A glimpse into the future

Yesterday, I had a glimpse of the future. Watching Dansateliers’ One Nights Dance is like having the first seats to the future of dance. It is watching potential shine through a new generation of makers.
Yesterday, I watched four dancers who I believe can become makers if they continue to put in the work. I saw styles and breeding ideas that could bloom into exciting choreographies. In this residency, they had an intense period of 7 weeks to learn about making and creating in the world of dance, from dramaturgy to lighting, from concepts in choreography to meaning-making through movement. So what they show us is a beginning, just a glimpse of what they could become.
Zeddrich Startke left a particularly strong impression. He comes from a popping and breaking background and I learned that this was his very first encounter with dance-making. In his piece, inspired by his relationship with his father, he explored the weight foundational relationships have in the way we interact with the world, others and ourselves. Showing a relationship in a solo can be quite tricky, but Zedderich managed to do that in a tasteful way using the popping technique to create expression through his hands. My favorite part though was when he used and interacted with a side spotlight that created a beautiful diagonal on stage. I also appreciated him taking the time in his introduction of the piece, walking slowly and playing with the shadows he created in a blank fabric hanging from the ceiling mid-stage. He had the patience to set up the scene and introduced popping and breaking vocabulary slowly to the audience, which created an atmosphere of delicacy and subtility that I appreciated.
The performance that for me lacked distinction was that of Karlijn Roest. Her talent as a dancer and performer is not in question, but hers was the only piece I could not see going further. In Beholders Eye wanted to question feelings of discomfort that arise from external expectations confronted with internal truths. She also wanted to touch upon the feelings of belonging and inadequacy. Although the start hit the right spot – the performer entered through a squeaky door in a contorted pose into a stage that was bathed in red LED light – that feeling of discomfort left too quickly. Soon, the performer started to use repetition and movements that broke the conventions of classical dance tradition, ala Isadora Ducan. She was breaking free from expectations. However, because it has been about 100 years that performers have been breaking free from conventions on stage, instead of being disruptive, the performance seemed more like an unoriginal demonstration of contemporary dance. The ideas of confronting cultural dualities and feelings of belonging and inadequacy are quite actual and have the potential to create good performance. I am just not sure if the performer chose the most appropriate method of exploring the theme.
I will not leave without mentioning Thea Atladóttir’s and Miila Kaarina’s performances. Thea wanted to bring the inner struggles of perfectionism and external pressure with the will to break expectations. She chose to mock ballet in a funny and light performance. Although the topic might be unoriginal, she showed great comic timing. I really appreciate her capacity to bring humor not only in her performance but in her dramaturgical structure, which is something refreshing to see in dance. I hope she explores those qualities in the future because humor in dance is something which I crave. Miila’s performance made me wish we saw more voguing on the main stages. The style brings such performativity and presence to the stage, being both empowering and delicate. I think Miila still has a long way to go in exploring how to use her movement language to convey the message she wants, and how to balance different choreographic elements in the composition of the piece, but I cannot wait to follow her development.
To end in a cliché, yet my genuine wish: I hope the makers I saw continue their paths and keep on discovering their style and movement language. I hope they continue to learn about performance and concept development and that they bring exciting and fresh ideas to the dance world.