Premiere of Cantos: A Hypnotic Pull of Sound, Body, and Mask Play

With frenetic applause, the world premiere of Cantos, the new work by Polish choreographer Maciej Kuźmiński, was celebrated on 5 December 2025 in the Kleines Haus of the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. The Hessian State Ballet presented an evening in which movement, music, and visual worlds were woven into a densely atmospheric whole. Kuźmiński was substantially supported by dramaturg Paul Bargetto, who has collaborated with him on previous works exploring the intersections of philosophy, imagery, and choreographic structure.

The starting point for the choreography is Simeon ten Holt’s legendary minimalist composition Canto Ostinato, performed live in Wiesbaden by Waldemar Martynel and Igor Palmov. The score prescribes neither fixed duration nor dynamics—an openness that Kuźmiński and Bargetto translate into a choreographic language that oscillates between recurrence and departure, impulse and suspension, trance and playful rupture.

The stage designed by Gabriela Neubauer—a marbled, almost surreal playing field—opens associative spaces between experiment, human study, and dreamscape. Again and again, masks and exaggerated costumes appear: overly long ties, hybrid animal figures, or the image of an exhausted collective. They shift perspectives and raise the question of who is truly acting—an individual, a group, or mere reflex. Press reviews highlight the poetic power of these mask-like figures, which oscillate between humor, irony, and existential symbolism.

Working closely with Bargetto, Kuźmiński develops a precise, controlled movement vocabulary shaped by impulses, floor work, and constant shifts. Time and again, individual dancers break away from the collective, seeking moments of escape before becoming entangled once more in the group’s rhythm—a tension that critics have described as “trance-like,” “eerily beautiful,” and “captivatingly virtuosic.”

Particularly striking is the diversity of scenes, ranging from humorous and ironic interludes to images of almost mythical quality. Animal masks meet filigree formations, grotesque miniatures encounter clearly defined lines—a choreographic cosmos that allows for multiple interpretations and increasingly draws the audience into its pull. Reviewers also praised this richness, acknowledging both the conceptual depth of Kuźmiński and Bargetto’s collaboration and the ensemble’s precision and stamina.

After just over an hour, Cantos ends as abruptly as it begins: as if a perfectly calibrated machine were suddenly brought to a halt—a moment that resonated audibly throughout the audience.

With Cantos, the Hessian State Ballet expands its repertoire with a work that moves powerfully between philosophy, grotesque imagery, and hypnotic musicality—a performance that lingers long after the final note.