Dans i Nordvest
Uppercut Danseteater started Denmark’s first community dance project, “Dans i Nordvest,” in 1999 in Copenhagen’s Northwest district with support from the municipality of Copenhagen and the former Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
A so-called community dance project aims to introduce a local community to different forms of dance as a means of expression. To this end, Dans i Nordvest offers classes to children, youth, and adults in choreography and a broad range of dance styles, such as: modern dance, ballet, hip hop, break dance, street dance, jazz, zumba, and capoeira. In addition, Dans i Nordvest holds workshops at neighborhood schools in Copenhagen’s Northwest district, giving local children and youth the chance to experience dance both in their free time and during school.
Dans i Nordvest also arranges workshops and performances on a running basis in collaboration with cultural institutions in Denmark and abroad. Most recently, Dans i Nordvest has given guest performances in Brussels, Berlin, and New York. Cultural institutions like the Danish Royal Ballet, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, the Royal Library, the National Museum of Denmark, the National Gallery of Denmark, and the Danish Parliament regularly open their doors to Dans i Nordvest, granting its young dancers the opportunity to perform in new and challenging surroundings.
Dans i Nordvest is based out of Copenhagen’s Northwest district, a neighborhood with a large multiethnic population. Central to the project is the belief that dance has a positive effect on integration through its non-verbal language and its direct approach to understanding the body. Dance also opens a door to the arts, strengthens the development of the body, builds youths’ self-esteem and drive and their understanding of themselves and others.
Dans i Nordvest will change locations during the spring of 2012 to the new Dansekapel in Bispebjerg, housed in the old chapel and crematorium in Bispebjerg churchyard. The building’s renovation is made possible by grants from the municipality of Copenhagen, the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities, and Nordea-Fonden.