MEET THE MAKERS

FRAGILE PRESCENCE

This choreographic concept explores change as a fundamental condition of the human experience, starting from a central question: how does the body shape our inner life, our emotional state, and our way of being in the world? Through dance, the body becomes the space where the tension between external expectations and inner fragility is expressed. The performers move between the desire to disappear and the unconscious will to resist. In this struggle, the body does not give in: it vibrates, adapts, falls but continues to transform. It is within this change that a deeper truth emerges: change is not merely a transition from one state to another, but a living process, inscribed in the flesh, in the breath, in the gesture. Dance thus becomes a space of resistance and renewal, where the human being confronts their own limits and discovers, through movement, the possibility of going beyond them.

Performed with Gabriél Vassilli Biondini
Photo: Jacopo Greppi
Music:

BOUND

McKenna is an autodidact contemporary dancer creating and performing in Amsterdam and beyond. She created the platform Fledgling Dancers Amsterdam as a gathering place for blossoming dancers to perform. She can also be seen performing with contemporary collective Modern Bruises, improvisation collective Movement Laboratory, and freelancing as a dancer, actress, and producer in Europe and the United States.

Bound

This is McKenna’s new work in progress. Bound explores the process of setting and unraveling boundaries as an impetus for change. What limits exist purely in one’s mind? How can we approach situations with more curiosity and fewer pre-conceived ideas about how things are supposed to go? Conversely, how can setting limits open us to more creativity?

Music: Gwenno Morgan

DREAMING BODY

Dreaming Body was created out of a desire for escape from being caught in being a body. This last year I found this sensation arising more often that usual, and I began creating moments of dream-like existence for myself when I would be out and about, particularly at the Nieuwemeer. I would let myself exit the objectifying restrictions of being in a woman’s body, drifting into a more aerial or aquatic state by identifying not with my flesh, but with how my movement and breath can synchronize with the air around me, with the waves in the lake near my home. I began to spend more and more time in these states, letting myself become increasingly a part of these motions in the world rather than a body-object imposed upon its surface. In doing this, I feel that I have found an alternative to living in a body that is so often understood as an object. These dream-like moments of lightness between moments of living I carry around with me, secretly slipping into these dreams - the lake-body, the wind-body - whenever I felt my subjecthood disappearing. Dreaming-Body is an attempt to move these dreams.

Music: Balenescu Quartet

ACHTERUIT

Marije Neumann is a 22-year-old Dutch dancer who’s exploring her way into the professional dance world. She started taking dance more seriously when she turned 15, but took a break around 18 years old to take some time to grow into herself as a person. Now at 22 years old she’s been back for the past almost two years and is happier than ever to fully commit to dance. Mostly trained in contemporary with a foundation of ballet and some urban touches here and there she likes to create phrases and pieces with the knowledge she attained in these different styles during past years. 

Her choreography is grounded, raw, with a technical base and is formed by the dancers who perform it. She finds tuning into your own body while dancing very important and she uses that during choreographing and teaching, because each body is different and has its own unique qualities.

ACHTERUIT

‘Achteruit’ is a personal and raw contemporary dance piece that tells the story of the choreographer Marije Neumann, who’s been diagnosed with severe heart disease only a few months ago at a young age, through a small group of young dancers. 

They interact with each other in different ways through rhythmic, shifting and fractured movement to capture the different stages of grief. They move through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, all in their own ways. Connecting with each other, breaking up and being on their own, being caught in moments of frustration and helplessness, but also in quiet attempts to hold on.  

It’s about losing control of your plans for the future but also of today while feeling like you’re constantly trapped inside your own body.   

‘Achteruit’ offers an honest glimpse into the different sides that come with medical uncertainty. It is not supposed to be a ‘sob story’ or a victimizing narrative. It’s about visibility of the invisible, about showing what chronic illness can look like beneath the surface, especially in young people. 

‘Achteruit’ means backwards in English, because sometimes feeling like you’re going backwards doesn’t have to mean you can never move forwards again. 

Performed by:

Music: Tom van Wee

UNREADY

Unready tells the story of two lovers doomed by the timing of their encounter. As they fight against the creeping poison of pessimism and mistrust, they begin to change one another in ways that damage their bond. This duet reflects on how our core beliefs ultimately shape the fate of our relationships.

Music: Childish Gambino

YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL

This is a modern/contemporary solo delving into the theme of change. It questions whether love will last even when external things such as beauty and age change, exploring how time inevitably changes us all.

Music Lana del Rey

THE ROOM

My name is Irene Maglio and I'm a dancer and choreographer with a versatile background in contemporary dance, hip hop, and a strong specialization in waacking — a discipline I have explored deeply both in Italy and abroad. I began my training in ballet and contemporary dance in my hometown in Italy, and over time, I expanded my practice to urban styles, with a growing focus on the expressive, performative, and community-driven dimensions of waacking.

Over the years, I’ve been part of the Torino Waacking Project, an experience that opened the door to international performances and battles across Europe. I’ve worked as a dancer with choreographers such as Sadek Berrabah (Moncler – Milano Fashion Week), Simone Bua (Faces), Claudia Quaglia (About My First Love), Lorena Venezuela, and Urban Theory (America’s Got Talent), performing in both theatrical and street contexts in cities like Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. In theatre projects like Plastik Diva and Faces, I had the opportunity to explore the intersection between contemporary and urban choreographic languages.

Alongside my work as a performer, I’m active as a freelance choreographer and teacher of waacking and hip hop and I also collaborate as an event assistant for WaackDictionary, and continue to cultivate a strong interest in improvisation, interdisciplinary research, and collaborative creation.

THE ROOM

“The Room” arises from a personal need: to question the image I have built through waacking. The performance delves into the subtle tension between being and appearing within a context—waacking—where aesthetics and character construction can often impose limits on identity.

For a long time, I inhabited a “constructed” image that I genuinely believed was mine. Yet, at a certain point, cracks began to show: I started to wonder whether what I was expressing was truly sincere, or merely a response to external expectations.

This rupture led to a central question that continues to guide my research: “Is my dance authentic, or am I simply performing what the mainstream expects of me?” In this performance, waacking becomes both a vehicle of liberation and a symbol of constraint, a metaphor for a dual impulse: the desire to belong and the deeper urge to remain authentic.

“The Room” is an invitation to embrace imperfection, to create space for complexity, inadequacy, and nonconforming beauty. It is an act of honesty towards oneself. And perhaps one day, that little girl will find a place beyond what others expect of her.

DE WIND EN IK

This piece is about standing in the wind to feel (uitwaaien). It's about finding peace when everything feels hectic, and feeling your inner storm when everything seems to stand still. It’s about accepting change within yourself and the changes that happen every day around you.

Music:

EPHEMERA

This is a fully improvised performance. The dancers do not know the music and will compose in real time a piece without any pre-arranged agreements or scores.

Performed by: Georgina Markopoulou, Valeri, Putri Ratnawisesa, Yesica Diaz, Wiktoria Zygumunt

Directed by: Sofia Garcia Miramon