About
Leeway
(noun)
“The amount of freedom to move or act that is available”
The Leeway for Arts Foundation (aka Leeway) was established in 2020. Leeway's mission is to create space for movement, in all its forms, where it is absent or insufficient. Starting from movement in the physical sense - producing social choreography - Leeway's projects set in motion a diverse and inclusive movement on the social level. Leeway always works within a solid and growing network of cultural and social partners.
Leeway's ambition is, through the (social) choreography of Swarm, to build awareness and recognition of each other's existence (gender, diverse ability, sexual orientation, ethnic-cultural background, migration background and religion), experiences and ideas. Powered by a group that reflects the diverse nature of society, Leeway aims to create an in-between space where coexistence and respect for each other's space are possible.
With support from the Fonds Podiumkunsten, the Vriendenloterij and Productionhouse Theater Rotterdam, Leeway built a performance practice with a strong social profile, several Swarm editions emerged from working with community centres, refugee organisations, psychiatric clinics, and grassroots organisations.
This unique method aroused the attention of universities with different fields of knowledge; in 2022 Floor started a fellowship at the architecture department of ETH Zurich, and gave workshops and lectures at UvA Humanistics, ArtEZ - Dance and Design, among others. Leeway works from interconnectivity, the movement at the organisational level is one of desilo-ing art as an island you go to, to art moving through and connecting with different domains of knowledge (experience is also knowledge).
The Supervisory Board is formed by mime scholar Marijn de Langen (chairman), business director of Theater Ins Blau Mirjam Hensgens, and Professor of Urbanism at TU Delft Diego Sepúlveda. Mimographer Floor van Leeuwen is the director.
Leeway Team
Floor Van Leeuwen
Director
Floor is (mime) choreographer, researcher and producer. They currently develops Swarm, a choreography of assembly in public space, and is a fellow of ETH Zurich, architecture department.
Reda Senhaji
Musical Director
Producer Cheb Runner (Reda Senhaji) is a musical hurricane rooted in Moroccan soil, exploring the West European electronic musical landscapes. Both as producer, composer and DJ he is merging traditional and contemporary electronic sounds together moving from Moroccan Chaabi, spiritual sounds to eclectic disco, techno and gabber. He is part of the (A)WAKE collective.
Mohamed (Simomo) Boujarra
Movement Director
Simomo is Movement-director and performer for Swarm and founder of MINA RWINA, a space co-built with other artists to facilitate fragile performances. Simomo is deputy director at No Limits Art Castle, the first art space in the Netherlands where no boundaries exist between so-called ‘outsider’ artists and the rest of the art world.
Sylvie de Kubber
Projectmanager Swarm Health Netherlands
Sylvie is a spiritual carer at Parnassia, and lecturer and researcher at the University for Humanistics. Sylvie co-creates Swarms within the mental health sector as an organiser and facilitator.
Samuël van der Spek
Assistant Director
Samuël is a Rotterdam-based theatre director, and researcher. For Swarm he does impact assessment, dances, and is Floors assistant.
Nataly Ba
Diversity and Inclusion Officer
Nataly is a global health researcher interested in conducting transdisciplinary, reflexively aware, feminist research. She is a passionate advocate of applying a holistic view on health and integrative health systems to address mental health distress of marginalised communities. As part of SWARM, she is interested in the impact dance has on mental health.
Mary Brown
Social Media
M.B. is a California born Landscape architect, DJ and self-proclaimed artist based in Rotterdam. They like to explore the origins of urban design decisions and their impact on social life, seeking potential for intervention.
Partners
Reports
Leeway Report 2022&2023 - PDF ANBI formulierLow Emissions
A major factors in the process of this website was the importance to create a sustainable, low carbon and optimised website for Leeway. We have implemented this value throughout the development of this project. The internet is a power hungry medium: it consumes 416.2TWh per year (by comparison, that’s more than UK's entire yearly carbon footprint) and thus we thought it crucial to create a website with a minimal carbon footprint.
Credits
Graphic and web design by Nadine Rotem-Stibbe
Back/front web development Typhaine Le Galès