"I ❤️ RDAM" – It's safe to assume that it was a premiere gift for Nanine Linning, a T-shirt with exactly that print. To the applause of the premiere, she quickly slipped it over her black evening gown backstage and presented it to the delight of the audience. A gesture that was not without its merits and certainly smart. "Anima Obscura" is Nanine Linning's first work as director of the Scapino Ballet. She only officially took up the post in January.

Linning is no stranger to Rotterdam; in the early 2000s, she was resident choreographer there. Since then, however, she has worked primarily in Germany and headed the dance department at the Heidelberg Theater from 2012 to 2018. Introducing yourself to the Rotterdam audience again is no easy task. The T-shirt perhaps made it a little easier. Linning herself emphasized in a personal conversation after the premiere how important this evening was to her. 

Her new work wasn't a world premiere, but in a certain sense it was, at least a little bit. She had already created "Anima Obscura" for Heidelberg in 2021 with great success. With the new version for the Scapino Ballet, she further developed the desire for eternal life at the core of the piece, further into the human-machine discourse. In 2021, AI wasn't yet on everyone's lips. Nevertheless, Linning retained the religious aspect, which is already dictated by the music alone. 

In Rotterdam, a choir of almost 50 people, spread out on both sides of the orchestra pit, performs Brahms' "German Requiem." The Laurens Symfonisch Koor is accompanied live by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor: Giuseppe Mengoli). As in Bielefeld, Linning blends Brahms' composition with Yannis Kyriakides' "Ein Schemen" in a kind of dialogue. Harpist Remy van Kesteren sits on a special platform on stage for this purpose. Aphrodite Patoulidou (soprano) and James Atkinson (baritone) performed the solo parts. 

The music dominates the evening 

The music is the crucial foundation for "Anima Obscura." Dramaturgically and rhythmically, the entire work is guided by it. No matter how strongly the various puzzle pieces—costumes, choreography, or videos—are used, everything seems secondary to the music. The resulting overall effect has something operatic about it due to the multitude of theatrical means. This blend of genres and stylistic devices is nothing new for Nanine Linning. Multimedia has long been at the top of her list. 

Brahms' Requiem is considered a consolation for the living in the face of death. It is humanity in general, and in the choreography, of course, their bodies, that are the focus. Linning arranges the ballet ensemble around the harpist in a space whose closed walls serve as projection screens for all sorts of abstract images. Black and white sets the tone for the evening. It almost seems as if these walls create a space that is too small, given Linning's use of so many elements on the stage. The harpist is repeatedly moved from one spot to another on his platform, generously dimensioned frames offer a second image plane with transparent surfaces for projections, but also take up space when not in use. Additionally, some videos are generated live at the edge of the stage via a camera. 

These are many elements that make the stage space a challenge for the ballet. The ensemble scenes move in circles across the stage and are primarily illustrations of the music. In solos and duos, in which the dancers are almost naked, clear images emerge in which physicality takes on a material quality and renders the individual person insignificant. In choreography, Linning avoids any experiments, which reflects Brahms's elegiac tone. Instead, she places the bodies of her dancers in a scene on the wall, as if witnessing a group crucifixion. Until everyone finally falls to the ground, powerless. 

"I will comfort you," sings the choir. And this comfort runs evenly throughout the evening, at the end of which everyone on stage slowly walks in the same direction, the direction from which the light comes. While Linning hinted at what and how an afterlife might be in her work "Dusk," which is also dedicated to death, this remains open in "Anima Obscura."