Jan Zetterberg

the great strategic mind of Swedish dance, has passed away. For the forty years of his professional life, Zetterberg was one of the most influential personalities of Swedish dance. His greatest achievement was the founding of Dansens Hus in 1991 – a masterpiece of sheer endurance and skilful handling of bureaucrats and politicians.

He often called himself a “dansman“ and his career covered periods in most fields of dance: in education, as a dancer (for a short spell with the Cullberg Ballet) and choreographer; as a producer and finally in the capacity he is best known for today, as artistic director of Dansens Hus.
Zetterberg’s general aim could be described as having been “democratic:“ to improve the working conditions of dancers and choreographers and to make dance performances more accessible to the audience. He realised that this was not a one-man project as the following words clearly show: “I gather together everything possible. If you are going to bring about change you have to get many engines running at the same time or else there will be no change.“
The first vehicle for Zetterberg‘s democratic ambitions was Danscentrum (The Dance Centre), an organisation created by free ...