ChoreoComp

Astrid Boons (Belgium, 1988) is a choreographer, artistic leader and educator. She is founder and artistic director of Khôra / Astrid Boons, a foundation for interdisciplinary creation, artistic research and international collaboration. Between 2021 and 2025 she was a resident choreographer at KorzoTheater in The Netherlands.

Boons’ pieces have been described as ‘unsettling, intimate and deeply thought-provoking’, having ‘immense power, philosophical and psychological depth.’ Boons offers a space to deeply experience the body as the site of boundaries and expansion between us and the world. She creates work with a distinctive female perspective foregrounding relational subjectivity as a form of resistance, together with the continuous search for personal agency.

Boons has been recognized with several awards and nominations for her choreographic work. Her most recent work, Deep Time, was nominated for the ‘Zwaan’ (Nederlandse Dansdagen 2026) in the category ‘most impressive dance production ’. In 2022 she received the Fast Forward (Performing Arts Funds NL) subsidy to expand her artistic practice and international network. She was nominated for the Innovation Prize of the Nederlandse Dansdagen 2021 for choreography. She received the BNG Bank Dance Award 2017 and Piket Art Award 2017 for Rhizoma.

Recent artistic collaborations and research residencies include Dance Theatre Heidelberg, Impulstanz, La Briqueterie, Mercat de les Flors, Opera Ballet Flanders, Studio Contemporary Dance Zagreb, Tanzbiennale Heidelberg, Tanzfaktur, Tanzplattform Rhein-Main, and The Norwegian Ballet.

As a dancer Astrid worked with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (2017-2018), Nederlands Dans Theater 1 (2017), GöteborgsOperans Danskompani(2013-2016), Nederlands Dans Theater 2 (2009-2013), Dansgroep Amsterdam(2009) and Dansgroep Krisztina De Châtel (2008).

Astrid regularly teaches her ‘Enactive Embodiment Practice’, a movement and choreographic practice developed through her choreographic research. She has taught at international companies and educational institutions such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Dance Theater Heidelberg, Opera Ballet Flanders, Hessisches Staatsballett, The Norwegian Ballet, Conny Janssen Danst,NOD, Codarts, ArtEZ, AHK, Royal Conservatory Antwerp, among others.

Astrid graduated from The Royal Ballet School of Antwerp (BE). She holds a BA Dance from Codarts (NL) and a BA of Arts (Honours) in Humanities (Art History and Philosophy) from the Open University (UK). Since 2021, she is a certified Vinyasa Yoga teacher.

Jan van de Putte (1959) studied musicology and sonology at the University of Utrecht, music theory with Joep Straesser and electronic music with Ton Bruynèl at the conservatory of Utrecht. He also studied computermusic with Floris van Manen and composition with Klaas de Vries. Since 1996 Jan van de Putte lives alternately in Rotterdam and Paris. In Paris, he was selected in 1996/1997 by IRCAM to follow a year course which resulted in the first version of the piece Dans le coin.

The work of Jan van de Putte is exceptional in any case. As composer, he is influenced by Mahler, Debussy, Webern, Varèse, Stockhausen and Rihm, traditional music from Indonesia, China and Japan, moviemakers Tarkovski and Bergman, artists Beuys, Twwombly, Kiefer and primitive art and by the writers Dostojevski, Beckett, Céline and Artaud. Thereby he has a big interest in traditional folk- and puppet theater, both western- as non-European. A kind of theatre in which music almost always plays an important role.

Jan is a main subject teacher composition since 2018.

Born in Brazil and currently based in Paris, France, she has over two decades of experience in dance, with a focus on hip hop, contemporary dance, and theater. She has worked across Latin America, Europe, Asia, and North America, collaborating with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Red Bull, Disneyland Paris, and Just Dance. She was hired by the Paris National Opera to be part of Les Indes Galantes by Bintou Dembélé, the first opera to feature hip hop dancers, with performances on major international stages, including Opéra Grand Avignon, Centre Pompidou, the National Theatre of Taipei (Taiwan), Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, among others. As a teacher and judge, she has participated in events across France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg, and the United States. She is the director of Brainstorm Dance Company, which has been awarded by the L'Oréal Women’s Fund.

