You teach ten dance classes a week at Griffioen and you have your own dance school in Haarlem. How do you keep up with all this? “I love what I do. I try to stay in good shape and avoid injuries, which is not always easy. At the beginning of the course season I am dancing a lot, because I show the moves, but later I can guide my students more from the side.”
What is the difference between a dance crew and a dance course at Griffioen? “The dance crews are for people who have done their dance courses and want more. The crews perform at events and take place in competitions. Both my crews, the high-heels group and the urban group, won a European title last year.”
Griffioen Dance Crews
The Griffioen Dance Crews are for students who are dedicated to dance and want to work at a high level in urban and high heels dance styles. Ana Hazler is the initiator, leader and choreographer of two of the crews. Find out more at: griffioen.vu.nl/nieuws/en/vu-griffioen-dance-crew
What do you want to achieve as a dance teacher? “I want my pupils to feel at ease with their bodies. Students are often more at home in their heads, but here they learn to express themselves through movement. We work seriously at our performance but always from a place of safety. We have students from all kinds of backgrounds. Some stay in the courses for years and become friends.”
Have you always known you wanted to be a dance teacher? “From an early age I knew dance was the way for me to express myself. I started with jazz dance when I was seven. I was a shy child, but the shyness was gone when I danced.
When I was 19, my dance teacher prepared me to audition for Dance in Education at the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam. I am from Croatia and I had hardly been abroad before. I also am an only child, which made it even harder for my parents. But I was determined. I wanted to get this education.”
After your graduation you decided to stay in the Netherlands. Why? “Here, I have more possibilities to develop myself as a dance teacher than in Croatia. After finishing my bachelor’s I danced in several companies and started teaching. And then Corona came and I suddenly lost all my work. I made the best of it by taking an online master’s degree in International Business Management.
And then when the world opened up again, I had to finish my thesis, and I had groups performing at Griffioen all in the same week that I met the man I just bought a house with.
It was a blind date. I was very busy at that time, but he kept texting me, asking me when we could meet. Finally I said: ‘You can come to the performance at Griffioen, but it might be boring for you, since you don’t know any of the dancers.’ He came and hasn’t missed a performance ever since.”
Two years ago, you took over a dance school in Haarlem. Is your work there different from your work at Griffioen? “I work hard to create the same level of safety, openness and seriousness at Dansstudio Balance as in my courses at Griffioen. Recently I hired one of the girls from Griffioen, who has been working with me for years, at the school in Haarlem. She came in as a beginner and now she works as a dance teacher.”
Do you dream of working in your home country at some point? “Since 2013, I have been inviting Dutch dance teachers to give workshops in Croatia every summer. That’s my way of giving back to my country.”
Ana Hazler (36)
2024 – now: Owner of Dansstudio Balance in Haarlem and teacher since 2013
2020 – 2023: Summa cum laude Master’s in International Business Management, DOBA Business School
2015 – now: Dance teacher, Griffioen
2009 – 2013: Bachelor’s Dance in Education at the Academy of Theatre and Dance, Amsterdam