The art of founding a dance center (with no money)

Thus, the first dance production house, The Place, was founded in England fifty years ago. France also established its significant Centre National de la Danse in two locations, Paris and Lyon, around this time. People were enthusiastic about the pleasure of the body as an alternative to mere possessions. Independent dance groups sprang up like mushrooms. The fitness craze and ballet schools were redefined. This enthusiasm for the body stemmed from a belief in our own malleability through yoga, alternative healing methods, and biomedicine, which invented cloning.

Then began the triumph of the virtual: the desire to immerse oneself in electronic dungeons and first-person shooters, and to be swept away into infinite spaces of possibility. The AI in the computer’s black box took over the role of the body. For dance, all that remained on its black stage was rebellion. The hype that had once surrounded it seemed to have dissipated.

But a new trend is now emerging in major Asian cities. Following the widespread adoption of Western dance art and the ubiquity of digital surveillance, the concept of the dance house is being revived in a completely new light. Bangkok has just created a model for this revival in the form of the National Choreographic Center Thailand. Unlike fifty years ago, it requires neither real estate nor administration. What’s more, the National Choreographic Center Thailand is virtually cost-neutral, representing a crossover of rebellion and intelligent art—and a logical solution for all artists who fail to gain public support, as the public would certainly take no pride in a dance house at this time.

Of course, this dance house is just as necessary as an opera house, a philharmonic hall, or a theater. But these expensive buildings are relics from the 19th century that no one in Asia even remembers anymore. In response to the here and now, a new form of dance house has thus emerged, and it is strongly recommended for emulation.