Review TWINSET/End of Season ★★★★★- Theaterparadijs

30 June 2026
by Peter Rombouts

With no fewer than two performances in one evening, Introdans brings its season to a close.
The evening begins with Twinset. In choreographer Adriaan Luteijn’s series of encounters, we meet two sets of twins: internationally renowned fashion designers Truus and Riet Spijkers, and the dancing sisters Elizaveta and Maria Zhukova. Luteijn brings together two distinct worlds that merge seamlessly through dance.
It is fascinating to see how both duos complement one another, like yin and yang, fire and water. The patterns that are explored through illuminated light bars and mirrored panels are deeply moving, thanks to the careful tenderness with which the women interact. While the designers feel at home shaping the structure of the dance, the dancers demonstrate how naturally they allow themselves to be guided by the other. This is beautifully illustrated in the scenes around the tables, where the dancers are unfolded like fabric for the designers’ creations, shaped by the Spijkers sisters. Luteijn also cleverly incorporates the numerology that frequently features in the sisters’ designs into the choreography, particularly in the scene with the light bars. As so often in Luteijn’s work, this encounter is layered, thoughtful, and highly successful.

Special mention must go to the premiere of Mano a Mano, a welcome addition to the repertoire by choreographic duo Iratxe Ansa & Igor Bacovich, set to Astor Piazzolla’s tango music Otoño Porteño. Dressed in black with transparent tops, two male dancers engage in a powerful duet in which mutual respect underpins every challenge and confrontation. What a magnificent farewell performance for Giuseppe Calabrese and Ruben Ameling, who have elevated the company to such a high artistic level over so many years.

Calabrese and Ameling also shine alongside their female partners in the quartet Susto by Paul Lightfoot & Sol León, where the dancers perform beneath a giant hourglass.
David Parsons’ solo Caught, in which strobe lighting creates the illusion that the dancer is flying through space, is performed brilliantly by Alberto Tardanico.
The humour and lightness of SH-BOOM by Paul Lightfoot & Sol León are delightful, as is Promenade by Robert Battle, in which the dancers display both their individuality and impeccable comic timing.
The evening also marks the farewell of Nina Dijkman, who demonstrates her artistry in Promenade by Robert Battle. Nienke Wind is equally captivating in the poetic duet Floating Flowers by Po-Cheng Tsai.

The programme concludes with In Memoriam by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. This ballet is the crowning jewel of Introdans’ repertoire and one of the most beautiful ballets ever created. Here, too, Nienke Wind shines once more as she leads the full ensemble through the meditative final section of the work.

All in all, this was an emotional and immensely beautiful farewell to four outstanding dancers. At the same time, it offered an inspiring glimpse of what promises to be an exciting new theatre season for Introdans.

Seen on 27 June at Theater Orpheus, Apeldoorn.

Read the review on theaterparadijs.nl