BBBRAVO!!!

While half of the Netherlands is demonstrating against the cabinet policy by voting, I am witnessing a demonstration of over thirty pupils of the Codarts Dance Company from Rotterdam. ‘Talent on the Move’ is a yearly tour programme. A collaboration between the aforementioned dance company and the Holland Dance Festival.

^{Translation: Harley Hartlief / SV Nuts}

According to the program book were being treated to 'the very best that modern dance has to offer'

No less than thirty upcoming and extremely driven dance talents, coming from every part of the world, show new work from mostly young choreographer. A promise of solo’s, duets, and ensemble pieces. The goal of Talent on the Move is to let the dancers build the necessary stage experience. The shows have been admired for almost twenty years in thirty Dutch theatres.

A few days earlier I received the news that the show had been moved from the small stage to the big stage of the Oosterpoort. Whether this had to do with overwhelming public interest or the just too small floor of the small stage, is unknown. The tickets are unplaced. Row two up until five are well occupied, then a gaping sea of empty chairs and then a well occupied, strongly ascending part of the room. What to do? Will I chose to go for the full picture in the back of the room, stretched out on row seven or eight, or will I go for a close up of 'blood, sweat and tears'? I decide on the latter. The first row is completely empty. I sit in the centre. An added bonus is the warm air being blown into the room from underneath the stage. Amazing!

"Talent on the move — © Sjoerd Derine, Holland Dance Festival, Talent on the Move 2023

I am delighted with the crystal clear program booklet. The pictures and names of the choreographers and dancers, and enough space to take notes. That’s how I get to know the twelve choreographers. All men, except for one. Remarkable. For decennia it was mostly women that shaped modern dance. Women like Conny Jansen, Andrea Leine, Regina van Berkel, Nanine Linning and Nicole Beutler. Tonight we get a flood of men because the work of the only women in the line-up is not on the programme for tonight. I have always found the tide fascinating. It is also remarkable to notice only one established name on the programme: Ed Wubbe. This Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion is a choreographer and artistic director of Scapino. He too delivers a contribution. Next to him, there are only unknown talents thrown into the deep before me.

The show opens with the work 'The First Spoon' by the Spaniard Diego Sinniger de Salas.

He describes himself mostly as 'an artist without labels'. His contribution is also the only choreography with props. A pied de stalles with a fiery red pillow with golden tassels. On it not a glass slipper, but a golden spoon. This relic is heavily guarded by four men that are busy with their mobile phones (as if they were walkie-talkies). In an unguarded moment the spoon is snatched away. The fascinating movement spectacle that follows is as if it happens during recess. One person has a bal (or the cap that belongs to the loser of the class) and everyone else tries to get their hands on it with and without success. It looks like an improvised mess, but I realize that every movement is thought out, rehearsed and performed to the second and millimetre. This promises something. This promises something incredible!

A slapstick-like pas-de-deux from the Israeli Roy Assaf on piano music. A stunning rest point after the overwhelming opening. The Italian Dario Tortorelli presents his Love Streams. As an enormous flock of starlings (a fascinating natural phenomenon) the ensemble whirls around the stage, to come to a stop just in front of the audience. Followed by a short speech from the young Swedish-Dutch dancer Eskil Dorrepaal. Born and raised in Sweden. 'An energetic child, a very energetic child', is how he describes himself. He followed his first dance education for years in Copenhagen.

In the train at 5 am every morning. No less than 4 hours of travel time, and then returning in the afternoon.

Eskil Dorrepaal slept and ate in the train, made his homework, and after a few months all of the conductors knew him by name. He would most definitely continue his studies at the leading study of Europe: Codarts Rotterdam. He auditioned and got accepted. To his own immense joy… as well as ours. Next to being a dance talent he is an incredible and mischievous charmer.

Then the Prague Jarek Cemerek presents his Ensign. A beautiful quintet with a fantastic solo by Indar Aritz Vinas. Remember that name, or even better: go see him now, in ten years he won’t be affordable anymore! After the break we see the work of the grandmaster Ed Wubbe. A grand total of four pieces, the most classic of all that is offered. To me it reads dated and incoherent. As if someone quickly pulled four old pieces of clothing out of the closet, because you’re not allowed to walk the streets naked after all. The programme gives him by far the most time. That is not a mistake I will repeat here. The beauty of the tide is that it gives and takes.

The Polish Maciej Kuźmiński studied in London and presents his Event Horizon. A crushing pas-de-deux on merely a few square metres. The man in Cardinal red, the woman in Bridal white in an almost constant shared pirouette. The way of holding each other changes: from pulling, loving, holding hostage, and pushing away. I have never seen anything like it. An absolute highlight. Façade by Andonis Foniadakis follows. An energetic and impressive ensemble piece on a rousing piece of minimal music.

And then the finale: 'The Speech' by the Dutch Wessel Oostrum.

Inspired by the iconic speech from Charlie Chaplin in the 1940 movie The Great Dictator: a satirical piece on Adolf Hitler, and the first movie in which Chaplin performed a speaking role. Wessel starts solo, the ensemble joins as the speech goes on. As the audience you feel the power, lust for life, ambition, the readiness to work hard, to waive and to triumph. The speech is largely similar to another famous speech: I have a dream by Martin Luther King, this year exactly 60 years ago. I think I might have a tissue somewhere…

On the day that half of the Netherlands is angrily changing the tide through voting, seven choreographers and thirty dancers, so almost forty very young, enthusiastic and extremely talented people at work like a tsunami. A tidal wave of innovative movements, compositions and expressions. They are looking towards the future! They are eager and ready to conquer the world. With blood, sweat and tears. I have heard their panting, seen the bruises, the violated toes, smelled the sweat and more: the splashes are on my glasses! I hope that they will not be swallowed up by established ensembles. I hope that they retain their originality and continue to develop. Carlos Ruiz Zafón already wrote (and he aimed at politics as well as art): 'How can new talents rise in this country when even the dead won’t retire'...

Main image: © Guido Bosua, Holland Dance Festival, Talent on the Move 2023
Translation: Harley Hartlief / SV Nuts

Dio van Velden

22-03-2023