Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT 2)

On popular demand Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) is returning to Berliner Festspiele! This time, the second company NDT 2 will be dancing a programme of four pieces in five consecutive performances between 11 October and 14 October 2018, including a matinée performance on 14 October. The Berlin audience will be offered a slice of the extremely varied NDT 2 repertory. Alongside older and newer works by house choreographers Sol León & Paul Lightfoot – “Sad case” (1998) and “Subtle Dust” (2018) -, the dancers will also perform “Wir sagen uns Dunkles” (2017) by NDT associate choreographer Marco Goecke and “mutual comfort” (2015) by Edward Clug. All four pieces will be performed in Berlin for the very first time.

“Sad Case” was created in 1998 when Sol León was seven months pregnant with their daughter. The piece acts as one of the main pillars of house choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s oeuvre. Unexpected and earthly movements on Mexican mambo music show a continual search for the tension between satirical and classic moments.

For “Subtle Dust” (2018), their newest NDT 2 creation, Leon & Lightfoot revisited the music of J.S. Bach whose influence has impacted the choreographers’ career significantly. In this work, the concept of transformation plays a crucial role, as it does in all our lives, be it physical, emotional or spiritual. “Subtle Dust” therefore highlights the transformation of the young and talented artists of NDT 2, in an effort to support them in their own path of growth and change.

“Today, my feelings belong to the dancers, more than ever before”, said Goecke after creating “Wir sagen uns Dunkles” (2017), one of his newer creations for NDT 2. About this work, his dramaturg Nadja Kadel explained: “[The work] begins with encounters in the studio between the choreographer and the dancers. Their meetings appear unimportant, yet simultaneously they are more important than anything else; young, naughty and evil, playful and punky. […] A blink of the eye, a glance, a seemingly fleeting gesture. […] The sounds of Schubert and Schnittke meet those of Placebo, The Swan Song and Song To Say Goodbye. Then there are the rattling pants, its sound interfering with the music. The dancers move limitless, fast, virtuoso, gesticulate in peculiar ways, unconscious yet self-assured, and - whether solo, in a pas de deux or larger group - they communicate in Goecke's language, as if they had never learned another. Darkness Spoken, without words.”

“mutual comfort” (2015) marked Edward Clug’s debut with NDT. The short choreography proved exemplary for Clug’s detailed and sharply defined choreographic style. Often, its most distinguishing feature tends to be twitchiness where the bodies flick and jerk so extremely and frequently that it can be interpreted as punctuation; a certain acknowledgment of the beat. As a choreographer, Clug is interested in highlighting the dancer’s individual experience by keeping it fresh in its approach. By doing so, his work leans towards emphasising a personal experience that arises from the process of creation that is led by illuminating human contradictions, imparting surprising moments of beauty and spontaneous irony.