Dancing on the Edge Foundation

Dancing on the Edge is a non-profit, project-based organization which stimulates artistic exchange with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region). The focus is on contemporary art of high artistic quality, often by a young generation of artists searching for new cosmopolitan Middle-Eastern art forms, working with contemporary themes and looking for links to socially relevant subjects. These subjects are also of immediate relevance in Europe, particularly in the metropolitan areas.
The performances, exhibitions and other activities are interesting to audiences everywhere including the regular dance and theatergoers, but also to a new public with an affinity to the region through interest or heritage. While the high point of the activities is a biennial festival held in a number of Dutch cities, Dancing on the Edge also arranges performance tours, training programs, workshops, artistic residencies, co-productions, educational programs, film screenings, symposiums, debates and other activities throughout the year.
These are categorized under 4 headings: ‘Festival’, ‘Exchange’, ‘Academy’ and ‘Programming’ and take place in The Netherlands, Europe and in the MENA region itself. Dancing on the Edge collaborates with a wide range of partner organizations in order to increase synergy and efficiency, but works itself with limited overheads. Dancing on the Edge is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and exists since 2006. Vision: Dancing on the Edge believes in the power of art and culture to address issues. Art can ask questions, bring people together and offer new views to break through ingrained patterns. In today’s globalized world, questions of identity and diversity are the order of the day, and the arts can address these questions through different, exciting viewpoints and collaborations. Sometimes, art also aims to be contentious and painful, and to point out the power of difference, helping to form a more subtle and informed view of the world. While generating mutual understanding, encounters between different forms of art and culture can also enrich and strengthen the national and international arts sector. Dancing on the Edge stresses the possibility of adding variety to Western art forms by introducing art from the Middle East and North Africa. This creates exciting and contemporary variations on its intercultural heritage.