Enjoy in this diptych the new performance 'F.A.S.L.' and a powerful rendition of 'BOLERO' by the full ICK ensemble and ICK Next.— Emio Greco | Pieter C. Scholten
'RUIM' Sliding, falling, struggling, climbing and squeezing between slanted walls.— Collectief MAMM
On March 28th, ICK presents the 8th edition of its annual ICK-Fest at the Meervaart.
This edition once again offers a wealth of dance to admire, but we also aim to entice you into wonder and contemplation. In times of uncertainty and rising (international) tensions, what is the power of pure dance?
With a provocative evening-length program, we glide across past and present: exploring contrasts between cultures, the dividing lines between disciplines, what we call classical, and what from that tradition holds value to carry into the future. This allows you to see a sparkling new version of the piece BOLERO in a fresh light, now with a full cast challenging Ravel, and we land between the Maghreb and Europe with the border-crossing فاصل F.A.S.L..
You can also meet new makers: This time we offer space to collective MAMM, for the space they cannot find: A home! Like true Houdinis, they cram themselves into spaces too small and ask: what makes a home?
ICK-Fest lives in all spaces of the Meervaart: in the corridors and foyer, you’ll encounter vibrant exposition images and pop-up performances.
Taking to the floor yourself is even more fun, of course: You can join in with our virtual dance game Replay!
PROGRAMME
7:00 PM – RUIM by Collectief MAMM
Blue Hall, Meervaart.
8:30 PM – Double Bill: فاصل F.A.S.L. & BOLERO by Emio Greco | Pieter C. Scholten
Red Hall, Meervaart (with an intermission).
The housing crisis drives many to despair. We squeeze into 7 m², rent temporary solutions, compete in awkward housemate interviews, and wait while endlessly saving points on housing platforms.
Four dancers navigate a world on the verge of collapse: they slide, fall, wrestle, climb, and contort themselves between slanting walls. With raw acrobatics and boundless imagination, they challenge themselves to create space within tight constraints. Without a foothold, at each other’s expense, or with each other’s support.
RUIM is an acrobatic and intimate dance performance about creativity within a system that has ground to a halt. A celebration of resilience and the endless search for what truly makes a ‘home’. For when the dust has settled, one question remains:
What turns a house into a home—and what are you willing to sacrifice for it?
— فاصل F.A.S.L.
In November 2025, the new production F.A.S.L. premiered in Tunis. This performance—a collaboration with the Ballet de l’Opéra de Tunis—explores the space between worlds. Between city and desert, movement and stillness, individual and group. Fāsıl (فاصل) means pause or transition, and it is precisely there, in that in-between space, that a physical language emerges, weaving rhythm, breath, and sound into a new current. Mediterranean energy propels the performance forward. The tension of cultures meeting is given space to exist. There, a new language, a new movement, is born.
— BOLERO
It’s already 25 years since the premiere of BOLERO. An intense solo, in which dance for the first time resisted the driving beat of Ravel’s famous composition. At the dawn of a new millennium, the distinctive movement repertoire of Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten was testing the boundaries of dance’s established rules. What was the value of that rebellious body’s movement? In 2015, the same BOLERO was developed with the Ballet National de Marseille, expanding to include multiple dancers. Now, in 2026, it takes on a new form: a powerful rendition by the full ICK ensemble and ICK-Next, where the original intensity is amplified into a collective energy of many bodies on a single, pulsing musical line.
