Above a gym in Bargeres, a place where you wouldn’t immediately expect a dance school, there is a row of cups that barely fit in the cupboard. It is the ‘profit’ of ten years of Dance School Verônto, founded by Emmen resident Jerôme Heijnen (26). He was only 16 years old when he started. He now teaches dance full-time and his students will soon be on a European stage in Lisbon.
“If you were to keep everything, you would soon no longer have room to dance,” Heijnen says, laughing, while pointing to the prizes. They are not his, he emphasizes, but his dancers’. “I think that’s also important: this is their performance.”
Verônto has been at the gym in Bargeres for three years now, but he started out small. In a primary school in the Delftlanden, in a gymnasium,” says Heijnen. “At one point that school needed the space itself and we were just growing. Then I had to look further.”
Heijnen started dancing when he was seven, at the CQ cultural center in Emmen. He took a musical class there: singing, dancing and acting. “I liked everything, but dancing attracted me the most.”
Television programs like Holland’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance did the rest. “As a child, you sit on the couch with your parents and a bowl of chips, and then you see the energy of those teams. That touched me.”
For Heijnen, dance became more than a hobby. “It’s a way to release emotions. If you are angry or irritated, you turn on music and your head clears for a while.”
Yet that choice was not obvious. As a boy who danced, he often received comments. “It was said at school: dancing is not a sport.” Even now he still notices that. Of his 170 students, only two are boys. If a boy comes in and all he sees are girls, that doesn’t help. Here in Drenthe that threshold is still there.”
At the age of sixteen, Heijnen decided to start teaching himself. CQ stopped, the supply in the area decreased. “I thought: why can’t I do that? Why not create a place where children can start dancing?”
He started with permission from the primary school in the Emmer district of Delftlanden. “When I first entered there, I was immediately very enthusiastic. You have to be able to see it, the possibilities. That is also entrepreneurship, of course.” He started with flyers. Word of mouth did the rest.
“Parents on the schoolyard are the best advertisement.” Soon students came not only from the Delftlands, but also from Bargeres, Rietlanden and even Sleen. His favorite style remains hip hop, but he also teaches show dancing. “Energy, power, team spirit. That’s what it’s all about for me.” For classics such as the quickstep, waltz and tango, people will really have to go further.
Why Verônto caught on? Heijnen thinks his age played a role. “I was young, full of energy. The music and styles suited the students, I think.” He now has approximately 170 students: from very young to in their twenties.
The atmosphere is just as important. “I always call it the Verônto family. Children should feel safe here.” Parents can watch, children can tell their story. He literally sees his students grow up. “Children who came here as four years old and are now fourteen. First shy, now skipping into the hall. That’s wonderful.”
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