Review: NDT Resonance - How did they know about my past?
- Ikuko
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
I went to watch Nederlands Dans Theater's (NDT1) Resonance triple bill on Sunday, 14th December 2025 at their homeground Amare theater in Den Haag, the Netherlands.
The programme featured Jiří Kylián's Mémoires d’Oubliettes (2009), Crystal Pite's The Statement (2016) and Marco Goecke's Woke Up Blind (2016) with Cast A. The first glance of Kylián-Pite-Goecke looked a little too commercial to my taste. But there are reasons why these choreographers are popular. And NDT is always original. So I decided to go in the last minute. I knew NDT was almost always good anyway. Jumping to the conclusion, I am glad I did.
Amare's Danstheater (dance theater) is very well designed in my opinion. Audiences have quite a good view of the stage wherever their seats are. So I bought the cheapest seat although I usually buy the cheapest seat for any show.
As the programme's title, Resonance, suggested, the underlying theme was, at least to me, the echoes of human voices.
Kylián's Mémoires d’Oubliettes, memories from oblivion in English, is his last choreography creation for NDT. He was its artistic director for about 25 years, from 1975 to 1999. His numerous collaborations with the company stretched before and after his tenure (Not to be confused with the 2011 Forgotten Memories documentary film about him).
Kylián's works are almost always poetic. This work seemed especially poetic, as well as fragmented and personal. It was as if the great choreographer's memoire. He revisited memory lanes with NDT as if he was guided by whispering voices. Dancers started collecting fragments of memories like a garbage with a big sweep. But these fragments, made of some type of metal, were too shiny to be disposed of as a garbage. They made lots of noises as if they were present now. The memory-garbages started piling up, of course, because they were collected from over the past few decades. At the end, a dancer banishes in falling memory-garbages while another stared at the void.
So ephemeral. Kylián is too great to banish as a mere piece of memory -- the world would not allow that -- but now I recalled some once acquaintance and friends, who disappeared from my life into oblivion.
The second piece was Crystal Pite's The Statement. Set in a corporate meeting room with a table occupying the centre of the stage, four dancers dressed in corporate outfit attempted to work on a crisis management. A table quickly turned around and a senior manager was tricked to take responsibilities of the crisis.
The Statement, written by Jonathan Young, is a work of about 20 minutes, something like a concise version of her own company Kidd Pivot's signature style, which I saw in Betroffenheit and Revisor. The first half or the first one-third of these works are theatrical and dancers "dance" to pre-recorded lines. Then the things blend into fragmented words and music. I love Young's voice. Not only has he a fine actor's voice but also foretells me that something amazing will happen on the stage in an unexpected way.
Having said that, I had watched The Statement with The Royal Ballet. I believe it was just after the Covid reopening. So I knew what was coming choreography-wise. However, this with NDT was much more gripping and dramatic, maybe, because of a nuance of musicality. Maybe the sticky-ness of dancers' moves. Somehow, it came as unexpected to realise the true nature of this work. (Please do not get me wrong, though, The Royal Ballet dancers are always great.)
Another thing, which is personal to me, about The Statement is that it is not a museum art. I was a journalist writing about markets, companies, businesses and industries. The news agency I worked for was one of the largests in the world so I was a corporate soldier myself. I have seen an investment bank go bankrupt, one trader's bad positions crash the global market and sudden departures of senior managements be addressed by one press release. I know a friend who quit journalism after being backstabbed. I might have been backstabbed. I might have backstabbed someone. So the situation that happens in The Statement happens more often in the real world than one might think and it brought me back to those days with bitter-sweet feelings. I am sure there were some in the audience and wealthy donors, who have been in similar situations and found The Statement too real.
The last piece of the triple bill was Marco Goecke's Woke Up Blind, set to Jeff Buckley's vocal. This was the main reason I decided to go to this show. I wanted to hear Jeff Buckley's songs for the first time in many years. Eternal youth.
Why? My ex-boyfrined in a toxic relationship many moons ago gave me a CD of Buckley's sole studio album, Grace. I loved his voice even after the relationship ended, thankfully. Fast forward to a few years ago, I was putting things away and found the CD and thought I might play it. I opened the CD case and somehow it was empty. I did not remember if or where I left it. I could not find it anywhere in my small living space. Somehow, my days of being an idiot went missing. I did not miss the ex but I missed Buckley. I could have downloaded his songs but I did not.
That's why I was glad I went to this show. Ah, how I indulged myself to the music.
The dance was also brilliant. Goecke is not my favorite choreographer but I understand why he is good. He brings out the best of NDT, technically, physically and artistically. In addition, Woke Up Blind woke up my youth. Am I blind? I do not know.
Of course, Kylián and Pite are equally best to bring the best of NDT in their distinctive unique styles. NDT is arguably the best contemporary dance company in the world, not one of the. So I witnessed superior forms of the contemporary dance at one place.
What made this triple bill more superior was beyond visual and techniques. It was not an artwork in museum but it involved audiences. Majority of the audience, if not everyone, can relate to it. It probably touched everyone's personal memories, bitter or sweet. For me personally, it opened up my old wounds. Simultaneously, it was like catharsis. It was like a brutal therapy telling me to let some things go and move forward.
Even more, any superior dance pieces are not so ephemeral. They echo in your head for long time. The Resonance triple bill is definitely one of them.
How did they know about my past? I do not know.
All image were taken by my iPhone and iPad.
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Updated on 3rd January 2026 to add omitted words.
