Football, breakdance and spoken word merge in the dance show FTBLL ★★★☆☆

The front rows of the Meervaart are filled with red velvet booster seats. Young football fans are looking for their place in the Amsterdam theater for the daring performance FTBLL – Can you kick it by choreographer Marco Gerris (ISH). In this multidisciplinary performance, street football and freestyle football merge with breakdance and spoken word. The role of street football icon Edward van Gils is special. This innovative mix of street cultures is characteristic of Gerris’ productions: he recently did this in Elements of Freestyle also successful with extreme sports, break and basketball.

In FTBLL the disciplines alternate, stand opposite each other and move through each other. The bodies of the players betray their background: the football players push their nose slightly forward, the breakers can be recognized by their hopping gait. While the breakers overwhelm the audience with their acrobatics, the street football players notice their connection with the ball.

Inherent in football is that players do not make natural eye contact with the audience, and that is sometimes a shame. Yet you can feel the tension as Hungarian Kitti Szász, four-time world champion in freestyle football, rocks her ball back and forth on the back of her neck, pauses, and then lets it roll smoothly through her ears to her crown. It is also nice if the freestylers perform a trick in pairs or threes synchronously.

But it’s only when a breaker grabs a ball, or a soccer player tries a handstand, that their common culture becomes touchingly palpable.