Fantasia 6+

Huma Rojo
Cayetano Soto maakte Huma Rojo in 2016 ter gelegenheid van het 20-jarig bestaan van het Amerikaanse Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Het gezelschap liet hem daarin volledig vrij, met de uitzondering dat het een speels en feestelijk ballet moest worden. Dat Soto daarin geslaagd is, is eigenlijk meteen in de openingsscène al duidelijk: in hilarische pantomime verbeelden de dansers een voice-over die spreekt over de kracht van het ego, een tekst die ontleend lijkt te zijn aan een zelfhulp-post of -podcast van een of andere ‘motivational speaker’.

M/C
Soto’s M/C staat al sinds 2011 op het repertoire van Introdans. De Catalaanse choreograaf putte voor dit cabareteske werk inspiratie uit de turbulente vriendschap tussen actrice Marilyn Monroe en Truman Capote, de beroemde schrijver die niet Audrey Hepburn maar Monroe voor Breakfast at Tiffany’s had gewild. In een briljant en hilarisch spel steekt de choreografie de draak met theater-, ballet- en alledaagse conventies.

Napoleon/Napoleon
Napoleon/Napoleon is een van Soto’s meest recente choreografieën, eind 2018 gemaakt voor BalletX in Philadelphia. Uitgangspunt voor dit werk vol komische magie was Soto’s fascinatie voor wat wel het kleine-keizer-syndroom wordt genoemd: een verstoord psychisch gedrag waarbij kinderen voortdurend aandacht vragen, onredelijke eisen stellen en hun ouders als het ware tiranniseren. 

Gallery
In Gallery, uit 1978, onderzoekt Alwin Nikolaïs zo’n beetje alles wat er met licht en dan vooral met blacklight mogelijk is. Hierdoor zie je vaak enkel bepaalde lichaamsdelen of attributen oplichten, hoofden in de ruimte zweven en dansers even snel tevoorschijn ‘ploppen’ als dat ze verdwijnen. Decennia na de première weet dit werk nog steeds toeschouwers van alle leeftijden te raken. Nikolaïs verstaat de kunst om het oog zó te begoochelen dat je bijna zou vergeten dat je naar dansende mensen kijkt.

English

In the new Introdans family show FANTASIA the Catalan choreographer Cayetano Soto takes you on a journey into his rich world of fantasy. Soto is currently booking worldwide successes with his original creations, which are often either purely poetic or grotesquely humorous, but even more often a mix of both. In the process he requires the utmost from his dancers: not only in the technical sense but also challenging them to reveal more of themselves on the stage.

When creating his works Huma Rojo, M/C and Napoleon/Napoleon, Soto took inspiration in a completely free and idiosyncratic way from, respectively, a character in a film by his compatriot Pedro Almodóvar, the friendship between writer Truman Capote and film star Marilyn Monroe, and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Which doesn’t mean that you, as a young dance spectator, need to know anything about these people in order to really enjoy Soto’s huge imaginative power and infectious dance energy.

Besides the three works by Soto, in FANTASIA you can also see Gallery by Alwin Nikolais. This American choreographer, who died in 1993, was praised during his heyday – just like Soto is now – for his inexhaustible imagination and inventiveness. 

Huma Rojo
Cayetano Soto made Huma Rojo in 2016, to mark the 20th jubilee of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in the USA. The company gave him a completely free hand apart from specifying that it should be a playful and celebratory ballet. Actually even the opening scene clearly shows that Soto succeeded in this: in a hilarious pantomime the dancers illustrate a voice-over that talks about the power of the ego, a text that seems to be derived from a self-help post or podcast by one of those ‘motivational speakers’.

M/C 
Soto’s M/C has been in the Introdans repertoire ever since 2011. Catalan choreographer Cayetano Soto was inspired to the cabaret-like M/C by the turbulent friendship between the actress Marilyn Monroe and Truman Capote, the famous author who actually wanted Monroe instead of Audrey Hepburn as the star of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In a brilliant and hilarious game the choreographer turns the conventions of theatre, ballet and everyday life on their head. Furious name-calling, breaking glasses, a plummeting chandelier: Soto shows how people, once out of the spotlight, sometimes can’t live with each other but can’t do without each other either. ‘An absolute hit,’ wrote the Flemish newspaper De Morgen.

Napoleon/Napoleon 
Napoleon/Napoleon is one of Soto’s most recent choreographies, made for BalletX in Philadelphia at the end of 2018. The starting point for this work, which is full of humorous magic, was Soto’s fascination for what is sometimes called the little emperor syndrome: disturbed psychological behaviour in which children constantly require attention, make unreasonable demands and, so to speak, tyrannise their parents. 

Gallery
In Gallery, made in 1978, Alwin Nikolaïs investigates lots of things you can do with light and above all with black light. The result is that you often see just isolated body parts or objects light up, heads floating in space and dancers who suddenly ‘pop’ into view just as quickly as they disappear again. Decades after the premiere, this work is still able to captivate audiences of all ages. Nikolais masters the art of so enchanting the eye that you forget you are watching dancing people.