Each year, the dancers of NDT 1 and NDT 2 organize a unique programme: Switch. An evening composed entirely by the dancers themselves, of which all proceeds will go to a charity of their choice. The 2025 edition will take place on January 18.
View the NDT 2 programme Lucid Variations as video on demand in Digital Theatre.
Dear friends,
Welcome to Raw are the roots, an evening with NDT 1 featuring world premieres by internationally acclaimed artists Felix Landerer and choreographic duo Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar. As the title suggests, the evening celebrates the vulnerability and daringness it takes to dig deeply into new ideas, sensations, and approaches within the act of creation.
I contain multitudes is Landerer’s anticipated debut for NDT 1 which takes inspiration from Walt Whitman’s seminal poem Song of Myself (1855). In this captivating work, Landerer explores the boundaries of the self, reflecting on the multitudes that are within a human being and the complexities and contradictions they can collectively create.
After seven years, we are excited to share a new work by Eyal & Behar. With Jakie, this dynamic duo finds renewed force, a place where the sensual and unexpected meet in fascinating contrast highlighting the hypnotic virtuosity of the dancers of NDT 1. The work pronounces the continued artistic experimentation of Eyal and Behar’s originality.
A heartfelt thank you to Felix, Sharon, Gai, our many wonderful collaborators, the dancers, and the team at NDT for their incredible hard work, creativity, and passion in realizing this inspired programme.
We hope you enjoy the evening! Thank you for being here.
Emily Molnar
Artistic Director
MUSIC
New composition by Christof Littmann
LIGHT
Felix Landerer in collaboration with Barry van Oosten
DECOR
Felix Landerer in collaboration with Barry van Oosten and Tjitte Meijer
COSTUMES
Bregje van Balen
NDT REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
Tamako Akiyama
WORLD PREMIERE
May 11, 2023, Amare The Hague
DURATION
40 min
View photos in the gallery
Alexander Andison, Fay van Baar, Anna Bekirova, Emmitt Cawley, Isla Clarke, Surimu Fukushi, Boston Gallacher, Nicole Ishimaru, Genevieve O’Keeffe, Kele Roberson, Lea Ved / Tess Voelker, Nicole Ward
“The idea for the work developed around the phrase “tolerance for ambiguity”. It reflects on the increasing challenge of tolerating differences and contradictions in ourselves and others. The work explores what it means to be hemmed in with a multitude of perspectives, to occasionally search for consensus and to allow for it not to be found.”
– Felix Landerer
Boston Gallacher about I contain multitudes:
“In my experience, the audience’s perception of the worth of a dance piece is often equated to the level of extreme physical exertion by the dancers. “Using the dancers to the fullest of their abilities” often refers to their use of flexibility, strength and exacting formations, but there are many aspects of dance that transcend the purely physical. To watch dance and to dance are very different experiences.
As a person who does a lot of watching and dancing, I find that the smallest details and textures create a longevity of attention and potential for surprise that sweat alone can’t sustain. For example: I think of my body as a chest of drawers, each drawer occupied with a different texture. My ribcage is filled with scorpions, my mouth with assorted marbles and my hands with miniature construction cranes. Felix is a creator who allows you to step into the fullness of your own imagination, while shaping his own world around it.
The experience of dancing and watching Felix’s work is made compelling by his commitment to questioning and seeking intention. The performative state is something to be questioned. Security and insecurity are things that can be composed with. Suddenly the infinite library of movement and texture that lives in the dancer’s body is expanded even further by the uncovering of emotional responses to sensation. The nature of movement, much like the nature of opinion, can easily fall into a binary of extremes when in reality there are endless facets to each truth. Dance has the potential to transcend language through the sensorial knowledge of the body. Sensitivity and misunderstanding, anti-climax and tensive interaction: with this work I am feeling, so much, the fullest of my sensorial ability.
Felix is one of my favourite makers active today and I cherish the chance for my final creation with NDT to be with him. I hope you, as the watchers of this dance, can allow yourself this moment to find your own personal fascination somewhere in what we have to show you.”
Fay van Baar about I contain multitudes:
“Felix’s work goes far beyond the abstract movement you see. The choreography merely exists as a framework which we fill with creative intention. Despite the presence of an audience, he asks us not to ‘perform’ at any point; We are instead challenged to genuinely experience each movement in the moment. He encourages each dancer to maintain a constant dialogue with our own body, the other people in the room, and even the space itself. This specific approach to movement is unique to Felix’s work and has been incredibly enriching.”
Felix Landerer’s new production is co-sponsored by Ammodo.
ASSISTANTS TO THE CHOREOGRAPHER
Clyde E. Archer, Guido Dutilh, Leo Lerus
MUSIC
New composition by Ori Lichtik, including music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, performed by Alva Noto: The Revenant Main Theme, © New Regency Music Inc., Milan Records, Sony Music Publishing.
Einstürzende Neubauten: GS1. Written by Blixa Bargeld. NU Unruh, Alexander Hacke, Jochen Arbeit, Rudolph Moser. Published by Freibank Musikverlage/CTM Publishing. Courtesy of POTOMAK.
LIGHT
Alon Cohen
DECOR
Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar
COSTUMES
Sharon Eyal in collaboration with NDT’s Costume Department
NDT REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
Francesca Caroti
WORLD PREMIERE
May 11, 2023, Amare The Hague
DURATION
35 min
View photos in the gallery
Fay van Baar, Anna Bekirova, Conner Bormann, Pamela Campos, Emmitt Cawley, Thalia Crymble, Scott Fowler, Aram Hasler, Nicole Ishimaru, Chuck Jones, Genevieve O’Keeffe, Kele Roberson, Charlie Skuy, Yukino Takaura, Theophilus Vesely, Nicole Ward
“Jakie is a twin… she breathes in the dark… alone… he loves her… her wounds are glowing… licking her …. asleep 💔”
– Sharon Eyal
Genevieve O’Keeffe about Jakie:
”From our very first day working in the studio with Sharon and Ori, parts of Jakie were already visible, as if the piece already had a form and a feeling, just not yet bodies to carry it.
Each idea we explored had a clear identity and sense or belonging to this world we were revealing. Although I might not have known the choreography, I could understand the state my body needed to be in and the imaginative sensitivity I should search for.
I have always enjoyed pieces where my colleagues feel near, when I am part of a whole and carried by our shared energy.
To work with Sharon and her team for the first time has been a privilege and a joy. Her clarity of vision, excitement and humility have brought us a work which has pushed me to forget any limits I thought existed and surrender to the overwhelming.”
Scott Fowler about Jakie:
“Without a doubt, the making of Jakie has been one of the most wonderfully wild and lively creation processes I have ever been a part of. Never have I been in a collaboration that has felt so chaotic and cohesive at once, with such an unrelenting progression, leaving no space for excessive doubt or inhibition. Sharon creates not by careful thought or predetermined planning, but by unrestrained impulses she feels in the moment. The movement is embodied through her recorded improvisations. The music is Ori Lichtik’s infectious beats and samples, generated from a part DJ-setup part research lab hybrid he works at in the corner of the studio. And the piece itself is made from these two things existing at once, while Sharon is at the front of the studio, mic in hand, dancing with us as she shouts commands over the incessant drive of the music. This means that as dancers we were moving together, listening and following direction at the same time. As demanding as these moments are, it is what I find so beautiful about the process. As someone who can easily get caught up in analysis and overthinking, I was forced to work in a different way, having to make choices through impulse or instinct at a moments notice. The result is an experience that feels more alive and even genuine, which I hope the audience will sense as they watch.”
View more photos in the gallery
