26 January 2026
By Marcel van Berkum
SILVOLDE – HubClub’26 is the new dance production by Introdans, which premieres on Friday 6 February in The Hague during the Holland Dance Festival. Over the past few weeks, Helma Jansen Venneboer has been busy with the preparations. Not with the choreography, but with dressing the dancers. The Silvolde native has been working for several years in the costume department of the Arnhem based dance company.
Helma Jansen Venneboer grew up in Doetinchem. Her passion for making and designing clothes was instilled in her from an early age. “From a very young age I copied my mother. She was a housewife but spent a lot of time behind the sewing machine making and altering clothes. I learned by watching her and made things like doll clothes for my Barbies. After secondary school I knew very clearly that I wanted to do something with fashion and clothing. I then followed a three year vocational training in costume sewing and couture in Arnhem.” After that she felt ready for art school and in 1987 she was accepted at the AKI Academy for Art and Industry in Enschede. “I studied fashion design there. That is also where my interest in theatre and theatre costumes was sparked. That creative environment felt like a warm bath to me.”
Sewing costumes and delivering mail
She graduated, got married and through her relationship ended up in Silvolde. In the first years after AKI, working with needle and thread was mainly for family. She chose to focus on her family and raising her children. When they grew older and more independent, she coincidentally received an assignment to make a wedding dress. More followed, and she set up Studio Jansen Venneboer at home. “I worked a lot with colour, which was unusual at the time. In addition, I was also a postal worker for ten years. I deliberately did that alongside my sewing work, to get away from the sewing machine and be outdoors.”
In mid 2021 she saw an advertisement from the Dutch National Opera. The opera company in Enschede was looking for freelance costume makers. Her relationship was no longer going smoothly and she saw it as a first step towards independence. Three days a week she travelled to the workshop in Enschede to sew costumes for an opera, while continuing to deliver mail.
I sometimes call myself a very late bloomer.
Introdans
In the spring of 2022 Helma came across a vacancy. Introdans in Arnhem was looking for a dresser. “I was hired and in that very first season I immediately toured with the company to theatres. I was thrown in at the deep end, because of course I didn’t know anyone yet. At night we would return by bus to Arnhem and then I still had to travel on to Silvolde. They were very long days, but I immediately found it a fantastic adventure. The following spring I got a phone call from the manager. ‘Do you have a passport?’ he asked. ‘Then you can come along as a dresser with the production HubClub’23 to a theatre week in South Africa.’ A month later I was asked to join the costume department.”
From the early preparation stage of a production, Helma consults with the production team and choreographers to discuss costume wishes. It is certainly not the case that all costumes are newly made for every new production. “We buy costumes from other companies and also reuse clothing from our extensive storage. In our workshop on the Vijfzinnenstraat, it then becomes a matter of fitting and adjusting, tailoring the costumes to the dancers. Sometimes choreographers have specific wishes. For HubClub’26, for example, vintage lingerie was conceived. Then I go out to look for that. Before the premiere, the entire performance is danced in a so called studio run at the Introdans building in Arnhem. The final adjustments to the costumes are made on the spot.” In recent years she has travelled four days a week by train from Doetinchem to Arnhem.
Due to renovation and new construction, Introdans premieres cannot take place at the Stadstheater in Arnhem in the coming years, but instead for example at Amphion in Doetinchem. The premiere of HubClub’26 is on 6 February in The Hague. It is a special inclusive performance. In a colourful cast, Introdans dancers come together with guest dancers and choreographers from different worlds. HubClub’26 can be seen on 2 and 3 March at Musis in Arnhem.