Programme 2025

Call me Jay

Agata Maszkiewicz

A dance piece exploring how creation extends beyond the human. Control shifts between two dancers and a computer-controlled light. Who leads, who follows, who decides? A negotiation of presence, agency, and influence—where the non-human is not just a tool, but an active force in the choreography.

Dear Laila

Basel Zaraa

An intimate, interactive installation for one spectator at a time. Through a collection of photos, videos, sounds, and memorabilia, we piece together fragments from the life of a Palestinian family. The story follows a father explaining to his daughter where he grew up and why they cannot go there, reflecting displacement, resistance, and the unrelenting fight for justice.

Dubbelspoor

Beppie Blankert Dansconcerten

Beppie Blankert reconstructs, reinterprets and dances her legendary performance together with Caroline Dokter after 40 years. Louis Andriessen composed and played the music. A choreographic encounter is created on a text by Samuel Beckett, stretched between reality and dream, expectation and resignation. The analogue stage design shows a mirrored world, a game of reality and illusion.

fatigue

Viktor Szeri

A solo project exploring the limits of the human body and our sensory perception of reality. Balancing between dance and installation, with video, music, and the body as central elements, the performance offers a hypnotic reflection on the burnout of the dancer, society, and the world around us. A club night follows, organized in collaboration with EKKO.

Grande Donna Freiheit and Her Spiders from the Squat

SIKSA

SIKSA returns to Utrecht with their latest uncompromising mix of choreography, text, and music. Every word on stage is in Polish, but the message is universal. This rebellious punk duo, who have taken European clubs and festivals by storm, closes SPRING 2025 with an explosive final concert, followed by a DJ set.

HOT WALK

Keren Levi - NeverLike

An interdisciplinary performance exploring climate change, aging, and parenthood. What if global warming is Earth’s own menopause? How do power, responsibility, and care shift between humankind and Mother Earth? Can you take a walk in the park—on stage—with a friend? A reflection on the transformations shaping both our inner and outer climates.

INTO THE DIRT

Dimitri de Perrot

In the middle of the busy railway station, we’ve created a temporary oasis. Step inside for as long as you like. Slow down, maybe even take off your shoes. Sit or lie down for a moment, and listen to the ground. Hear what, in our hurried rush, only our shoes usually notice anymore.

Is Anybody Home?

Gob Squad

In this interactive performance, the famous collective Gob Squad creates a live film that unfolds before the audience's eyes. A local Utrecht resident swaps places with the theater group, inviting the audience into their private space. The performance explores the boundaries of theater, privacy, and the connection between those who watch and those who are watched. As the film develops in the theater, private apartments are entered, and questions about home, ownership, and personal boundaries are constantly examined and challenged.

Kill Me

Marina Otero

After the success of Fuck Me (SPRING 2022), Marina Otero returns to Utrecht with Kill Me. In this new work, Otero, together with her dancers and Nijinsky, once again explores human vulnerability and emotion. Through their bodies and voices, they create a layered world in which they embrace both their own madness and the chaos of reality. Kill Me is part of Otero’s lifelong project Remember to Live, which will continue to evolve until the day of her death. Following her previous works, Kill Me delves into the madness of love and the complexities of mental health.

Laborious Walk

Ely Daou

For six consecutive hours each day, Ely Daou walks in loops through various locations in the public space of Utrecht, engaging in one-on-one conversations with passersby in English, French, Spanish or Arabic. You can listen in through headphones, experiencing moments of connection, (dis)connection, isolation, and the ever-shifting rhythm of the city.

last portrait

ashleyho+domeniknaue

A performance within an installation, somewhere between a garden, a hospital, and a graveyard. Two young people intertwine the lives of their families. Amidst an archive of personal documents collected over the years, they navigate the landscape of loss.

Magic Maids

Eisa Jocson & Venuri Perera

With the symbolic presence of a broom centrally on stage, this performance, filled with dance and spells, unexpectedly interconnects the figures of the witch and the maid, reflecting on (and inviting the audience to reflect on) the everlasting chain of migrant labour, the exploitation of labour, and bodies. A new production by Eisa Jocson, who concluded SPRING last year with The Filipiono Superwoman Band.

Me, Le Corbusier, and a friend

David Bergé / Time Based Editions

After the success of Borderline Visible in 2024, the next edition of Time Based Editions will be presented at SPRING. A printed book and a soundscape come together in a temporary community. The audio guides you through mesmerizing photos and the story of two young men, one on his way to become later the architect Le Corbusier, on a seven-month journey to ‘the Orient’ in 1911.

METCH

Ivo Dimchev

 METCH brings together all facets of the boundary-pushing Ivo Dimchev: singing, dancing, painting (and auctioning), and provoking thought. A concert-exhibition, an auction, an obsessive dialogue with the audience. Expect songs, but also a raw, unpredictable clash with theatre, dance, politics, and contemporary art. One night, one unique encounter.

