Iungo means “connection” or “bringing together” in Latin. In Beijing it also meant a contemporary, inclusive show with the message that dance is for everyone and dancers who do not meet the traditional yardsticks can also move the audience.

Dutch choreographer Adriaan Luteijn presented Iungo Beijing at the 798 Cube Art Museum in the 798 Art Zone in Beijing, a bloc of old electronic factories that have now become the hub of modern art, on October 13, 2024.

Iungo Beijing is staged at the 798 Cube Art Museum on October 13, 2024.

The eight Chinese dancers included professional artists as well as a dancer with Down syndrome, a dancer with a hearing impairment, an elder, and a dancer in a wheelchair.

Luteijn, who is with Dutch ballet-based contemporary art company Introdans, said the objective is to promote diversity and inclusion in the performing arts and in society.

Deepening cultural cooperation between Dutch and Chinese institutions was also a goal with the show produced by the Netherlands Embassy in China, Beijing Body On & On Cultural Exchange Center, a contemporary cultural and artistic organization, and 798 Cube Art Museum in collaboration with the Beijing 9 Contemporary Dance Theater, China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe, and Beijing Xinwuzi Dance Troupe.

The props consisted of a bench where the dancers meet each other and then sway to Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 played in a slow tempo. Iungo has been performed in different countries and each time Luteijn produces new versions with different dancers.

He has created versions of Iungo for dance companies in Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa. In Tokyo last year he met Ingrid de Beer, counsellor for culture and public diplomacy at the Netherlands Embassy in China. Invited by her, Luteijn visited many dance troupes and communities in Beijing in April and started a Beijing version.

After the show, the audience stood up and the hall erupted in thunderous applause.

Dutch choreographer Adriaan Luteijn (right) and eight Chinese dancers take the stage for a curtain call at the end of the performance. Photos by Li Xiaocao

“Few dancers have such a chance to dance with so many different people,” said Zhan Li, one of the professional dancers and assistant choreographer of the show. She also appreciated the other professional dancers for their great support to the show.

Yun Huanhuan, the dancer with a wheelchair user, said it was a new challenge for him. He has taken part in the theater before but compared with acting, the difficulty was to remember the movements. “I would like to try more types of art in the future,” Yun told China Today.

Ge Huichao, founder of Body On & On, said she was looking forward to more Sino-Dutch cooperation in inclusive arts in the coming years.

Luteijn said for him, the biggest gift is to meet with so many people from different communities, which is the inspiration for his creation.