About
Arno Schuitemaker (Amsterdam) creates hyperphysical works where dance, performance, influences from the visual arts, and the ethos of club culture converge. Rooted in contemporary life, his layered, meticulously crafted work receives praise for exploring themes where the intimate and the collective intersect and interact, engaging with our hyperconnected yet precarious world through the lenses of identity, togetherness, loss, perception, and transformation.
How do we sense events so vast that they pass through us unnoticed, yet leave us changed? This question lies at the core of his artistic inquiry, confronting the limits of perception: the need to see, to feel, to understand in real time. It reveals a divide—what slips through our grasp and what becomes clear only after it has settled within us.
His explorations find expression in powerful performances where flow and evolution, both subtle and relentless, expose the undercurrent of change: the still is already in motion, the secure already shifting, and the small is already rewriting the world.
Working closely with his team throughout the creative process, Arno queers dance, light, music, scenography, and practices such as voice and video to create seamlessly integrated works where each element elevates and energizes the others.
Through this hybrid approach, he shapes each performance into an immersive experience, merging fluidity and sensorial embodiment with a commitment to preserving the individuality of the performers. His work invites audiences to engage physically, emotionally, and imaginatively.
He has gained international recognition with presentations at renowned festivals and theaters in over 25 countries. After After premiered during Julidans at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam in July 2024 and has been selected as Critic's Choice in Theaterkrant. 30 appearances out of darkness was presented for the first time at the Holland Festival in 2022 and was ranked in the top 5 best performances of the season by de Volkskrant. In October 2019, The Way You Sound Tonight was awarded the 'Zwaan', the most prestigious dance prize in Dutch performing arts in 2019, with the jury stating: “The Way You Sound Tonight is one of those theater experiences you wish could last forever. Schuitemaker succeeds in getting everything perfectly right.”
Other creations include EXIT (2009), TIDE (2011), The Fifteen Project | DUET (2012), I is an Other (2014), Together_till the end (2015), WHILE WE STRIVE (2015), I will wait for you (2016), If You Could See Me Now (2017), and O S C A R (2021).
In the Dutch performing arts magazine Theatermaker, 30 appearances out of darkness, The Way You Sound Tonight, and I will wait for you were selected in the lists of critics as the season’s best performances. tanz magazine selected Arno as one of the most promising artists in their yearbook 2017 and Dance Europe mentioned him as “one of the leading makers in The Netherlands.” He won the Dioraphte Encouragement Award and the 2nd jury prize at [re]connaissance with WHILE WE STRIVE.
Organisation
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SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker receives multi-year funding from 2025 to 2028 by Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Members of the board are Neeltje Holland (chair), Elsbeth Habets (treasurer), Stephanie ter Brake (general member), Jan-Bert Vroege (general member). The board does not receive any fees.
SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker has an ANBI Charitable status:
RSIN-nummer 820422939
Activities 2021-2024 in Dutch
Yearly report 2023 in Dutch
ANBI form 2023
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SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker endorses the Dutch CAO Toneel en Dans labour agreement.
Photo left: Desiré van den Berg