To think of NDT2 as in some way secondary, as the name implies, to the main Nederlands Dans Theater company – NDT1 – would be a mistake, as their current production, Falling Into Shadow, demonstrates. NDT2 is nominally a feeder company where young dancers are brought on, but believe me when I say that you’d need a very keen eye to spot they difference. Perhaps on paper they are subordinate but in every practical way there is no discernible difference. In fact, I would go so far as to say this is probably one of the best triple-bills I have seen from NDT, 1 or 2.
Premiered in the old windswept Zuiderstrandtheater in November 2017, Marco Goecke’s Wir Sagen Uns Dunkles (We Tell Each Other Dark Things) is a dramatic piece set in the ubiquitous black box, danced often by solo male dancers with the occasional duet and some very tight ensemble work. To the music of Schubert and Schnittke (played live in the pit) and the pounding rock of Placebo’s The Swan Song and Song To Say Goodbye, the dancers appear and disappear as though by magic into the dark recesses of the stage. The movements are often jerky and staccato reminiscent of, perhaps because of the hazy darkness, an old silent movie – although it is not always silent. There is a nice sequence when one of the girl dancers lip-synchs to raucous laughter.
Johan Inger’s Walking Mad was first performed in 2001 in NDT’s former home, the Lucent Danstheater, a stone’s throw from Amare. This, by any standards is a brilliant piece of theatre. It starts almost like a Beckett play with a guy wearing a bowler hat and old raincoat wandering onto the stage in front of the curtain. He bends and appears to lift the curtain, revealing up-stage, a two meter high wall consisting of grey planks. It transpires that the wall is in fact twelve doors through which the dancers come and go rather like an old-fashioned farce. In fact, there are farcical elements to the piece, again like an old movie, notably a couple of chases both involving characters wearing funny hats. Bolero is so popular and over exposed that one tends to avoid it, but in Walking Mad, played live by the Dutch Ballet Orchestra, conducted by César Ramos in the pit, Ravel’s best known work takes on a new lease of life. For one of the best sequences, the music just stopped as the wall was transformed into the corner of a room while three dancers interacted with their shadows until, quite suddenly the music started up again from where it left off. The final sequence, to the more esoteric tones of Arvo Pärt, was a completely different, more melancholic affair with just two dancers.
Walking Mad demonstrates the value of having some sort of décor rather than the omni-present black box so beloved of dance companies the world over and it’s a pity one doesn’t see some sort of set more often in dance performances.
Watch Ur Mouth represents the first production of a new work by young British hip-hop inspired choreographer Botis Seva and exciting it was too with never-relenting movement by the eight street-cred dancers. With very much an urban, down ‘n’ dirty vibe, it also had the feel of a science fiction film, one of those dystopian stories where everyone wears the same clothes and has no name. The dramatic, always changing lighting by the ever brilliant Tom Visser and original music by Torben Sylvest made Watch Ur Mouth a visual and audio feast which, and with no disrespect to either the performers or Mr. Seva, could have easily have been staged without the dancers.
As I said, Falling Into Shadow is probably one of the best shows I have seen from either NDT company but I often think that it would be nice if, rather than their usual triple-bill programmes, they would produce a full-length piece. Nevertheless, seeing Nederlands Dans Theatre is always a treat, whatever the format. Michael Hasted at Amare in The Hague on 24th April 2025
Photo of Wir sagen uns Dunkles by and © Rahi Rezvani
Falling Into Shadow continues until 7th June
