Twools 1

In the first season in the new millennium, 1999-2000, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam presents a new concept. TWOOLS is a series of performances with a composite programme that will be staged exclusively in the Rotterdamse Schouwburg over the next few years.

The press release promises 'No theme, no story, but a blistering 75-minute non-stop dance collage'. Choreographers already connected to the company as well as choreographers from outside the company will present work of up to ten minutes. Short ensemble works alternate with solos and duets. There is no interval: rapid changes of scenery mark the transition from one piece to the next. All thirty dancers of the company participate, not only as dancers, but also as (co-)creators.

Together with the company, the dance makers will work with the expressive means dance has to offer. The work is created in a short period of time, which creates a specific tension and often leads to surprising choices. The audience experiences this tension while watching.

Artistic director Ed Wubbe is the creator of the concept and draws a common thread every edition, which often consists of an ensemble work that is interwoven in several parts of the programme, or several related pieces. Always with a strongly recognisable theme and design.

In this first edition, the duets stand out: Keith-Derrick Randolph, who has been dancing with Scapino for ten years and has developed into a choreographer with a fascination for the cyclical, impresses with the male duet Lament/Lamentationes. The piece is inspired by the lamentations of Jeremiah and the monks who write down these biblical texts over and over again. Michiel Jansen made an arrangement for bagpipes and piano from a piece of music by Meredith Monk.

The recently graduated, very young Nanine Linning contributes to the first TWOOLS with a new duet: Indecision Ensign. Ed Wubbe creates the lyrical duet Sophia's Delight. And Ederson Rodrigues Xavier presents the sharp The Hanging Garden, full of passion. Pearls on a chain that Wubbe strings together with Penny's Hunter, Anominees, eVirus (?), Pointless Chairs and the winking Say Cheese To The Mob.