WOLVES AT DAWN - Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo

A dance creation by Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo with third-year students from the ArtEZ Academy in Arnhem and guest dancers from Danza Contemporánea de Cuba.

"In the labyrinth of human abysses
echoes the original heartbeat that nature produces.
Beneath the veneer of a civilized figure,
the untamed spirit lurks where savagery lies."

Wolves at Dawn is a raw, physical exploration of our primal instincts and their liberation, inviting the audience into a visceral ceremony of man's deep-rooted connection to nature. Through intense physicality and haunting, meditative soundscapes, the dancers offer an intimate view of identity and the shared human experience.

This world premiere brings together dancers from the renowned Cuban Danza Contemporánea de Cuba and the ArtEZ Dance Bachelor program in Arnhem to develop a unique movement language that fuses African and Latin American dance traditions with contemporary expression. Supported by the live music of Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo, the performance builds a powerful, transgressive atmosphere - a tremor of rediscovery, as if the earth itself is about to shake.

Through dance and music, Wolves at Dawn invites the audience to shed their masks and reconnect with the forgotten depths of life - where unspoken dreams, ancient instincts and hidden stories stir beneath the surface, awakened through raw, physical expression. At its core, the piece explores the collision between our inner worlds and our primal, animal nature. It explores how our biological selves coexist - and often collide - with the constructs of modern society. Where does the inner animal reside in a world of social masks? Which parts of us have been tamed, and which still yearn to be free?

Wolves at Dawn provokes deep reflection on our origins, our path to the future, and most importantly, our present state. It asks the timeless, urgent questions:

Where do we come from? Where are we going? And where are we now?

Supported by: Kunststiftung NRW, Danzacontemporanea de Cuba, Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

A cooperation with the Pina Bausch Center and the Tanz Station - Barmer Bahnhof.