Review End of Season ★★★★ - deVolkskrant

June 25, 2026
By Annette Embrechts

In the seven choreographies selected for End of Season 2026, the dancers bring subtle depth to cartoon-like movement.

The tone is light, the look is black and white, yet the impact is warm and full of colour. Introdans is performing a strong season finale through Saturday. The seven works in End of Season 2026 were selected for their black-and-white contrasts, but beneath the surface bubbles a bath of emotions.

Take the newly acquired duet Mano a Mano by Spanish-Italian choreographic duo Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich (both of whom have danced in the Netherlands).

Within a circle of light, Ruben Ameling de Leeuw and Giuseppe Calabrese—dressed in simple black—test each other’s strength. With their legs stretched backwards, they lean on one another’s arms and shoulders, yet they also push each other competitively toward the edge of the circle, a sign of distance. Still, an invisible elastic cord seems to keep them connected. Set to Astor Piazzolla’s Otoño Porteño, this intense eight-minute duet marks the end of the illustrious dance careers of these two leading artists. It is fitting that they are given one final moment in the spotlight.

Nienke Wind and Nina Dijkman are also bidding farewell after many years. They embody the essence of Introdans. In Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s deeply felt In Memoriam, Wind leads the ensemble on pointe, upright yet selfless, through a mesmerizing vortex of swirling movement. In the playful duet Floating Flowers by Taiwanese choreographer Po-Cheng Tsai, she climbs confidently onto the shoulders of the strong Salvatore Castelli, both enveloped in clouds of tulle and hoop skirts. Dijkman, meanwhile, dances with her characteristic precision and sharpness in works such as Robert Battle’s Promenade.

All of the Introdans dancers bring a subtle sense of gravity to the light-hearted humour of cartoon-like movement. It is a pleasure to see Caught return—a seemingly floating solo performed in strobe light—powerfully interpreted by Alberto Tardanico. Equally striking is the quartet in Susto by Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, where the dancers appear to be gently yet playfully sandblasted, creating a series of remarkable visual effects.

At some performances, audiences can also see Twinset, a new quartet in Introdans choreographer Adriaan Luteijn’s special Encounters series, featuring guest performers of all ages and backgrounds. In this double duet, set to gently flowing beats, two sets of twins mirror a graphic pattern of connection and separation. Arnhem-based designers Truus and Riet Spijkers, known for the fashion label Spijkers en Spijkers, begin by measuring the bodies of Elizaveta and Maria Zhukova—also twin sisters—with illuminated rods and stretching their limbs across tables as though they were lengths of fabric. Gradually, this movement language develops into an engaging dance. The fitting-room mirrors stand as silent witnesses, cleverly evoking both the dance studio and the fashion atelier.

Read the full article on de Volkskrant.