Monique Duurvoort

Monique Duurvoort is a Dutch choreographer with a Surinamese background. She got her dance education at the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam and performed for many years with the Dutch National Ballet. During the second lustrum of the Dutch Dance Days in 2007, Monique Duurvoort received the Prize of the Dutch Dance Days in Maastricht as the ‘most highly talented choreographer’ and for the role she plays in professionalizing urban dance. The jury called her ‘a passionate artist with an original style and an eye for detail.’ Monique now has about thirteen choreographies to her name, including work made for Dansateliers, Codarts, Fontys Dansacademy, Lucia Marthas, Don’t Hit Mama, Dansgroep Amsterdam and Het Nationale Ballet.

After several years of making productions for companies, academies and production facilities, Monique felt that the time was ripe to work on her own artistic signature. The ICK offers her a space to work in complete freedom on the development of her own movement language and also keeps opportunities for artistic feedback close at hand.

In her work Monique makes use of movement elements from urban dance styles and makes cross-overs to academic dance styles. With that she aims to contribute to the professionalism and the image of urban dance as an art form. MDDance targets a (young) adult audience and proves that the urban scene can deliver a professional diverse theatre production that appeals to a wide audience. COPE is the first performance by stichting Monique Duurvoort Dance (MDDance).