Panda van Proosdij (NL) studied at the Rotterdam Dance Academy in the Netherlands. She has been a teacher at Codarts, Music Theatre in Rotterdam and worked with The Netherlands Children Choir, The Netherlands Female Youth Choir and Wilma ten Wolde as a movement coach and director.
For 18 years now Panda has been working on her method / philosophy: ‘Voice & Physique’ This method is about supporting the voice by creating a good physical awareness and a way to let movement contribute to the quality of singing. She gives workshops and masterclasses ‘Voice & Physique’ all over the world and creates Choireography * for different choirs and their events. In April 2014 her book ‘Voice & Physique’ has been published and her 2nd book ‘Choireography’ was launched in April 2019. In 2021 Helbling Publishing released Panda’s 3rd book, an ebook, ‘Waking & Warming Up with an app and video’s of all her exercises. And Panda’s Choreographies, 18 brand new canons with choireography, were published in the same year by Helbling Publishing. She is writing a new book called: Concert Creation, the whole picture behind the scenes.
In 2014 and 2018 she created the winning program of the Aarhus Pigekor with conductor Helle Høyer Vedel during ‘The World Choir Games’ in Riga and Tschwane- South Africa. In 2015 they won the Silver Rose Bowl of ‘Let the Peoples Sing’ in Munich, Germany.
As an atelier leader Panda has worked in different European festivals: Europa Cantat (Mainz 2006, Utrecht 2009, Bonn 2008 +2010, Pärnu/Estland 2011, Turin 2012, Bergen 2014, Pécs/Hungary 2015, Lyon 2017, Tallinn 2018, Ljubljana 2021), AMJ Eurotreff (Wolfenbüttel 2007 +2017), Leipziger Symposium für Kinder – und Jugendstimmen (2011) FCEC 48 Festival Internacional de Cant Coral (Barcelona, 2013), Choralies (Vaison-la-Romaine 2016 +2019).
In 2021/ 2022 Panda directed the opening concert of Leading Voices 2022 in Utrecht and she gave a lecture at the World Symposium of Choral Music in Istanbul, Turkey in 2023.
Panda also directs musicals, light opera and music theatre performances. She has lead her own theatre company PANDORA werktheater from 2016 until 2018 in Amsterdam.
In 2014 she won an award for ‘Best Director’ and in 2016 for ‘Best Choreography’.
*Choireography is a term that Panda invented to point out that her work is about movement which supports singing.
www.pandavanproosdij.nl