Twans' hard choice between two passions

Education is an important stepping stone to a future life. How does a student at Fontys look upon that future? What are his or her wishes and worries about life after graduation?

Twan van Diest has two great passions: choreography and writing. One of them he’s had for years – after all, that’s why he started at Fontys Dance Academy. The second one gives him more certainty. So which one should he choose? Not an easy question to answer.

“I am in the third year of my studies, hopefully in about a year and a half I will graduate. I find it hard to decide what to do after. That’s because I’m in a flux. I really, really wanted to be a choreographer, but lately I’ve been writing a lot.

I keep a diary. Not to write about my day-to-day affairs, but mainly about logic and metaphysics. I’ve been interested in these topics for a long time. I take writing quite seriously, but the same goes for choreography.

Now I’m thinking about continuing to write because we are still dealing with the big uncertainty called corona. All theatres are closed, so what can you actually do as a choreographer?

Originally, I thought this situation would be over in 2020. But now I don’t know when this will end. Maybe it will take years, just like the Spanish flu. While that shouldn’t stop anyone from doing what you really want, I do notice that I’ve become a bit of a hermit. More so than before.

Of course I have a vision for the future. Basically, I just want to do what I want. And there are many things I would like to do. But the concrete situation is not entirely clear to me. My main concern is that ten years from now I do not want to look back on this time and think: I regret I didn’t chase my dreams.” [Karen Luiken]