At Festival Julidans, the Collective De Source is in strength and inspiration

Are part of a larger whole, false bonding, the consolation, support and hope of similarity, a collective without group crug and with room for the individual: in a remarkable number of performances in Julidans, the annual festival for international contemporary dance in Amsterdam, is collectivity, and associated synchronization, a characteristic aspect.

Where previously that was often presented as oppressive, the choreographers of edition 2025 celebrate the inspiring power of jointness. How, that differs. The one looks for an abstraction – even though there is a deeper, political layer – the other is personal and concrete. Sometimes the physical energy flows into wild waves over the edge of the stage, then again there is an incredible concentration and control.

In the opening performance My Fierce Ignorant Step takes the Greek Christos Papadopoulos the audience in a steadily swelling group movement; A strong challenge for the excellent dancers. From a subtle pass on site, accompanied by a static tap, both the (almost) constant synchronous choreography and the soundscape grow into a compelling, inspired final chord, a kind Yes, we can! That resonates in the room.

Similar, but again not at all, is Weathering from Faye Driscoll. Her dancers, very diverse of physical and outfit, take a position on the XXL-Kingsize mattress around which the audience sits. For a long time they seem frozen in a tableau, but those who pay attention see how that sculpture group is at least moving. The hand that first floats in the air, turns out to have been moved to another, a bag, barely perceptible, from shoulder to floor minutes later. From extremely slow to increasingly fiercer, the interaction develops on the mattress, that smoothly from Medusa. Gradually the ‘people on board’ get rid of their clothing, so that Weathering ends like a liberating and exciting ritual, with the ever -rotating mattress as a symbol for the cycle of life.

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Juvenile energy

Life Drift also expresses Jointhe massoreography that created Ioannis Mandafunis, artistic director of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, for his dancers and forty students from the Academy of Theater and Dance. It is a tsunami of youthful energy that unfortunately flows into more of the same. Mandafunis’ ‘Live choreography’, with a lot of room for improvisation, is constantly intense and exuberant, but all those around bodies and limbs make attention are relaxing. Moreover, the difference between early students and mature companion dancers is hardly out of the paint.

Mandafunis’ Contribution to the Double Bill van Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Lisasuffers (to a slightly lesser extent) on the same problem, which means that the contrast with Undertainment from William Forsythe in the same program is all the greater. With this crystal clear work, Forsythe puts an end to his career as a choreographer, nicely symbolic in the company, then called Ballett Frankfurt, with which he caused a revolution in dance in the 1980s.

Of Undertainment He plays once more magically with all the loose parts from which a movement can be built, with here and there a nod to his own oeuvre. With that arsenal of exact, clear steps and gestures, the dancers make a driven plea for the pure aesthetic power of dance – moving in all his abstraction.

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Rose

Forsythe (75) closes his career, the French Leïla Ka starts just and with Maldonne she immediately shot in the middle of the rose. In the show, five women slide from one dress to the other and always take another cliché over the woman on the grain, starting from a synchronous sequence on five rhythmic breaths. The Sloof, the browse bitch, the mother: no image remains intact in scenes that differ greatly in character; Sometimes romantic, then again grotesque or cartoonesk.

Also in When the Bleeding stops Van Lovísa ósk Gunnarsdóttir is the ‘female experience’, in this case the menopause central. In a witty monologue, the Icelandic tells about her defenses, followed by videos in which women of a certain age show themselves in all vulnerability and in dance empowerment. The Amsterdam participants in the project ensure a wonderful, also liberating final on stage.

Like in every festival, there is also a riveted mistake this year. Romeo & Juliet – Up Close Van Erna Andmarsdóttir and Halla ólaafdóttir, ‘The international stage hit’ of the Iceland Dance Company, is a performance about love as a ruthless source of misery, lust and conflict, but so adolescent and exaggerated campy that it becomes stupid. With such an annoying performance, Julidans, which lasts until Sunday, completes its broad view of the international dance world.

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