Review: Conny Janssen Danst INSTINCT - back to the basics brings out the strength of the company
- Ikuko
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
I went to watch Conny Janssen Danst's INSTINCT on Sunday, 17th May 2026 at Theater Rotterdam, the Netherlands. INSTINCT was co-created by Artistic Director Conny Janssen and choreographer Patricia van Deutekom, who has created short works for the company before.
Conny Janssen Danst produces and performs a new full-length work, which the company calls a main-stage performance for a typical duration of about 90 minutes, and goes on a marathon national tour every season. INSTINCT is the main-stage performance for this season. What is distinctive about INSTINCT is that it is the company's first ever main-stage co-creation.
In the early days of the creative process, some company dancers told me that the two creators wanted to display their own bests so the air in the rehearsing studios was almost a collusion of two distinctive characters. Nearing to the final stage of the creation, however, they said things were coming together well.
Jumping to the conclusion, it was worth the creative process ,in my opinion. Prior to INSTINCT, I watched two of Conny Janssen Danst's main stage performances, Ziel in 2024 and Normality No More in 2025. INSTINCT was the best of the three by far.
Why? Because INSTINCT went back to the basics. The abstract contemporary dance piece focused on dance and, as a result, masterfully brought out the strength of the individual company dancers and the company as a whole. The purpose of music, light, design and choreography was to make dancers dance with no frills.
Basics did not mean simple and easy. The performance opened with a film Matrix-like dark landscape. Eleven dancers, rathe than the billed twelve, donned oversized grey business suits, stood there and stared moving subtly and mechanically.
As the dance developed from one landscape to another, punctuations were natural and effortless. The versatility kept the audience engaged with the performance. The 90 minutes displayed the various technical and artistic facets of the company dancers without a show-off. Audience could see individual talents and the quality of the company as a dance troupe. That was absolutely delightful because Conny Janssen Danst is a small-size dance company with a great diversity.
Towards the end of the performance, the whole company danced a rough, raw and primitive routine yet in a precision manner. Then things melted into a sublime pas de deux performed by seasoned company dancers Adi Amit and Remy Tilburg, which felt like eternal tranquillity. But it was the finishing touch to the performance.
The show definitely made dancers dance to their limit. They were almost constantly on the stage -- there was no intermission - and some dance sequences lasted more than full three minutes - imagine a three minute solo in ballet. It seemed, however, dancers took on the gruelling challenge and the audience admired their stamina.
INSTINCT was one of the most mature and best dance performances I have watched so far in the 2025-2026 season. We have to appreciate it as art in the first place, but if I may state a socio-political message here, it was a great example of what diversity could produce.
MY PERSONAL COMMENT ON PAST TWO SHOWS
As I mentioned the company's past two main stage performances, I would like to pen short reviews about them. They are my personal opinions.
Ziel by Janssen was an ode to life in her own words. The stage looked like a basketball court without baskets. The performance was a lot of energy. It seemed like, however, a free-style movement show rather than dance art. The costume, music, design and choreography did not strike me as artistic. Although the intension to showcase the talents of individual dancers was obvious, I actually did not see any of them. The whole show felt somehow flat. A lot of elements were mixed together yet they lacked a focal point.
Normality No More by Davide Bellotta was a neurodiversity-themed, very complex, multi-layered work, which brought dancers, musicians, opera singers and an actor onto the hospital ward like stage. I always like multi-discipline stage performances and very much enjoyed the unusual mélange of this show - I think it was the whole point. In retrospect, however, it might have felt more like an art instalment compared to INSTINCT.
Updated on 3rd June 2026 to correct a typo.
