Rudi Laermans is Professor of Social Theory at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Leuven (Belgium). He is also a lecturer at P.A.R.T.S., an international dance school founded by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Brussels (since its inception in 1995). He is the author of numerous books and articles on social theory, cultural sociology and art sociology published in Belgian and international journals. For several years he was the director of the Centre for Cultural Sociology at the University of Leuven, where he participated in empirical research on cultural and art policy, cultural participation, performing and visual arts, and cultural heritage. He is also an active critic and essayist publishing on contemporary dance and is one of the leading voices in the Flemish dance community. He has published a wide-ranging treatise on contemporary dance, “Moving Together. Theorizing and Making Contemporary Dance” (Amsterdam, Valiz, 2015).