Highflying Superstars aim to please

By: Christiaan du Plessis

As brightly coloured bodies travelled across the stage as one entity, they brought endless smiles to the faces of the audience. The Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre last night was blessed with extraordinary talent; SUPERSTARS-INTRODANS (Holland) glided across the stage, performing gravity-defying moves. The neoclassical ballet influence makes for precision, immaculate technique and a clear narrative in performance. Their dance work is of the highest technical standard.


INTRODANS caters for a broad audience, creating dance work for young and old. They also travel the world to showcase to a broader audience their high quality dance performances. At this year’s JOMBA! festival we were blessed to see some of the company’s most popular choreographic works,  including Polish Pieces choreographed by Hans van Manen, Evening Songs choreographed by Jiri Kylian, Pas de Danse  choreographed by Mats Ek, Anaphase choreographed by Ohad Naharin and  Sinfonia India  choreographed by Nacho Duato.

All the dance pieces displayed the same quality of technique  and precision, drawing from the neoclassical and contemporary dance styles. In the first piece, Polish Pieces, the movement had round flowing movement. The transitions, line formations and precision of this dance piece were breath-taking. The lighting and the brightly-coloured costumes added depth to the dance piece, creating mesmerising imagery.

Evening Songs followed, with dancers dressed in white, as  three women formed an interlocking trio before making a transition to three male dancers. The choral music created the undertone for the piece giving it a church-like feeling, which created the imagery of couples getting married.

The last piece before interval was Pas de Danse that had a fascinating story line filled with humour. The piece was made to get the audience’s attention, opening with the male solo dancer’s  extraordinary movements. From the smallest movements to leaping across the stage, he had us engaged the entire time. As the other dancers entered it seemed that he was not as sad and pathetic as the opening suggested; he was full of life and enjoyed the journey, although by the end of the piece he was left alone again, and back where he started.

Moving into the last two dance segments the audience was ready to be wowed all over again. Anaphase was just the right way to begin the second half of the performance, bringing some humour and sexual innuendoes into play. The dance was a quirky duet playing with moments and movements that could be linked to a children’s story.  The piece ended with the dancers hugging each other, eliciting an overwhelming  “ahh” from the audience.

Sinfonia India concluded the night’s performances with the most incredible dance moves, formations, precision and lifts. The piece left photographic images on stage for the audience to embrace. This piece used a basic neutral costumes to showcase the dancers talent and movement ability. The dance had a strong ballet influence and left the audience wanting more. This was a spectacular night of dance for INTRODANS and the 2013 JOMBA! Experience.