Jury statement on "Shelter (Jaszak)" Simone de Jong Company (Netherlands)

With "Shelter", the Simone de Jong Company presents a touching and nuanced exploration of a theme rarely addressed for very young audiences: houselessness or life without a fixed home—and the question of how we protect ourselves and find our place in a changing world.

At its center is a figure who, with simple means and strong physical presence, unfolds a tension between vulnerability and resilience. Inspired by the idea of the so-called 'Sheltersuit', a physical and musical performance emerges in which inner and outer worlds, protection and openness, withdrawal and encounter continuously shift and reconfigure.

The performance addresses its young audience not through explanatory narrative, but through movement, rhythm and sound, and through a clear, sensuous performance style. It develops into a work that is both poetically dense and surprisingly humorous: through subtle physical comedy and playful twists, existential themes are made accessible without being simplified. This creates a space of experience in which questions of shelter, belonging and transformation become tangible through the senses – and in which every child can find their own way to engage.