HISTORY

P.A.R.T.S. was founded in 1995, with the intention to provide a pedagogical anchoring for contemporary dance in Belgium, which had started in the early 1980s and had seen a quick and strong development since then. At that time, there were only a few institutions in Europe who resolutely focused on these new artistic developments. When Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker became the choreographer in residence at the national opera De Munt/La Monnaie in 1992, one of her ambitions was to answer this lack in educational possibilities for contemporary dance. She was also inspired by Mudra, the school of choreographer Maurice Béjart, where she had been a student herself, and which had moved with Béjart to Switzerland, Lausanne, in 1987.

P.A.R.T.S. is first and foremost an artistic project. The curriculum is based on Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and other choreographers' extensive artistic practice. At the same time P.A.R.T.S. is a laboratory for the future. Art is not something you can learn, but we certainly hope that the material offered confronts and provokes, that it stimulates students to form their own opinions, that it proves to be a productive basis for their future artistic practice. In a word, P.A.R.T.S. sets out to be a place where critical and creative artistry can take root.

First phase. P.A.R.T.S. started in 1995 with a curriculum of three years, with each year a new group of incoming students. From the start, the school’s horizon was international, and teachers came from companies such as those of Trisha Brown, William Forsythe and Pina Bausch, artists who were considered as the artistic pillars of the program, next to De Keersmaeker’s own work.

The first generation of students graduated in 1998, a group of dancers and choreographers who immediately found work in the main dance companies or attracted public and critical attention with their own creations. P.A.R.T.S. can proudly say that this has become a regular pattern.

Second phase. In 2000, the curriculum was restructured, and P.A.R.T.S. offered two cycles of two years each: the Training Cycle and the Research Cycle, offering students who had trained elsewhere the possibility to enter directly into the Research Cycle. Both cycles started only every two years.

Third phase. In 2011, for the 2012-2016 multi-year plan, the objective was formulated to transform the pedagogical program into a 3+2 structure: a three-year basic cycle and a two-year continuing cycle. In September 2013, the transition to this new structure started. The Training Cycle was extended to three years and incorporates some of the methods and structures that were prominent in the previous Research Cycle. In the period 2015-2018, three pilot programs (of 4, 12 and 16 months) were organized as a continuation cycle under the name Research Studios, in which artistic research was central. This led in 2019 to the creation of a new two-year research program called STUDIOS. From this moment on, the policy objective from 2011 had been realised.

STUDENTS

P.A.R.T.S. has a maximum of 50 to 60 students, 40 to 45 in the Training cycle, 10 to 15 in STUDIOS.

Students are selected through auditions, which are organized internationally. The student community usually counts about 25 different nationalities. The main language in the school is English. In terms of mother tongue, the French-speakers form the largest group.