Dansers Opera Ballet Vlaanderen

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (OBV) presents opera, ballet, music and dance theater as current and living art forms. The house focuses on the great works from the opera and dance history, on contemporary creations and rediscovered masterpieces. In 2014, Opera Vlaanderen merged with Ballet Vlaanderen, which was founded in 1969 by Jeanne Brabants. She was succeeded as artistic director by Valery Panov, Robert Denvers, Kathryn Bennetts, Assis Carreiro, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Each of them gave a very individual artistic interpretation of what ballet can mean. What they all had in common was a desire for a diverse program. That also characterizes the policy of Jan Vandenhouwe, the current artistic director of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Key points in his ballet programming are the stylistic flexibility from classical ballet to contemporary dance, passing on contemporary Flemish dance heritage to a new generation and creating hybrid productions in which opera and ballet merge. He will be collaborating with three associate artists: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jan Martens and Jermaine Spivey in the coming years.