The dance hub and performance centre Dansehallerne will be forced to leave its premises in Carlsberg City by the end of June 2016, as its current lease will not be renewed.

Dansehallerne has been based at its current lodgings since August 2009 after Carlsberg converted its mineral water factory, Tap E, into dance facilities.

Shocked at the decision
Benedikte Paaske, the head of Dansehallerne, says that the news is a serious blow for the dance community. “We’re very shocked!” she said.

“We thought we had an agreement to be housed permanently in Carlsberg City. For the first time in the history of contemporary dance, we have had a common working place and were not spread out across the country and forced to do production-related work around our kitchen tables.”

Paaske hopes that the Ministry of Culture and Copenhagen City Council, two of Dansehallerne’s funders, will step in to help find a solution.

Stuart Lynch, the headmaster at the Copenhagen Film and Theatre School and originally a dancer, fears that Carlsberg’s move could jeopardise the community’s work in the future.

“For these past few years, Denmark has matched the other northern European countries' investment in dance development. This eviction decision, if not quickly mediated, could hold back Danish dance development for years to come.”

May get new Carlsberg digs
The building is owned by Carslberg Byen. The company’s head of communications, Pernille Rohdemeier, told Berlingske that plans for the building precluded the dance centre’s continued use of it.

“Dansehallerne can’t unfortunately, as things look just now, stay in the building,” she said.

“But they have been warned that the current lease agreement won’t be extended when it expires in 2016, so there is time to find a solution.”

However, she went on to say that it was possible that the dancers could be housed elsewhere in Carlsberg City. ”We really want to keep them in Carlsberg City, so we’re doing what we can to find a new place for them out here,” she said.