review SPRING in Leverkusen: Introdans serves up a dance delicacy
April 4, 2024
By Monika Klein – seen on April 11, 2024 at Forum Leverkussen
Introdans serves up a dance delicacy. The Dutch company shines with a triple evening of dance.
LEVERKUSEN | One dancer almost missed the feast. Searching, the dancer explores the stage, removes the black suit, and just makes it in time to the only empty seat at the set table. This beginning already brings a smile to the lips of the audience in the full Forum hall, signaling the start of a magnificent evening of dance in the city’s cultural programme. The nerve-wracking battles for parking spaces, which were already secured by football fans almost two hours before, are forgotten in an instant.
As a German premiere, the Dutch Introdans presented the programme SPRING with three choreographies by Mauro Bigonzetti at the Forum. For Rossini Cards, the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini served as inspiration, not only as the supplier of music but also in his capacity as a gourmet and cook. So, there were high expectations for what the complete ensemble would serve at the long banquet table. One particularly part of the choreography focused not on the left legs and trained bodies initially but on the impressive expressive capabilities of hands and arms moving in absolute synchrony.
The real turbulence came only after the meal in the finale of this piece, wild yet precise. In between, there was a breathtakingly poetic pas de deux where two bodies intricately intertwined, untangled, and intertwined again in an artistic manner.
In the following choreography, Bambù, Mauro Bigonzetti also utilized hands as a special means of expression. While in Rossini Cards he mainly focused on the movement of the forearms placed vertically on the table, here he hinted at the delicate leaves sprouting from the bamboo stalks, unfolding, and then nervously fluttering in the wind. An effect derived from Japanese tradition, just like the tiny, rapid steps with which individual dancers glide across the stage, maintaining secure contact with the ground like strong plants rooted in the earth. The music for this Far Eastern-inspired piece was created by choreographer’s son Federico Bigonzetti.
In the third piece of the evening, Cantata, a lively village scene unfolded in the light of the setting sun. With all the emotions observable at a lively celebration: with flirtation and rejection, love and struggle, indulgence and fun. Here, the flowing long hair was the means used in addition to body language and movement. The village was animated and kept in motion in the style of southern Italy by four seasoned singers, who fueled the ensemble with their powerful voices, accordion, and hand drum, becoming part of the staging themselves. An outstanding evening of dance, for which the audience thanked with frenetic applause.
Read the original review here (in German).