Business director Jan Baanstra will leave Silence in autumn 2024. His successor will be recruited soon. Baanstra has been with the company since 2003.
In 2008, Baanstra was appointed business director at de Stilte. Under his leadership, in collaboration with artistic director Jack Timmermans, de Stilte was included as the only newcomer in the Basic Infrastructure in 2009. It also organised the first edition of the International Silence Festival in 2011, which now goes by the name BRIK. After the cuts of the first Rutte government, de Stilte received eight years of structural funding from the Performing Arts Fund to return to the national BIS in 2021.
The company has become a fixture in the youth performing arts scene in the Netherlands and has been one of the most internationalised companies in the country for years.
Baanstra looks back fondly on the past 21 years: 'I carry Silence in my heart and consider myself lucky to have been part of a fine team of people who share a passion to change the world with dance for children. I am now making way for a successor who, together with the team, dancers and festival, will continue to put dance for children on the map. I will miss this wonderful company!'
Irène Verkuylen, chair of the Supervisory Board of Silence: 'Jan Baanstra has devoted himself enthusiastically and with great expertise to the growth and professionalisation of Silence for the past 21 years. We are very grateful to him for that.'
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