Netherlands based Introdans visited Köln with a diverse triple bill of work all set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The varied programme featured Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s gently playful choreography Corpus Bach, Adonis Foniadakis’ Selon Désir and a premiere from up and coming choreographer, Manuel Vignoulle, with Anima which explores the authenticity of human experience.
Cherkaoui’s opener sees a quartet of male dancers joined on stage by a live cellist. The choreography, originally created as a duet, is expanded to four here by Introdans. They move with great flair and ease, switching from casual handstands to acrobatic jumps that surround the musician. The moves may be danced with a leisurely flow but Bach’s score gives the piece a feeling of weightiness, and there is a sombreness to the action.
There’s a pause while cellos are exchanged with knowing ironic glances. The men dressed simply in white shirts and black trousers resume this relaxed interplay that breaks off into sections with an improvised feel, before contrasting with some intricate “handography”. The quartet demonstrate impressive synchronicity for an extended period while seeking to mimic the cellist, bringing a lighter feel to the earnest strings. It’s a soothing but welcome opener that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Anima, the only premiere of the evening, is perhaps not distinctive enough from the Foniadakis piece which follows to truly impact. It sees a corps of dancers switch between hectic modern moves to more classical choreography in muted, ill-fitting suits that appear to be deliberately restrictive, representative of modern life. Three of them are eventually separated from the main group, initially manipulated into shaky shoulder stands while most are left beneath. Eventually, one dancer is isolated and stripped of his suit, left in just a skin coloured body suit, with faint outlines of human organs. What follows is repeated iterations on this, before all are eventually stripped of their suits in a predictable outcome.
Selon Desir is the visually appealing finale from Andonis Foniadakis, first seen twenty years ago but new to the Introdans repertoire this year. Dressed in colourful skirts and baggy jumpers (also the choice of the choreographer), the chorus of dancers convey a “life and suffering” through their shared experiences to the stirring sound of St John and St Matthew Passion. Bach suits suffering very well, it turns out.
There is finally some big sweeping choreography worthy of the score. It builds effectively, the whirling shapes of their free-flowing bodies, with the men too in skirts, sees an unrelenting momentum build to the commanding music. It starts and ends with the same dancer, her stillness and reflections with the whirling chaos in between before a more muted conclusion.
The corps gives way to two powerful pas de deux. There’s a pleasing physicality, the women’s loose hair flying as they are thrown into lifts and jumps with spirited commitment. There again, is a heaviness to them, a sense of dread, the need to escape. The quirky costumes, although fun seem at odds with what the rest of the piece is trying to say.
The evening is interspersed with two brief dance films. One which serves to introduce the company with black and white rehearsal footage, to a fluffy classical accompaniment. This is fortunate, as the programmes and information on offer at Oper Köln did not feature the names of the Introdans company members, notably the quartet in the opening piece and those with leading roles in the latter work, making it hard to credit appropriately.
The company is skilled, focused and passionate but the work on offer, although engaging, is not thrilling. Bach’s scores elevate through an added sense of drama and jeopardy they would otherwise lack but the overall effects are not distinctive, but rather, enjoyable interludes. The opener from Cherkaoui, undoubtedly the most successful, is but a small aperitif at just fifteen minutes running time.
