With NEXT, Conny Janssen Danst adds yet another exciting project to the company’s activities. Every year, this project offers an opportunity to a young chorographer to create a compact performance with the dancers of the Rotterdam-based company. NEXT is a production radiating urban energy and emerging at unexpected venues. This summer you can find it at Vondelpark and festival De Parade in Amsterdam.
In the first episode of NEXT Antonin Comestaz takes on the challenge to create new work for seven dancers, to be seen throughout Rotterdam. Characteristic for the work of this French choreographer, residing in The Hague, is its playful tone and a personal, inventive, and detailed dance vocabulary with elements borrowed from folk, mime, breakdance, commercial dance, ballet, contemporary dance, and cartoons. Within a piece, drastic shifts of styles and genres may occur, knitted together by a refined sensibility for the absurd.
The dancers throw themselves with dedication and with visible pleasure into a forty-minute playful dance marathon that is captivating from start to finish. 8WEEKLY
For NEXT, I work with a diverse group of dancers. Four men, three women, with lots of energy. I want the characters of my dancers to be fully appreciated. They are not impersonal or abstract. My dancers never hide behind the choreographer. I enter the studio bringing pure, raw dance material; it is only through rehearsals that context emerges. In twosomes and threesomes, I confront the dancers with each other. Thus, the narratives and relations evolve naturally and the separate movements turn into a conversation. Antonin Comestaz
So far, so good.
Antonin Comestaz worked with energetic dancers in their early twenties with a strong team spirit. Therefore, the central theme that inspired him was ‘youth’. In so far, so good. Antonin creates a playground with a cheerful fraternity, a positive vibe and a touch of foolishness that characterizes this period of life. It’s an exploration of camaraderie and mutual aid around physical games within the group but also zooms in on individual relationships. With the title so far, so good. Antonin wants to touch on the duality that typifies youth between the carefree lightness of living in the present and the hopes and dreams for a bright future.
After successful pop-ups in Rotterdam, the dancers will travel to the Vondelpark and theatre festival De Parade in Amsterdam this summer. The opportunity to experience – according to 8WEEKLY – ‘their collective energy’, ‘which, so close to the dancers’ skin, is visible and tangible.’ .
Music
The soundtrack comprises contrasting elements of traditional and folkloric instruments and modern electronic music. Each with its color, these music genres celebrate a sense of communion. Also silence is used. This way, the dancers produce the rhythms, phrasing, and synchronicity solely through their movements, reinforcing their teamwork skills without the support of a sound grid.
Presenting a dance work in different locations and for different occasions teaches a maker to think flexibly. It breaks through fixed patterns, allowing makers to develop a new perspective on their work. Not only does NEXT provide a platform for creativity and innovation, but also pushes the boundaries of the traditional places of performance. We are convinced that, with Antonin Comestaz as the choreographer of this first edition, the audience will enjoy a dynamic, urban dance adventure. Conny Janssen