Maurits van Geel

Maurits has a longstanding career as a scholar, dance instructor, and choreographer. He explored and taught folk dance in many regions of the world including the US and many European countries. For instance his involvement in the promotion of dance came to full bloom during his 2-year contract as dance consultant for the city of Amsterdam. In this capacity he initiated dance projects in schools in combination with setting up dance projects for cultural minorities besides teaching courses of international folk dance in Amsterdam. In the professional field he was invited as guest teacher at the Rotterdam Dance Academy, but the major part of his professional life he worked for Het Internationaal Danstheater, a professional dance company based in Amsterdam. First as choreographer, later as assistant artistic director and eventually as artistic director he was employed from 1988 to 2011. Through his travels and research he developed a particular interest in the Roma culture and the ethnic diversity of the Caucasus, which lead to the production of a CD with folk dances from the Caucasus and a CD with Roma dances. His travels have included India, Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, China, England, France, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ossetia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Cherkassy, among others.