Play

Jumping rope, inventing dance moves in front of the mirror, building your own world out of Lego or blocks — in the chaos of the present, Play takes you back to the child within. This performance explores imagination as refuge, as necessity, as a way to grasp what is larger than ourselves.

With Play, choreographer Ann Van den Broek dusts off her Barbies and dives into play as a basic human need — as a means of escape, or conversely, as a way to confront what feels out of place. Play is not a nostalgic longing for a lost childhood, but a sharp, physical exploration of the tension between imagination and reality. Playing as resistance, as comfort, as expression for the unspeakable.

The performance is raw, poetic, and direct. Through dance, performance, live video, a gritty soundscape, and an intense physical language, the performers continuously move between inner and outer worlds. They build, fall, play, and climb — in the space where imagination and reality meet and collide. Play is an ode to imagination and an invitation to dare to play again.