Loople Amsterdam

Delay the Sadness invites us into a world of feelings: sensations of sorrow, beauty and love at the same time, and the strength to keep moving, even in the midst of loss.

What happens when dance emerges from loss? Choreographer Sharon Eyal explores how grief, love and memory can be transformed into movement and how it can express the sense of life, the continuity and its vitality. She dedicates this work to her mother Adina – the first time Eyal has dedicated such a personal performance to one specific person.
Programme section Julidans On Stage

Dutch premiere

Location Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
Venue Rabozaal
Run time 55 minutes
Language Language no problem

DELAY THE SADNESS

Yet the performance reaches beyond a single tale. It is an ode to all mothers, to the life they pass on and to what remains. Sadness and joy coexist. Grief is not an endpoint, but an attempt to postpone the pain and make room for the beautiful elements of life that continues.

Between eight dancers on stage, a physical journey through life unfolds, from youth to old age, in which the atmosphere gradually grows darker and more intense. The language of movement is instantly recognisable: slightly bent knees, a torso leaning forward, bodies condensing into a single pulsating whole.

Eyal’s style is outspoken and delicate with a reference to classical ballet which can be seen as a movement method in which dance arises from emotion and imagination. She combines the precision of academic dance and the energy of visceral movements. In doing so, she develops a new vocabulary of ballet – in the tradition of innovators such as William Forsythe and George Balanchine, on whose innovative spirit she builds. In her hands, ballet remains in constant motion: recognisable, yet ever-shifting.

The specially composed music by Josef Laimon, together with lighting, costumes and even scent, creates a sensory environment that supports and deepens the dance.

Continuation of life after death

Continuation of sadness and purity

Continuation of mother

Emotions

Memories

I remember, recall, imagine, dream

Dancing… breathing… suffocating… stopping…

- Sharon Eyal

A journey through sound, history, and human expression.

On 8 July 2026, the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln with conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada and cellist Gautier Capuçon will bring together a programme that explores the many faces of orchestral music.

From the dramatic colours of Bizet’s Les Toréadors to the profound lyricism of Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, the evening unfolds through passion, elegance, and human emotion.

Thomas Adès’ Overture from The Tempest opens a door to a world of mystery and imagination, while Stravinsky’s revolutionary Le Sacre du printemps brings the journey to its powerful conclusion — a work that transformed the language of music with its primal rhythms, raw energy, and unforgettable sound world.

More than a century after its creation, The Rite of Spring continues to challenge, inspire, and reveal the endless possibilities of orchestral expression.

A celebration of music that connects past and present, tradition and innovation.

8 July 2026
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Gautier Capuçon

🎼 The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is one of the world’s most celebrated concert halls, renowned for its extraordinary acoustics.

Opened in 1888, its name simply means “concert building” in Dutch. Alongside Vienna’s Musikverein and Boston Symphony Hall, it is often regarded as one of the finest concert venues in the world.

Home to the world-famous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, this historic hall continues to inspire musicians and music lovers with its stunning architecture and unforgettable sound. 🎻✨

Travel Architecture MusicLovers

Watching Damian Jalet’s performance today, I came away with the feeling that I had learned something fundamental about existence.

Existence is not limited to what physically occupies a space. Sometimes, it is the feeling of presence itself—the undeniable sense that something is there—that constitutes existence.

The work moved between two modes of being: one shaped by the Western impulse to separate, define, and categorize, and another rooted in relation, entanglement, and shared becoming. These modes continuously shifted, intersected, and dissolved into one another, giving rise to a living phenomenon on stage.

What remained with me was the profound value of presence itself. Not simply what was visible, but the felt reality of “being there.” Through movement and form, the performance seemed to make that invisible dimension perceptible.

For a moment, it suggested that existence may lie not only in objects themselves, but in the experience of presence that arises between us, around us, and within us.