Every year my daughter’s dance school has an annual show. It is normally in June but this year it was planned earlier and we were all happy for that. Eager to see the output after hours of training - everyone was ready for a show. The dance in the video above is called in dutch “2100 Toekomst” translated as “2100 Future”. It was my best attempt to record from far away in a full theatre.
Needless to say, I was very proud of my daughter and her teammates. Their "Future" dance was dramatic and invigorating and a part of this year's theme for the “Time Travel” performance.
There were approximately 400 people performing, starting from age 4 upwards. There are amateurs, semi-professionals and professionals - all dancing for fun. As there are so many performers there are always 2 shows. This year, the theater performances had more than 1300 friends and family in attendance.
A young dancer told the story of entering a peculiar looking structure out of curiousity. It was a time-machine in which she traveled to the past but later returned to the present. However, we also got a glimpse of growing older and the future as well.
All dances were based on various periods through the ages. The costumes, settings, music and dance were properly represented for each period.
Here is an excerpt of some of the settings of performances. Each dance told its own story; from the Roman times,
to the Middle Ages,
or the 1600 Dutch Golden Ages.
However time was swiftly passing by, so soon we were in the American wild west of the 1850s.
Then for the 1920’s, there was a "roaringly", fun and fitting dance.
We were reminded of the largest stock market crash of 1930,
and the sadness of war time during the early 1940’s.
It was Peace, Love and Disco in the 1970’s,
fitness in the 1980's and grunge in the 90’s.
We were all happy that we made it to Y2K - year 2000. Thereafter, the mobile phone era begun giving us many G’s for our smartphones in 2010.
2020 will be remembered with the socially distancing ballerinas who hugged at the end and threw away their masks.
2023 was very energetic and exciting with the dancers showing off the latest Tiktok trends.
We do not know what is in store for us beyond the present, but we enjoyed this cute robotic dance
and the teachers made old age look supple and energetic.
After the Future (dance video above), there was a grand finale where every group got a chance to show off additional coordination skills. Then they remained on stage for final parting words.
The sign in english behind the dancers read:
What the future will bring us,
No one can tell us yet
and so it may be best
To be accepting.
We are the future!
The audience cheered and screamed for the dancers. It was well deserved. We were also grateful to the dance school which brought the best out of the dancers. We were all proud of their efforts. It was a lovely afternoon and "time" well spent at the theater.
The video and photos are my own.
▶️ 3Speak
