August 7, 2025

Francine Wildenborg
Wijchen/Arnhem

Vérine Bouwman (37) calls herself a “normal girl from Wijchen.” But when she talks about her youth, there’s little that’s ordinary about it. She swam at a high level — first competitive swimming, then synchronized swimming — and reached the national team. She also started at the conservatory in The Hague at age 11, and at 13 she joined the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam. Every day, that young teenage girl sat alone on the train at six in the morning, ballet shoes (spitzen) in her bag.

Where does that mega drive come from? Genes?
“My parents are active people and my brothers always played football, tennis, and swam. But for me, it was different. More intense. For a while, I combined swimming and the ballet academy. After my lessons in The Hague, I’d go to Veenendaal, where my dad picked me up to train with the national synchronized swimming team. Training for the Olympics. The combination of strength and grace, it’s a beautiful sport, but also the hardest I ever did. So I had to choose, and dancing won. I had been working toward that since I was six.”

You often hear that young girls face huge pressure. Look at the gymnastics world. Does that sound familiar?
“There was definitely pressure. And plenty of girls couldn’t handle it. You have to have thick skin. After two years, I was rejected by the conservatory in The Hague. My feet were supposedly not strong enough for a ballet career. That was tough, but I kept going. I auditioned for ballet academies in Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. I got accepted everywhere and chose Amsterdam.”

Is the ballet world too harsh?
“I personally never struggled much with criticism. I knew I needed it to survive in the dance world later. Because a choreographer isn’t going to say: dear Vérine, could you maybe adjust that movement just a little? No, it’s directive and it has to be to get the message across. But there’s a big difference between strict teaching and tearing students down, belittling, systematic bullying. And I’ve seen that too. I often thought: just send someone away from the academy. I think a lot has changed now. There are conduct protocols, so you can say: hey, what that teacher just said isn’t okay.”

And your body? How is it to be so focused on that as a teenage girl?
“Quite difficult. Especially since I was taking hormones for heavy menstruation and developed female curves quite early. But if you mean whether I was obsessively focused on eating or losing weight: no. Of course, there are dancers who live on a leaf of lettuce… Although there is much more guidance nowadays, we’ve had a nutritionist at Introdans for several years and the staff is alert to problems. But in the end, everyone makes their own choices: there are also high-level dancers who smoke and drink. I always tried to make healthy choices. Also with training: I did extra strength training sometimes if I saw on video that a muscle could be more defined. But never excessively. I found the dancing itself already intense enough. You start training in the morning and finish the evening after a performance at one in the morning.”

How do you keep that up with two small children?
“That’s hardly sustainable. Especially since Salvatore (Castelli, also a dancer at Introdans) has exactly the same rhythm. We now live in Wijchen close to my parents, so they can look after the kids a lot. I’m really ready to be more of a mom. And to take life a bit lighter. So that if my daughter wants to cling to me once in a while, I don’t immediately think: oh no, what if I get injured!”

Why didn’t you stop earlier?
“It was a gradual process. Some women stop before having children, that used to be more common, but I didn’t know if I could get pregnant. I have a severe form of endometriosis (tissue growing outside the uterus causing pain and fertility issues). Luckily it was still possible for us, but when I had my daughter—she’s now five years old—I already had early bleeding and had to stop dancing. That was in hindsight the start of my farewell to Introdans. When I got pregnant with our second child, I knew: this is the last phase. And I’m 37, which is also an age for a dance retirement.”

Dance retirement is a nicer word for expiration date?
“Yes, haha. That term doesn’t bother me much. It’s just that as a top athlete—because that’s how I see dancing—you eventually have to stop. We all know that and there’s definitely life after: I’ve seen colleagues become photographers, teachers, doctors. I myself have also wondered if I should look for something outside dancing: maybe something medical, or management. But when I found out I could stay at Introdans as a répétiteur (someone who rehearses dance programs with the company based on the choreographer’s instructions), that was what I wanted most.

I also feel that expiration date physically. I’m blessed—with the exception of a small tear in my hip cartilage—that I haven’t had many major injuries during my career. But my body shows the marks of dancing, from all the falls for example. How many bruises I’ve had! Plus, after the second child, I had trouble getting back in shape. Because of heavy bleeding after the birth, I had a long recovery. First Pilates, then: dancing, dancing, dancing. But my belly, my hips, everything was softer. I thought: is anyone waiting for a body like this? Especially since I was almost naked in the last performance and surrounded by those ripped young dancers…”

Are you worried your husband, who isn’t retiring soon, will dance with someone else?
“No, I’m used to him having other dance partners. But I will miss dancing with him together. It’s so special because as lovers you trust each other even more. In how he lifts me, catches me. Though we also dance at home with Iva, our daughter. Does she have our dance talent? No idea. She mostly shows me how confident every person is by nature. There’s not a trace of doubt in her movements. I really hope she keeps that. Whatever she decides to do later.”

📸 Images: Portrait Rolf Hensel- End of Season: Hans Gerritsen