"For me, creating is above all about connection with people, with music, and with the present moment. I’m really drawn to intense and collaborative processes like this, where things happen intuitively.
Being part of ChoreoComp feels like a chance to share, take risks, and grow through encounters with others."

Born in Singapore, Xin Ong is an international choreographer, teacher and producer whose work spans stage, film and installation. In 2022, Xin started i² (@i2installation), a collaborative practice where we create to connect, and the missing element (i²=-1) is you. From a dance background, her practice bloomed within interdisciplinary collaboration. Xin enjoys how the interdisciplinary process generates multi-modal access points to catalyse creative flow.

Xin’s practice centres presence, connection and deep listening: a conversational co-creation where language in all its forms is considered, verbal and non-verbal. Within her works, Xin often uses tasked and set material as a vocabulary for improvisation and character development, exploring themes of relationships, choices and the worlds we build around them.

"Collaborating with dancers and musicians live allows the kinetic and acoustic space to be shaped as a fluid continuum. The Hague is well-known for the calibre and diversity of international talent it attracts. Coming from Australia, I am honoured and excited to be inspired by fresh cultures and voices through this artistic exchange."

Scott Elstermann is a multi-award-winning Australian dancer and choreographer. He is the first Australian and youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious Pina Bausch Fellowship for Dance & Choreography. Internationally, Scott has also choreographed for La Biennale di Venezia College Danza under the selection and mentorship of Wayne McGregor and in 2026, he took part in the renowned ATLAS Choreographic Scholarship program at ImPulsTanz in Vienna. Scott graduated as Dux of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) where he received the Palisade Award for ‘Most Outstanding Graduate’. He has since gone on to perform for the Merce Cunningham Trust (USA), Requardt & Rosenberg (UK), Lucy Guerin, Stephanie Lake, Shona Erskine and Brooke Leeder. His independent dance theatre work has won numerous awards including ‘Outstanding New Work’ three-times and ‘Outstanding Choreography’ two-times at the Performing Arts WA Awards. He has also been nominated for an Australian Dance Award and Green Room Award. This success has led to commissions for the West Australian Opera, WA Youth Orchestra, Freeze Frame Opera, Breaksea, UWA Conservatorium of Music, LINK Dance Company and WAAPA. Scott has received many other personal accolades including the 2025 ECU Young Alumni Award, 2024 Western Australian of the Year finalist, 2020 WA Young Achiever of the Year (Arts & Culture) and ‘Best Performer’ at the Performing Arts WA Awards.

"My artistic manifesto centres around the belief that if you are going to restage classical stories, you have to do it with new, young, diverse and queer voices; voices that are going to be able to express that narrative in ways that mean sometime to modern audiences. Opportunities such as ChoreoComp are essential platforms to put this statement to the test with the next generation of movers and makers - a rare chance for an Australian freelance artist to network, explore and build relationships on an international scale."

Nirita Yakthumba is an electric bassist and composer with a background in jazz and pop, currently studying at the Royal Conservatory. lately she has been diving into just intonation, open scores and exploring how different tuning systems can open up new colors in both performance and composition.

"I’m really excited and looking forward to doing this project. It feels like the perfect opportunity and project for exploration and experimentation. Collaborating with dancers has always been on my list and having gotten a place in this project feels like a great pathway for doing so. I’m also looking forward to working under pressure and enjoying the process rather than being hyper fixated on making the product perfect."

Nahia Vicente has loved music since they were little. Having studied classical flute and piano, while also being very interested in popular music, jazz and singing, Nahia continues to enjoy music and understand it’s power to bring people together. They started studying composition in San Sebastian, Spain, where they come from, and now are furthering their knowledge in the Hague.

Jorn Jaap Prenger is a composer and musician.

"I'm interested in ChoreoComp because I want to learn how to work together with choreographers, and because dance and multimedia art forms in general inspire me to make different music."

1st of June – Application is closed

15^th of June – Selection is made; you will be notified within one week.

Participants will organize their own transport and accommodation in The Hague.

In our confirmation mail, we will provide a list of hotels that offer a special discount for our participants.

It is mandatory that the participant takes out personal health, travel, and accident insurances. The administration cannot be held responsible for any damage or injury, however caused, to any person attending the course or third parties, nor for the loss or damage of any property, on or off the premises of the course or of the accommodation.