Modesta (play of language & lips)

Anna Franziska Jäger & Nathan Ooms / CAMPO

A playful and poetic performance about growing up and finding your place in the world. Inspired by the book The Art of Joy by Goliarda Sapienza, five performers follow Modesta, a woman who bends the rules to her will. Through language, movement, and imagination, the question arises: how free can we truly be?

Motus Mori LECTIO

Katja Heitmann

Due to circumstances, this performance has been cancelled.

Motus Mori PERPETUUM

Katja Heitmann

An immersive installation. Since 2021, SPRING has been presenting Katja Heitmann’s Motus Mori archive, a long-term project dedicated to collecting and preserving human movement. For the first time, you come face-to-face with the archive’s ‘bewegingsdonoren’—people like you and me, each with a unique body and physical presence. Be moved by their touching stories and the essence of their motion.

NEAR MISSES

Fotini Stamatelopoulou

At the intersection of spoken word, choreography, and visual installation, NEAR MISSES investigates strategies of defense and resilience, drawing liminal lines between silence and rage, fight and surrender, strength and submission, life and death.

OFFSPRING

Antony van Gog, Nienke Coers, Freija Roos, Freke Vos, Boris Klerk & Yoko Haveman

Three makers and one collective courageously present their works in progress. Each of them curious about the spectator’s response.

Overal Iemand Altijd

Wouter van Veldhoven & Guiot Duermeijer

An piercing performance with words and soundscapes, experienced with headphones at Utrecht Central Station. The work explores the inner struggle of a young neurodiverse woman and the invisible norms of our society. How do you stay true to yourself and hold your ground in this whirlwind of social codes?

Rapeflower

Hana Umeda

Departing from the experience of rape, this choreography is not only about the individual experience of reconnecting with one's body after sexual violence, but also about the societal taboo surrounding it. At the same time, the work confronts a universal issue: the objectification of the female body, turned into a pawn in social and political struggles.

Reading Group: Arab Futurism

alaa minawi

With alaa minawi, the maker of The Liminal Rethinking the past in order to create a future. Arabfuturism is an artistic movement that formulates counternarratives to the eurocentric image projected on the Middle-East.

Reading Group: Art of Joy

Nathan Ooms & Anna Franziska Jäger

In what ways can the essence of a novel’s character be brought to the stage?Join us in the cosy and informal sphere of Savannah Bay, for a morning of reading and discussing together. A book in one hand, a cup of tea and a cookie in the other.

Renaissance

WAUHAUS

The Finnish arts collective WAUHAUS makes its long-awaited Dutch debut at SPRING with Renaissance, a ritual performance that merges dance, song, light, and installation into a dreamlike experience. Mythical bodies come to life, boundaries blur, and fantasy takes on a physical form. Renaissance explores how the body can renew and transform itself in a world where imagination is fading. The audience is invited to surrender to wonder, change, and play—an ode to the power of dreaming and the unknown.

RUNNER

Ira Brand / Frascati Producties

RUNNER takes place simultaneously in the theatre and on the streets of Utrecht. It explores the exhaustion of the body, both physically and socio-politically. Why do we value people when they push themselves to the limit? The audience is invited to accompany Ira Brand as she runs outside, searching for a place, knowledge, or perhaps herself.

Sensing Dark Matter

Su WenChi, YILAB

An innovative VR experience developed in collaboration with leading physics laboratories. This immersive, multisensory journey pushes the boundaries of perception, offering a new way to experience visible reality. Using advanced VR technology, it opens the door to a world where dark matter becomes perceptible.

SPRING Academy Trajectories

Dive deep into our educational program, get to know the SPRING Academy Trajectories!The SPRING Academy trajectories are for everyone who has a practice in performing arts, studies in the field of humanities, is an autodidact, an activist, a researcher or a person for any other reason interested in diving deep into a topic related to the works at SPRING.

Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex

Ásrún Magnúsdóttir & Alex Roberts

A melodic ode to budding love and sex, filled with joy and passion, but also pain and fear. Utrecht is the next stop for Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex, a unique musical performance featuring young performers from Reykjavik. Together with local talent and enriched with lyrics and songs written by young people from Utrecht, this results in a one-time-only performance on the grand stage of Stadsschouwburg Utrecht. Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex is created by teenagers, about teenagers, but for everyone.

The Liminal

Alaa Minawi

This interactive installation explores the space between different worlds: the past, the present, and possible futures. Inspired by Arab Futurism, a movement that imagines future scenarios from Arab perspectives, it addresses themes like isolation and parallel worlds, where people regroup and create new realities. During IDFA 2024, the work-in-progress version won the Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant.

Three Times Left is Right

Studio Julian Hetzel

Trigger warning: Three Times Left is Right is a radical, provocative, funny, and ambiguous performance about polarization. An unconventional family portrait that functions as a magnifying glass for our society. Can we share a home with those whose beliefs are completely opposed to our own?

