Chassé Dance Studios

/Chassé Dance Studios

2014

2014 | 8 | 8|

The dance studios opened in August 2014. The conversion meant a major transformation of the interior of the church building. Yet, the exterior has remained largely unchanged. Chassé church is now a lively hub attracting dancers, teachers and choreographers. Neighbourhood residents are generally happy with the new use of the building, although some worry about the potential nuisance that the hotel and café clientele might cause. The construction process of the hotel and café are still ongoing today.

2012

2012 | 8 | 8|

Lenny Balkissoon, an entrepreneur and former dancer, bought the church building in 2012. He felt it was important to preserve its function of bringing people together. He decided to convert the former church and vicarage into a complex with eight dance studios, a hotel, a café, a gym/theatre hall and a health centre.

2007 - 2011

2007 | 8 | 8|

In 2007 the church building was bought by a housing cooperation, Ymere, and was officially deconsecrated. As a result of neighbourhood advocacy, the city council decided to enlist the church as a monument. This meant that Ymere could not demolish the building. Its plans to convert the church into an apartment block never materialised due to the financial crisis. In the meantime, the building remained vacant. It was used temporarily by artists, who had to leave when the parish judged their art to be offensive.

1998 – 2007

1998 | 8 | 8|

The parish board wanted the building to be demolished to prevent possible “unworthy” re-use in the future. However, some neighbourhood residents were strongly opposed to the demolition of the church, and set up a committee to prevent this from happening. As one of its members told the newspaper Het Parool, demolishing the church amounts to “demolishing your history”.

1998

1998 | 1 | 1|

The Chassé church became disused due to the declining number of practising Catholics in the neighbourhood. The local population had changed and now included Turkish and Moroccan migrants and their children. Later it also attracted young urban professionals. The building was left vacant for many years. It was used by squatters for a time, and later as a shelter for refugees. Some parishioners continued to meet in the vicarage.

1926

1926 | 8 | 8|

A new Catholic church, designed by K.P. Tholens and devoted to “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”, was constructed as an integral part of De Baarsjes, a new neighbourhood in West Amsterdam. The Chassé Church, as it was popularly known, was a big church and part of a Catholic enclave that also included a vicarage, schools and a nunnery. Kees Fens, a well-known literary critic and author who grew up next to the church in the 1930s, has noted that the neighbourhood was characterized by an “intense churchly engagement” and by the “unavoidability” of faith.