I was very surprised to hear about the plans of the city of Aarhus to move the internationally renowned Bora Bora dance house, which is extremely important for the Danish dance scene, to smaller rooms that are unsuitable for dance as an art form.
Dance productions need adequate spaces, both for rehearsals and as a stage, that are not only large and high and free of pillars, but also have sensible floors that protects the joints and bones of dancers.
The city's apparent proposal to move Bora Bora shows an obvious ignorance of the structural necessities of dance as an art form, its social, political and artistic potential especially in a socites that is becoming more diverse, and the importance of Bora Bora in relation to the local dance scene, within Denmark and Scandinavia, and in the European context.
As a member of the European Dancehouse Network, Bora Bora is an important partner in the dance scene, having built and developed many successful and innovative programmes, supports artists in their careers and develops audiences for dance. The growing dance audience, in turn, also wants to experience dance on stages that can present dance productions in an adequate way.
I therefore very much hope that the Aarhus municipality will reconsider and reverse this damaging step for the art form of dance.