About the artist
SAND-R (Sander Verbeek) is a disabled contemporary artist, dancer, maker and teacher. Known as dancer with Stopgap Dance Company, in Sg2 2018 to 2020. Choreographer of auditive choreography of BOOMBOX in 2021, Dreamscapes in 2025 for Stopgap Troop and Futurism in 2026 for Stopgap Troop.
Worked with Holland Dance Festival (Netherlands), the Dutch National Ballet (Netherlands), Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen (Belgium), Moving Ground (Belgium), Onassis Stegi (Greece), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden), Misiconi Dance Company (Netherlands), Stopgap Dance Company (UK), Step Change Studios (UK), SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht (Netherlands), SZENE 2WEI (Germany), Onassis Stegi (Italy), MotionHouse (UK) and Stopgap Troop (UK)
'Dance is the place where body and mind can fuse together. It is a place to feel free and integrate my emotion. I love the stage, the buzz and the amazing energy from performance. Dance is a way to express, lose and find myself again and again.'
History SAND-R
From 2017 to 2018, he took part in the esteemed i-Dance programme, enabling collaborations with Onassis Stegi (Greece),Skånes Dansteater (Sweden) and Stopgap Dance Company (United Kingdom). Also in this time being a part of "LABO" at Antwerp conservatoire cemented vital relationships and learning. In 2018 and 2019, he was one of the selected artists to take part in Europe Beyond Access laboratories in Malmo and Maastricht.
2018-2021 SAND-R was an Apprentice Dancer with Sg2, part of Stopgap Dance Company, UK. Here SAND-R developed further performance and teaching skills, including for a children's theatre piece. Honing digital work and creating an audio choreography (titled "BOOMBOX") during the isolation which COVID brought.
More recent collaborations with Step Change studios, Europe Beyond Access, SZENE2WEI and self-produced work with Peter Leung, Nadine Drouin and Maylis Arrabit further expanded Sander's experiences of working cross culturally. This cemented his desire to create new work, particularly developing his own role as choreographer, recently shortlisted to become a Young Associate with Sadler’s Wells.
The disabled community is a strong empowered community that I've come to love. Not only am I empowered with calling myself disabled, there is also recognition of the heritage we hold and the disadvantages we face as a community within our current society. Being one of many disabled artists, I am able to create work from a unique perspective and add creativity and variety to dance.
Frequently asked questions
Here are some common questions about me.
In mijn zoektocht naar de juiste woorden kwam ik natuurlijk langs negatieve woorden zoals handicap en invaliden of mindervaliden. Een veel gebruikte term die in het Engels wordt gebruikt is disabled en disabiliteit, termen die door de "disabled community" toegeëigend en gekozen zijn. Uiteindelijk worden deze woorden nu ook gebruikt door zowel disabelde mensen als non-disabelde mensen, een belangrijk aspect waarom ik mezelf een disabeld artiest noem en ook disabiliteit gebruik in het Nederlands. Tenslotte is handicap ook ooit geleend uit het Engels en het is vrij beperkt om het woord beperking te gebruiken en ik ben ook zo gehandicapt (buitengesloten van de maatschappij) met het woord handicap.
Omdat ik wil erkennen dat ik voor mijn ontwikkeling als disabeld persoon naar het buitenland moest om meer te leren. De kennis die ik heb opgedaan over de disabelde gemeenschap en identiteit wil ik terugbrengen naar Nederland en versterkende woorden wil toevoegen aan de Nederlandse taal. Ik introduceer hiermee het woord disabeld tussen de minder positief activerende woorden.
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