Arnhem's Introdans has been around for fifty years! To celebrate this, the company has put together an extra anniversary production that will only be shown during this eighteenth Holland Dance Festival. Introdans establishes a clear relationship with the festival and the city of The Hague. The program first includes three masterful ballets by Jiří Kylián, the choreographer who brought world fame to the Netherlands Dance Theater based in The Hague and whose work has frequently been part of the Holland Dance Festival. In addition, Introdans presents Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's enchanting In Memoriam, a work that Introdans director Roel Voorintholt saw for the first time during the Holland Dance Festival and which he was so impressed with that it laid the foundation for a wonderful and warm working relationship between the Flemish-Moroccan choreographer and Voorintholt's company.
Under a sky of burning candles
In recent years, Introdans has built up a considerable Kylián oeuvre and no fewer than fifteen ballets by the master choreographer are now in the company's repertoire. In this festival the group presents two of them, plus a premiere work for the company. The performance opens with Un Ballo, a beautifully subdued, atmospheric musical ballet based on two compositions by Ravel, performed under a magical sky of eighty burning candles. New for Introdans is Petite Mort, a masterpiece from Kylián's famous black-and-white period based on the slow movements from Mozart's two most famous piano concertos. Mozart was also the source of inspiration for the third work, Sechs Tänze, but in a very different way: in the absurdist work - full of droll humor, dusty powder wigs, hoop skirts on wheels, amiable nods and crestfallen pouts - Kylián shows himself at his most playful. and frenzied side.
Intoxicating
After the break, the celebrating company will dance the complete version of Cherkaoui's widely acclaimed In Memoriam, in which the celebrated Moroccan-Flemish choreographer pays tribute to his ancestors and recently deceased relatives. The meditative choreography explores the bond between reality and memory, set to beautiful polyphonic singing by the Corsican ensemble A Filetta. In an imaginary underworld, the dancers explore magnetic and polarizing forces such as softness and aggression, attraction and repulsion, in order to understand the meaning of the word 'harmony'. The effect is downright intoxicating.
Prinses Beatrix Spierfonds, Introdans & The Holland Dance Festival
The extra festive performance on February 10 is dedicated to the Princess Beatrix Muscle Fund. Dance symbolizes the ultimate freedom of movement. A freedom that starts with healthy muscles. This freedom is not self-evident for people with a muscular disease. That is why Princess Beatrix Spierfonds, Introdans and Holland Dance Festival are working together to raise money for research into curing these diseases. Dancers fight a daily battle to win, they want to get the most out of their bodies. Unfortunately, people with a muscle disease fight a completely different, unequal battle with their body. And we use this contrast to draw attention to muscle diseases through dance. United in a beautiful evening full of beautiful dance.
