Dance ambassador Celine

I can't let ´s

Visiting the Purple Dance Festival

Janne Gregor's play “I can't let ´s go” was invited to the PURPLE Dance Festival 2026. Dance ambassador Celine was there and looked at it.

A cold evening in the middle of Berlin Neukölln. At 7 p.m., the 50th began. Performance of “I can’t let it go” at the Junge Tanzhaus Berlin. We were there on time, but there was complete silence on site, only shortly before it became gloomy. The special feature of this evening, it was a family show, so there was a good balance between children and adults. It was very diverse because different generations interacted for a brief moment in a room.

Shortly before the start, you were allowed to artistically glue yourself with luminous tapes, then it went up to the place of the action. A step into the unknown, because you saw nothing of a stage or a dance floor. Behind black curtains, the place of the show only came to light. 4 dancers inside, each trapped in a corner and in their own world, only became a team over time. The music was loud and unusual for many. It looked like it was in a museum. The audience was invited to walk around and see every single dancer. Then suddenly there was the first release of a performer in the middle of the room. It started.

The idea with the lines gave a good orientation and they invited to move along. We were divided into two groups and each had its own lines. The performers each made the movements and we followed them. What was unfortunately very confusing for me was that after some time you lost some orientation and no longer knew which movement was being made. Therefore, the energy of the piece went down a bit, because you were only busy with the search, where it goes and what you do. One has seen the confusion in the audience, and many have also stopped participating and stopped. The flow was lost to me.

The piece started very strong, but it slowed down a bit over time because you were so disoriented. The experiences that you were allowed to have physically were great, because many have not yet been related to the dance style Krump and it is not yet so well known. It feels unusual, but being able to feel it for yourself was great.

There were a few sweet moments in the play that I always like to remember. In general, it was great to see how the parents and children had a carefree time and the classic role distribution was completely forgotten. The parents had fun and so did the children. Of course, she paid attention to the kids, but they were also able to live out themselves. At the beginning of the piece it came to a point where the peformers formed a circle in the middle of the room. In the beginning, they sat between us and looked at us attentively. Then suddenly one of the performers crossed the middle of the circle and then the next. The first courageous child immediately understood it and jumped up and crossed too. To my surprise, the adults also began to cross and a small jumble arose. A small sort of chaos. My little moment of happiness!

What I personally take with me is that I want to dive even more into the Krump world so that I can better understand the background and the feelings. I haven't seen many Krump pieces yet, but I'm very interested in learning more.