Introdans captures the energy of today's world – Review
September 27, 2026
by Wendy Lubberding
With two brand-new dance works by Aristide Rontini and Andonis Foniadakis, and two pieces never before danced in the Netherlands, Introdans captures the energy of today’s world. Restless and always on the move, it is often “every man for himself”: a world where human contact can sometimes crackle and sparkle, but where flatness also prevails.
Four dancers in grey glitter shirts and dark socks with old-fashioned sock garters slowly emerge in a razor-sharp rectangle of light at eye level, with smoke curling through it. First we see the silhouette of a single head and a pair of shoulders. Then we make out three other dancers beside and behind him. In all four, the rhythm seems to flow and roll outward from their chests, into their shoulders, arms, hips and legs. Aristide Rontini delivers the most gripping part of the programme with the quartet Skin In Between.
The two men and two women move through the world like a small troupe driven by an inner pulse. It is never clear who is leading, even though they don’t always start their turns and travelling steps in perfect unison. It seems as if the signal sometimes reaches one dancer slightly earlier than another, or that one dares to give in to it sooner. A recurring gesture, with bent arms held horizontally in front of the chest, hinting at an embrace of one’s own body, forms a beautiful returning question mark.
There is no time for question marks in the evening’s other world premiere, Pulsetic by Andonis Foniadakis. Under strobe lighting, the large group of dancers performs a formation pattern at high speed that at times recalls Balanchine’s neoclassical symmetrical arrangements, but in turbo mode. Before you realise what shape you’re looking at, the dancers, like crawling corkscrews and high-leaping horses, are already on their way to the next constellation. The dancers with long hair let their locks loose, adding to the wild force of the piece.
At times it is pleasingly sharp, and there is a duet that surprises and briefly delights with zany lifts and expressive jumps full of excited energy. But the combination of relentless lighting, many scenes centred in the middle of the floor, many dancers packed closely together, and rapid encounters resulting in ultra-short interactions too often descends into a messy state.
This kind of pulsating group movement is executed more tightly in the work of Sharon Eyal, and nervous energy is channelled more effectively in Marco Goecke’s hummingbird-like dance idiom. Their strength lies in the way their dance is always partly tinged with darkness. Their dancers are figures who suffer from their own nervousness and are, against their will, part of a group organism. I don’t see that suffering here; the speed and abundance remain rather superficial.
Tagadà by Sofia Nappi also stays somewhat on the surface, despite a great soundtrack featuring Daft Punk’s Giorgio by Moroder prominently. The piece, seen in the Netherlands for the first time, seems to follow seamlessly from last winter’s Pink Panther Party XXL. It’s all about the groove and the liberation that comes from letting yourself be carried away by it. A self-evident truth, and the ensemble sections are danced with satisfying unison and precision, yet the piece didn’t quite sweep me along.
Choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano did succeed in that, with the large ensemble work Flabbergast, whose visual language borrows the best elements of Hollywood dance films from the 1950s and 1960s. This shows in Bregje van Balen’s delightful Technicolor costumes and in the spaciousness of the group choreography: the stage is used generously, with open formations, long lines and multiple layers in the dance sequences. From front to back, a theme such as “encounter” is developed simultaneously by several duets and small groups.
A funny scene has a handful of men showing off like peacocks to be admired by a woman. Each of them tries to seduce her with his very best tricks. They leap and roll proudly and provocatively in their dazzlingly coloured outfits, landing at her feet, each one more energetic than the last. And just when the Hollywood cliché starts to feel a bit drawn out, a woman with magnificently long arms leaps into the scene. Thanks to her lyrical yet incisive curves and bends and her feather-light footwork, the spark catches effortlessly.