Eugénie Rebetez knew Brussels a little bit before she came to live in the city. As a francophone, it is nice to be surrounded by a French-speaking culture. Living in Brussels gives her a lot of creative impulses. Because it is a passing through place, she has the possibility to meet a lot of people. In Brussels she feels in the middle of what is happening in dance, it is a place where she can have access to many things. She has a sense of belonging in her home country with her family and a temporary feeling of belonging in Brussels. It is necessary for her to have a stable base like Brussels where she can always return to. She would not want to be traveling continuously. When she has been away from Brussels, it always strikes her how fast everything changes: people who left, new people who arrived, shows she missed…

Rebetez considers herself part of a Brussels dance community that is situated in locations like P.A.R.T.S., Kaaitheater, La Raffinerie, the bars around Saint-Géry and many others. Although it is easier to connect with the French side because of the language, she does not feel that she belongs to a French or a Flemish dance community, being mostly in contact with international dancers. Not dancing or taking classes makes her feel a bit outside of the community. Going to performances is a good way to stay informed about what is happening, comparable to reading the news. She thinks of dance as a quite isolated art form. Often performances are not accessible to a large public and can only be understood by an in-crowd. When she meets people outside the dance community, they have often never been to a dance performance and when they did, it were the big companies that they saw perform.

Rebetez’ personal and professional life are well balanced. She has a need to bring some stability and consistency in her life because her job and working schedules are so irregular. She does not know what she will be doing next year but that does not scare her. She had to adjust her perception of the life of a dancer. It is more irregular than she had imagined it to be, with having jobs here and there and traveling a lot. Even older dancers she knows still have an unstable life, unless they dance for a big company. The profession of a dancer or choreographer complicates family life. Because of the constant traveling, maintaining a love relationship is hard and she still has to figure out whether a dance career will be combinable with having children...

catholic high school – housemates – small world – alone together – well-informed – input – affinity – unemployed dancers – cooking – irregular – temporary – cash – massage – regenerate – alert – passe-partout – tired – 30-year old dancers – self-confidence – guests – driving license - Colombia