Dance of many colours at Colours with Cie Amala Dianor

Theaterhaus, Stuttgart
June 27, 2025

Akram Khan’s new Turning of Bones the previous evening was dark and mysterious, and came with a lot of foreboding. Compagnie Amala Dianor’s double bill of M&M and Level Up could hardly have been more different. Here was dance of every shade. And as Jeannette Andersen felt in her recent review of the programme in Munich, and all with not so much a smile on its face as a huge grin.

The evening purely and simply about the fun of dancing opened with M&M, the title presumably a reference to its dancers’ names. Marion Alzieu starts it off, dancing, one senses, for the sheer pleasure of moving. When Mwendwa Marchand arrives, there’s friendly recognition, a relationship clear.

In terms of style, the choreography defies categorisation, although hip-hop and contemporary are to the fore. There’s Jamaican dance hall in there too. I especially loved the way travelling movement suddenly slowed to a momentary suspension, but never quite a full stop. It’s sometimes conversational, sometimes a little like a game. Although very much a duet, there is only one moment of contact, when one lays a gentle hand on the other’s back. It sometimes comes together in brief unison bursts, but is always fun for them you sense, and so for us too.

Level Up, which followed, is a joy right from the off. With a clubbing background, Sangram Mukhopadhyay fuses traditional Indian dances with voguing, electro and waacking. Connection is immediate as he invites you to share in his joyful dance.

The energy levels are stratospheric as the other dancers slowly join in, each bringing their particular styles to the stage, which becomes a sort of meeting place. The dance has a wonderful freedom.

Individually, apart from Mukhopadhyay, I particularly enjoyed the rhythms, fast footwork and contemporary movement of South African performer Kgotsofalang Joseph Mavundla and his pantsula. Supported brilliantly by live DJ Awir Leon, there were also gymnastic flips, fizzing hip-hop that includes some very impressive balances, voguing, more waacking as so much more. And there’s a few splashes of humour too.

When the ensemble come together, the movement may essentially be the same, but each does it in their own way. It’s about being part of a community, but still being individual. The audience get to be part of that community too, being invited to the stage for the finale.

One of the features of Colours has been its open rehearsals of new work. The same afternoon, I had the pleasure of being at the first such for Barak Marshall’s Barker, performed by the six dancers of Gauthier Dance Juniors. It’s sort of about life. And just like life, it’s more than a little bit bonkers at times. It’s also great fun, with some incredibly inventive scenes. Oh yes, and some terrific dance from the six performers. I can’t wait to see the finished version in a couple of weeks.

Elsewhere, the gaily bedecked Theaterhaus buzzes with anticipation. This year’s Colours sees it host fifteen stage programmes including two world premieres (Turning of Bones and Barker), plus four European and two German premieres. Apart from Akram Khan, among the big-name visitors are Eastman|Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Hofesh Shechter Company, Compagnie Marie Chouinard and Botis Seva|Far From The Norm. There’s also an intriguing meeting of breakdancing and tap in the centre will not hold by Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance. Rising names include OtroLado Dance from Cuba, Côté Danse from Canada and Shahar Binyamini from Israel. And looking ahead, during a three-week Colours residency, Italian choreohrapher Sofia Nappi and her company Komoco, will lay the foundations for a new piece to be shown at the next festival in 2027.

But Colours reaches way beyond the Theaterhaus. The extensive Colours in the City programme includes the established Colours Playground on Stuttgart’s central Schlossplatz and Family Day at Wilhelma Zoological-Botanical Garden, plus Pop-Ups with ‘animator’ Eric Gauthier in the city. The festival is also playing flying visits to its Stuttgart partner organisers. Stuttgart really is dancing this summer!

Colours International Dance Festival continues to July 13, 2025.