Built around the Dutch minimalist classic Canto Ostinato by composer Simeon ten Holt, the production combines live piano music, surreal imagery, and tightly crafted movement.
Minimalist music is a style based on repeating patterns and slow, gradual changes, often creating a hypnotic effect.
In Cantos, the score is performed live on two pianos by Waldemar Martynel and Igor Palmov, keeping the choreography closely tied to ten Holt’s music.
Rather than telling a straightforward story, the piece unfolds as a series of visual scenes.
The action makes the dancers appear like miniature figures in a fragile “small world” - familiar gestures look slightly strange, and everyday movements are exaggerated or distorted, echoing the unease many people feel in today’s world.
At the heart of Cantos is the theme of human folly. Kuźmiński and Bargetto draw inspiration from the darkly humorous and sometimes nightmarish etchings of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, especially his series Los Proverbios (The Proverbs) and Los Disparates (The Follies).
Created in the early 19th century, these works show masks, animal-like figures, and unsettling scenes that explore power, religion, violence and human error.
In Cantos, this spirit is translated into a stage language of masks, elaborate costumes and animalistic movement.
“The Follies of Goya give us a fantastical and grotesque reflection of our own times, where society is shaken to its core by a seemingly endless stream of moral absurdities, a carnival where the animal spirits reign,” Bargetto said ahead of the premiere.
The production shows dancers who seem at times more instinct-driven than rational, suggesting how close humans still are to their primal impulses. The stage becomes a kind of hall of mirrors, reflecting contemporary fears, desires, and contradictions.
Ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato, written between 1976 and 1979, is one of the best-known works in modern Dutch classical music.
It is built from small musical cells that repeat over a steady pulse. The composer leaves many decisions to the performers, including how long each section lasts and how the piece is shaped in performance.
This flexibility has helped make the work famous, but it also poses challenges for dance, which usually depends on precise timing.
In Cantos, Kuźmiński and Bargetto treat the score as a creative partner, searching for exact movement within music that is slightly different every night.
The cast is a truly international troupe, with dancers from Sicily, France, Japan, Turkey, Switzerland, Cuba and several other countries.
Stage and costumes are created by Austrian artist Gabriela Neubauer, who previously worked with Kuźmiński and Bargetto on their 2024 piece Memoryhouse, and has under her designer's belt numerous collaborations in her home city of Vienna and elsewhere.
Lighting is crafted by Steffen Hilbricht in collaboration with the choreographer.
Kuźmiński, born in 1985, has been creating work since 2014 and is seen as one of the leading voices in a younger generation of Polish choreographers.
His productions, often built from dynamic, multilayered movement, explore existential and philosophical themes and have been presented more than300 times in 22 countries.
He has created works for major European companies and institutions, including Germany's Staatstheater Kassel and Landestheater Linz in Austria, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań, and leading dance schools in Rotterdam, London, Arnhem and elsewhere.
Bargetto, who is responsible for concept and production dramaturgy on Cantos, is a long-time collaborator of Kuźmiński. Based in Warsaw, he leads Teatr Trans-Atlantyk, an independent Polish theatre company.
Before moving to Europe he worked for many years in New York City, where he founded the company East River Commedia and the undergroundzero festival of experimental performance.
His recent projects with Kuźmiński often respond directly to current political and social issues.
Together, Kuźmiński and Bargetto bring Cantos to Wiesbaden as a meeting point of contemporary choreography, theatre practice and striking design, woven around a Dutch musical landmark.
The result is a dance work that uses live music, surreal stage images, and international collaboration to reflect on a world marked by war, rapid technological change, and the return of authoritarian politics, while still leaving space for humour, tenderness and moments of beauty.
(rt/gs)