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Dance world

The history of the subsidised Dance started about 65 years ago. Nowadays the Netherlands has a large range of dance producers such as companies, laboratories and commercial producers. Dance is also be present in other art disciplines, for example in theatre productions.

In this section you find information about venues where professional dance is shown. Moreover, there is practical information about intermediaries and organisations for support and advice. Check the media to get a broader view on what's happening in the dance world.

employment in performing arts

undefinedSource: Podiumpeiler 2011
How many people work in the performing arts?
In 2009 more than 17,000 performing artists were active in the Netherlands. The majority (13,000) worked as musicians.
Performing artists form 0.2% of the total working population and almost 23% of the total number of professional artists. These are people who state that their profession is performing artist.
Total employment in the performing arts in 2010 accounted for between 62,000 and 73,000 jobs, equivalent to between 0.8 and 0.9% of the total number of jobs. These figures also include auxiliary staff such as theatre management staff, theatre catering staff, and musical instrument makers.
How many venues, performances and visitors are there in the Netherlands?
The Atlas local authority data base listed a total of 999 venues in 2009, in which almost 67,000 performances in the performing arts took place.
These performances attracted an estimated total public of 21.5 million.
The average size of the public per performance fell from 369 in 2005 to 323 in 2009 – a drop of more than 12%.
Pop music drew in the largest audiences (43%), followed by cabaret and musicals (both 13%).
The smallest audiences were for dance (3%) and opera (4%).
Podiumpeiler estimates that 467 performing arts festivals took place in 2010, attracting a total public of 15 million. This is 23% of the total number of events and 11% of the total events public.
The audience size for performing arts events fell from 18 million in 2008 to 15 million in 2010.