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Nederlands Dans Theater review – sensational return, and farewell, to the stage

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Paul Lightfoot and Sol León bow out with two pieces, Standby and She Remembers, bringing dancers out of lockdown

Here are two rare pieces of lockdown dance that wouldn’t look out of place in normal times. The secret to effortless social distancing, it turns out, is an enormous stage (in this case The Hague’s Lucent Danstheater) and a significant number of couples and housemates among your company who can dance together. It helps, too, to have the never less than pristine production values of Nederlands Dans Theater, and some smart choreographic ideas.

The pandemic came as NDT was in the midst of its 60th anniversary season and about to bid farewell to artistic director Paul Lightfoot and artistic advisor Sol León, leaving the company after more than 30 years as dancers and choreographers. Lightfoot and León were not about to let this significant moment fizzle away under lockdown, so they have marked it with two new dances, brought together in a matter of weeks. And while the creative partners (and former couple) usually make work together, here they’ve created individual farewells with very different approaches.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3jXTQyE
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