Many dancers and musicians from the International Dance Theatre went a long way before they joined the company. Some of them fled a war; others were driven by love, their studies, desire for a better life or adventure. These personal histories rooted in distant countries and joined in the Netherlands form the inspiration for Origins, a story without boundaries about the universal meaning of dance and music.

What happened in Istanbul, Sarajevo, Weert, Inófyta, Soerabaya, Bratislava and Buenos Aires that made these people find each other in Amsterdam in their love for dance and music? What binds them and sets them apart? And what role do background and tradition play in their lives nowadays? Origins is based on beautiful memories but also on the sacrifices the dancers and musicians made in their lives. Their stories are – just like in folklore – real and not made up, shaped by the course of time and they have not ended yet…

The choreographies vary from a stylised Latin show to the finesses of the Balinese dance. Five musicians perform live music, from an energetic Turkish Cherkes to an Algerian Malambo Sureňo.

Concept and script: Xander Straat en Yaron Abulafia
Direction: Xander Straat in collaboration with Yaron Abulafia
Concept and choice of choreography: Maurits van Geel
Music: Theo van Tol
Scenography and lighting: Yaron Abulafia