Witch Hunting by Anne Nguyen/Compagnie par Terre, which looks at the idea of being made “different”, is a successful start to this year’s PURPLE International Dance Festival. The piece can be seen at HAU 1 from 17 to 19 January.
PURPLE International Dance Festival for Young Audiences is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. The festival strives to enhance viewing habits, invite participation and empathy, and be open to everyone. I like being surrounded by different age groups: plenty of children and teenagers, but also adults of all ages. Nevertheless, the audience strikes me as well-educated middle class. A repeated ssshhhhh makes its way through the rows as the six dancers appear one by one on stage. As if introducing themselves to us, bringing their personal movement languages to the stage – individually distinct and still keeping the same beat. They stand next to one another, forming a row, a rotating diagonal. Breakouts from the formation offer space for individual moments of expression. Until they are in someone else’s way. Perhaps it’s better to get back in line…
The dancers fall into different formations with expressive movement patterns. Quick staccato moves follow jumps and lunges and are alternated with movements that flow throughout their whole bodies. I’m not sure what I like more, the forcefully emphasized accents or the “more routine” moves, like a turn with a few steps back into place, that are very coolly executed. The dancers form groups, always new, sometimes in twos, sometimes a trio, sometimes all together – although one person is often left out. I try to figure out how the groups are formed – is it based on costumes, movement patterns, identity or even skin color, or perhapsshared values and worldviews? And which people do (or can) not belong and why?
The group evolves into flinging movement patterns. I interpret it as a protest. They advance forward together, but are then pushed back. The established patterns and systems are sustained. Maybe they weren’t united enough as a group. Perhaps there aren’t enough of them. And yet this doesn’t stop them. There are repeatedly quieter moments. But before I can process what I’ve just experienced, the next story starts to run its course. The dancers run, pointing – at us, at each other. I ask myself who they’re looking for. The guilty party, the outsider, the scapegoat who takes the fall for the group’s transgressions?
The storyline gains speed and the events seem more aggressive. The others are belittled to appear bigger. As a result, the group no longer seems unified. Everything blurs and I no longer know who supports or is against whom. Ultimately the struggle for power and interpretational sovereignty appears to dissolve. Instead of examining belonging and labeling people as “other”, the group finds enough space for the individual body language of each of the dancers. The individuals on the stage are not only allowed to be themselves, they are also supported and cheered on by the others. The group finds a new bond, no longer fighting against each other but with each other. A message that I’m more than happy to take home with me in the current climate.
English translation by Melissa Maldonado
Witch Hunting, by Anne Nguyen/Compagnie par Terre, was shown at PURPLE from 17 to 19 January at HAU1. PURPLE – International Dance Festival for Young Audiences takes place from 17 to 25 January 2026.
