Match & Watch: Último Helecho

We invite you to find your new dance partner through Match & Watch. Because we believe that watching dance is a great experience, but even more beautiful when you can share it with someone. A few days before the performance, you will receive a questionnaire from us, fill it in and, based on it, we will match you with the person we believe to be your ideal dance partner. Your dance partner does not necessarily have to be romantic; it can also be a meeting of people with a shared passion.

-|-On the evening of the performance, you will be welcomed at 18:45 in Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. Here you will meet your match and get a drink from us. Afterwards, you will enjoy the performance Último helecho.

The “Match & Watch” concept is based on “Dating the Unknown” by Theater Rotterdam

Argentine and Peruvian folklore sizzles with rhythm, vitality and raw expression. Stories of violence and resistance, interwoven with European influences, resonate through dance and music. Director Nina Laisné brings together singer Nadia Larcher and dancer François Chaignaud to breathe new life into these traditions. Surrounded by six musicians, they allow Baroque and South American mythology to collide in an exuberant performance.

This sensory performance takes the audience through hidden layers of folklore and myth. Folklore does not appear as a fixed heritage, but as something that lives and changes, full of tensions and contradictions. European influences resonate alongside the often-suppressed history of indigenous communities. Here, virtuosity arises from change and fusion.

-|-Último helecho unfolds in two contrasting parts. In the first, time seems to stand still. Two hybrid figures move slowly through a dimly lit space that feels like a cave or a shelter. Voices and sounds rise from the depths, as if dance itself were emerging here anew.

In the second part, everything bursts forth. Rhythm and energy take over, footwork makes the floor reverberate. What grew underground blossoms into an exuberant, collective world full of movement.

Throughout the work, the figure of the devil from South American mythology emerges – not as a threat, but as a guide. Último helecho thus becomes a poetic journey through layers of memory, melancholy and longing: a spellbinding experience that touches the soul and opens up space for other ways of feeling and living together.

Original idea, musical and stage direction and scenography Nina Laisné
Choreography, artistic collaboration and performance François Chaignaud
Music consulting, artistic collaboration and performance Nadia Larcher

Live music
Tenor sackbut, serpent, flute Rémi Lécorché
Tenor sackbut Nicolas Vazquez
Tenor and bass sackbut Cyril Bernhard, Joan Marín
Bandoneon Jean‑Baptiste Henry
Theorb and plucked strings Daniel Zapico
Traditional percussions Vanesa Garcia

General manager Sara Ruiz Marmolejo, Anthony Merlaud
Stage manager Sara Ruiz Marmolejo, Hervé Bailly
Lighting design Abigail Fowler
Lighting technician Anthony Merlaud, Abigail Fowler
Sound technicians Alice Le Moigne, Camille Frachet, Arthur Frick, Guilhem Angot
Dresser (tour) Cara Ben Assayag, Sarah Duvert

Scenography assistant Julie Reilles
Set construction Théâtre de Liège (BE)
Costumes design Sarah Duvert, Florence Bruchon
Costumes making Théâtre de Liège (BE), Opéra de Limoges (FR)

Administration and production Zorongo (Martine Girol, Valentina Salazar Henao), Mandorle productions (Chloé Perol, Jeanne Lefèvre, Emma Forster)
Production and tour Bureau Platô – Séverine Péan

Executive production Zorongo in association with Mandorle productions

-|-Zorongo is supported by the Ministère de la Culture – DRAC Bourgogne‑Franche‑Comté
Nina Laisné is an associate artist at Le Quartz, Scène nationale de Brest
Mandorle productions is supported by the Ministère de la Culture – DRAC Auvergne‑Rhône‑Alpes and the Région Auvergne‑Rhône‑Alpes
François Chaignaud is an associate artist at Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse, the Maison de la danse and the Biennale de la danse de Lyon

Coproductions
Théâtre de Liège (BE), Les 2 Scènes – Scène nationale de Besançon (FR), Le Quartz – Scène nationale de Brest (FR), Maison de la danse / Pôle européen de création, en soutien à la Biennale de Lyon (FR), PACT Zollverein (DE), Festival d’Automne à Paris (FR), Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse (FR), Théâtre de la Ville – Paris (FR), Berliner Festspiele (DE), Théâtre Auditorium Poitiers (FR), Dans in December Brugge (BE), Le Grand R – Scène nationale La Roche‑sur‑Yon (FR), Charleroi Danse – Centre chorégraphique de Wallonie‑Bruxelles (BE), Opéra de Limoges (FR), Julidans Amsterdam (NL), Le Manège – scène nationale – Reims (FR), La Comédie de Clermont – Clermont‑Ferrand (FR), Malraux – Scène nationale Chambéry‑Savoie (FR), MC2: Maison de la Culture de Grenoble – Scène nationale (FR), Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy (FR), Château Rouge – Scène conventionnée Annemasse (FR), Theater Freiburg (DE), Oriente Occidente (IT), Théâtre Vidy‑Lausanne (CH), Festival Musica Strasbourg (FR), Maillon – Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne (FR), POLE‑SUD CDCN Strasbourg (FR), Filature – Scène nationale Mulhouse (FR), Théâtre Garonne – Scène européenne Toulouse (FR)

The show is supported by the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government and the Inver Tax Shelter
The show is supported by Interreg franco‑suisse Project n°20919 – LACS
With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels

Residencies La Ménagerie de Verre, CN D Pantin

Photography Nina Laisné, Thaïs Breton