Jan Kooijman

At a young age, Rotterdam resident Jan Kooijman was captivated by the work of Ed Wubbe with Scapino Ballet.

After seeing his raw work Kathleen in the early nineties, he was determined to pursue a career in modern dance. After studying at Codarts in Rotterdam and a study trip to New York with a grant from Dansersfonds '79, he joined the Introdans ensemble and in 2000 he made the switch to Scapino Ballet.

Kooijman continued dancing with the company until 2009, in work by Ed Wubbe, the man who had kindled his love of dance, but also by Itzik Galili, Hans Tuerlings and Marco Goecke. With his flair for presentation and interest in enthusing young people for dance, Kooijman enjoyed giving introductions to performances and showing groups of school pupils around. He discovered acting during the shooting of the Scapino dance film Embracing Time, after which he played for four seasons in the soap Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden. He combined this with other television work, such as being a member of the jury in So You Think You Can Dance and Everybody Dance Now. Jan Kooijman is an ambassador for dance4life, a non-profit organisation aimed at reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS that focuses on young people.

At Scapino, Jan Kooijman created a number of duets for TWOOLS14 and TWOOLS15, in which he and his life partner Henna Lee made a one-off comeback as dancers.