Fabienne Vegt

Fabienne Vegt (*1986) Dutch dramaturg and choreographer, works in the international world of dance, theatre and opera. Her work benefits a from nearly 20 years of experience in performing arts. Combining her background as a professional dancer with an academic foundation in Arts- and Theatre Studies, she has been working as a dramaturg and choreographer in The Netherlands and abroad since 2014.

Vegt does research on the content and the context for new creations. And she writes scenarios and libretti for ballet and opera. Working mostly on interdisciplinary performances she specialises in the dramaturgy of space and the musicality of movement, establishing a profound exchange between the visual and the audible on stage.

FV: “Beautiful and breathtaking texts are written for the stage. Though often I find that most of the actual drama takes place within speechless moments, when body language and sound express the unspoken.”

Vegt holds a B.A. in Dance (Royal Conservatory The Hague), a B.A. in Arts Studies (Ghent University) and a M.A. in Dramaturgy (University of Amsterdam). She works for renowned companies - Nationale Opera & Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ballet Moscow, Les Cris de Paris, Schauspielhaus Zürich.
She maintains key collaborations with internationally recognized artists;
Juanjo Arqués, Nicole Beutler, Marne van Opstal and Imre van Opstal.
Works in collaboration with each of these artists and their teams have received nominations for national and international awards:
Ignite, Arqués - ‘Benois de la Danse 2019’ and finalist for the ‘Fedore Prize 2018’
Take Root, Van Opstal - ‘Swan for most impressive dance production 2019’
8:Metamorphosis, NBprojects - ‘Swan for most impressive dance production 2020’

In her carreer as a dancer Vegt performed a very broad variety of works:
dancing the (neo-)classical repertoire at Het Nationale Ballet, working with highly acclaimed choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Hans van Manen and Ohad Naharin at Nederlands Dans Theater, then changing technique and approach completely when working on raw physical theatre at Troubleyn | Jan Fabre (here being confronted with unhealthy situations at work and abuse of power by the director).
All these experiences nourish her work on the artistic level as well as on the level of work methods and ethics.

FV: “Knowing the dedication that lies at the root of high quality productions, I value loyalty, trust and humor as principles for every artistic project.”

Vegt created and produced dance performances for Museum Voorlinden, Why Not Festival, Rijksmuseum and ING art collection, establishing a dialogue between a visual artwork and choreography. Developing her own artistic practise, she explores ways to carefully break down the wall between the performer and his/her personal experiences and background, allowing the full physical archive of every body to become part of their performing ‘roles’.
This research continued for the music performance Within Time, created in collaboration with House of Makers. Interlacing several classical aria’s into one new score, this performance received much praise at Het Grachtenfestival 2020.

Vegt wrote the libretto for the new opera by composer Jérémie Rhorer Le Soldat de Plomb, commisioned by Grand Théâtre de Genève. For this creation she also made the choreography, working closely together with stage director Jan Sobrie and scenographer Giovani Vanhoenacker. The première was supposed to take place on February 26 2021, but due to covid-measures this could fortunatelly not be maintained.

In 2021 she prepared the latest creation of Marne van Opstal and Imre van Opstal for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 Baby don’t hurt me.
She collaborated with House of Makers on a newly written music theatre piece for Het Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam, From the sun’s perspective.
For Philharmonie de Luxembourg she wrote a music and dance performance based on the fairytale La Petite Poucette. This performance will be revived in December 2022. And a new commission for Philharmonie de Luxembourg, called Papillon, will have it’s première in June 2023.

"Dance first, think later. It's the natural order." - Samuel Beckett

"Dance first, think later. It's the natural order."
- Samuel Beckett