Topic Talk: Age on Stage

Beppie Blankert, Keren Levi, Teenage Songbook Choir

Is age just a number?Aging is something we all experience. However, it remains an unspoken subject in several contexts, such as the professional field. When we are young, we feel pressured to grow up and gain experience. When we are adults, we are bombarded with “anti-aging” messages, urging us to look younger, more energetic, and fitter.

Topic Talk: Cannibalisation of Culture

Studio Julian Hetzel

A discussion on meta-politics – a complex mechanism that uses words as weapons. In this encounter Studio Julian Hetzel invites guests and the audience to bring critical attention to the cannibalisation of culture.

Topic Talk: Making the Impossible Possible

SHIFFT, Viktor Szeri

In a world where systems and political environments seem to be constantly pushing artists and organizers to adapt, how can we stay true to our artistic vision? How can we create artistic possibilities in places where it feels like it’s getting harder and harder?

Topic Talk: Performing care

Alaa Minawi, Guiot Duermeijer, Fotini Stamatelopoulou, Marthe van Mosselveld

How do performing arts perform care?How does the performance of care relate to the performing arts? What is the relationship between artistic practices and care ethics? Is art careful enough? Can care be staged? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this topic talk.

Topic Talk: The (de)colonised Body on Stage

Marcelo Evelin, Venuri Perera, Eylül Fidan Akıncı, Nicole Beutler

It is not unusual anymore to speak up about colonial pasts and present examples of occupation. But what shifts when we speak of bodies rather than nations? When bodies with histories of colonization—past or present, or living with the ongoing reality or fear of it—take the stage? How does this dynamic unfold when the audience is primarily from a white Western background?

UIRAPURU

Marcelo Evelin / Demolition Incorporada

The dance performance UIRAPURU takes you into the enchanting world of the Brazilian forests and the legend of the Uirapuru bird, a man who transforms into a bird. The piece reflects on centuries of colonial oppression and the efforts to erase indigenous cultures, but also on their resilience. Just like the Uirapuru keeps singing, these cultures continue to exist, despite everything. In UIRAPURU, Evelin combines dance, mythology, and environmental awareness in a poetic and powerful narrative about survival, resistance, and the power of art.

Wasted Land

Ntando Cele

In the opening performance of SPRING 2025, Ntando Cele returns, following the success of SPAfrica with Julian Hetzel, with a bold and unconventional performance, full of music, energy and irony. She explores the pitfalls of sustainability and the greenwashing of the Global North. What does a future look like where people of colour aren’t continuously excluded from the human narrative? What if we fully embrace societal transformation and confront injustice head-on? Performers from different parts of the Global South give voice to this urgent issue.

While Taking Shape

Amparo González Sola

How much of what happens in one body is connected to what happens in another? Through a choreography that frames the space between performers and audience and focuses on small gestures, this performance invites us to reconsider the dynamics of gaze, distance, and proximity, and the role they play in spaces where we observe.

Workshop Achieving Societal Change with Jerry Afriyie

How do you achieve social change? Jerry Afriyie, co-initiator of the movement Nederland Wordt Beter & Kick Out Zwarte Piet, shares his experience and tips. How did they achieve their successes? And what did they encounter? In three sessions we zoom in on mindset change, behavioral change and system change. Get inspired and ask all the questions you always wondered about this campaign that turned the Netherlands upside down.

Workshop with Marcelo Evelin

Marcelo Evelin

Marcelo Evelin is looking for collaborators!The Brazilian choreographer and performer who will be presenting his performance Uirapuru at SPRING 2025, will also be facilitating a workshop on May 26th to explore possibilities for collaboration on his upcoming work Bananada. A performance that will be showcased at the SPRING Performing Arts Festival in 2026.

Workshop: Queering artistic feedback

workshop by Annika Hilger and Szymon Adamczak

Feedback is a form of conversation that facilitates mutual learning, frames critique, and generates valuable insights prompted by artistic creations and their resonances.

Y: SLOW TV Cinema

Y Events / Divadlo X / Homo Novus / SPRING

24 films by 24 artists from different fields, screened back-to-back in a sleepover cinema setup. Artists challenge their usual production methods, creating footage with minimal content, simplified composition, and limited plot. Now, we invite you to challenge your viewing habits, embrace the passage of time, and enjoy the beauty of wasted time.

Argentina Night Party

This year at SPRING, we are thrilled to be joined by Latin American artists like Marina Otero (KILL ME), Amparo González Sola (While Taking Shape), and Marcelo Evelin (Uirapuru). And the best way to keep enjoying the Latin American talent during the festival is with a party (peña)!

Bookpresentation: A Queer Feedback Handbook. Experiments in Otherwise Arts Education.

Presented by: Elioa Steffen, Szymon Adamczak and the IPOP community members

With an introduction by the ATD Lectorate professor Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca.Drawing on three years of experiences with developing a queer communal feedback model, the authors of educational and pedagogical platform In Pursuit of Otherwise Possibilities present their first handbook.

CLUB EKKO

After the performance fatigue by Viktor Szeri, you can dance your body into fatigue at the EKKO club night which features the DJ from the work, where the atmosphere of the performance continues in an intimate setting.