Moderne Meisjes
On march the twenty-second I’ve been to Moderne
Meisjes Introdans. This was performed by the dancers
company Introdans which has been established in
1971 with the goal to let the people in the east of the
Netherlands enjoy dance too. Nowadays it is one of
the biggest dance companies in the Netherlands. Their
repertoire is mostly modern ballet. This specific showModerne Meisjes- has been choreographed by, as they put it, ‘The three grand old ladies of
the American modern dance’ namely Lucinda Childs, Twyla Tharp and Jennifer Muller.
Basically the whole show consisted out of 4 pieces; below I’ll discuss my thoughts and
feelings per piece.
Chairman Dances by Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is said to be the queen of minimalism by her abstract almost mathematical
movements. I thought this was particularly good because of the dancers being so
synchronized and ‘clean’ in their performance. I did not really get the meaning of the frame
except to emphasize the minimalism. However a compliment to the dancer because I think it
is not easy dancing with that thing. Furthermore Lucinda Childs used the music, by John
Adams really well. To me it gave a feeling of structure just like the choreography. Though I
cannot really say that this is my favorite choreography of all time since, to me it did not
really tell anything or I just plainly did not understand it.
Junk Duet by Twyla Tharp
This whole dance was in fact a story about two people a bit teasing each other and the
woman being dominant in this. The music was very repetitive at times which made it a bit
annoying but I thought the dance was a bit lighter than the rest which was refreshing to see
almost half way the show. I mostly liked the actual duet part but also thought the female
part in this choreography was very good since it had a lot of turns and she made it look so
easy and natural while it really isn’t and costs a lot of energy. The male part was a bit funny
and odd sometimes. But why dance if you can go boxing.
Kilar by Lucinda Childs
This was the brand new choreography by Lucinda Childs, having its world premiere at the
Introdans. It mainly consisted of the men building a giant dress like frame around the female
dancers. Here I come to the conclusion that, very likely, I don’t like Lucinda Childs’s
repertoire or style that much. Also the female dancers could hardly move within those
frames. This got the movements to not be totally synchronized anymore and defeats the
whole purpose of her minimalism and the constructing of something. Also I expected
something more, after seeing the entire thing being built up I don’t think that it had a proper
ending.
Bench by Jennifer Muller
I loved this one the most from the clothing to the movement. They started out on a bench
which immediately explains the title. It was about Jennifer Muller’s concern about the
environment using the movie ‘An inconvenient Truth’ by Al Gore as not only an inspiration