352 Dutch municipalities.
In 2008, he received the “Most Promising Choreographer” award at the prestigious Dutch Dance Days in Maastricht. Five years later, he was awarded the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation’s Inspiration Award and ranked 5th at Best Cultural Event (USA) for his creation The Rite of Spring. In 2017, he was nominated for a Silver Camera for his collaboration with photographer David Peskens and was awarded the 1st prize at the World Champion Ship (WMC Kerkrade) for The Rite of Spring.
In 2019, he received a master’s degree in Body Movement Co-creation. During this time, he worked on the relationship between the spine, Hamlet (Shakespeare, 1601) and L’Histoire de la folie (Michel Foucault, 1961).
In 2022, he created Bye bye baby blackbird for the Béjart Ballet Lausanne.
