Olga de Soto
Une introduction (revisitée)
Co-production Arta Sperto/DFTL × Concorde Espace Culture
Olga de Soto turns her attention to The Green Table, Kurt Jooss’s landmark ballet, premiered in Paris in 1932 and celebrated both for its powerful political and pacifist message and for Jooss’s response to the first antisemitic laws introduced by Hitler following his rise to power in 1933. On an empty stage, accompanied only by a screen displaying archival images and video footage, de Soto recounts her research into the work. She explores what comes before and after the performance—its creative journey and enduring legacy—unfolding an investigative process shaped by questions, discoveries and unexpected lines of enquiry.
Credits
Concept, research, text, camera, sound and performance: Olga de Soto
Featuring testimonies by (in order of appearance): Micheline Hesse, Brigitte Evellin, Suzanne Batbedat, Françoise Olivaux, Frederic Stern, Françoise Dupuy, Joan Turner, Jara and Michelle Nadal
Video direction: Olga de Soto
Video editing: Julien Contreau and Olga de Soto
Lighting design: Thomas Walgrave
Lighting technician: Geni Diez
Sound and video operator: Julien Lamaze
Title sequence software: Pierre Gufflet
Production (2026) Niels Production (Brussels) | Production (2010) Niels Production, in collaboration with Caravan
Production (Brussels) | Coproduction (2010) Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté (Belfort), Les Halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels), Tanz Im August (Berlin) | Supported by Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Direction Générale de la Culture – Service de la danse | Research grants Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (FR), Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service de la danse (BE), Aide à la recherche et au patrimoine en danse / Centre national de la danse / Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (FR) | Research residencies Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Charleroi danses (2006-2009), Centre national de la Danse – Pantin (2006). Duration 1h20
Niels Production/Olga de Soto is supported by Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Direction Générale de la Culture — Service de la danse and is accompanied by Grand Studio (Brussels).
An Introduction was created in 2010 at the Festival Tanz Im August, Berlin. It has since toured in twenty countries and has been revisited in 2026, on the occasion of Europalia España.
An Introduction is an analytical work that takes Kurt Jooss’s ballet The Green Table (1932) as its point of departure.
