Motion Against Violence
The Making of Tolero

What you hear is words whisper: "I always carry a knife. Everybody does. It's dangerous out there. People are crazy. The other day some guy threw his wife out of the window." What you see is a fence, made out of three equally sized wooden elements. The words stop. Dance music takes over. Up comes a shy girl on stage right. On stage left two gabber girls appear and dance their friendship ritual. The shy girl has money, they don't. They want it. They get it. They hurt her.

Shadow boxing
The three characters disappear behind the fence. The music becomes louder. Suddenly the middle element of the fence is kicked down and hits the floor with a bang. The victim girl now looks strong and violent. The left and right element also give way to a kick and the fence has become a dance floor. A fist flies forward, toward the audience, the girl on the right is hit by an invisible hand. Then a kick, another fist and another... All three become antagonist and protagonist in an alternate way, their bodies both receiving as well as dealing out blows. You can observe how violence leads to violence. The dance culminates into a growl; then the girls retreat from the dance floor and sit behind three classroom desks.

Racism and humiliation
One of them is an islamic girl now, wearing a scarf, covering her hair. She is challenged in a racist way by one of the other students. Verbal violence and humiliation as opposed to dignity and respect.

The music changes into a monotonous waltz. We see an image of studens literally struck by boredom and institutional violence. Finally, they fall to the floor. They work themselves up to their chairs and slowly move into a ballet with the chairs and desks. The ballet comes into motion and leads to a confrontation.

Playing with knives
The girls face the audience, kick the desks down and step forward onto the dance floor. They try to impress each other by physical strength and skill. Impressing turns into threatening. The battle subsides as they turn around and pick up a microphone. "We were playing with knives and somebody stabbed me in my left thigh, of course I stabbed him back."
These statements about violence originally were given by boys from the Dutch Antilles, many of whom have come to the Netherlands in the last decade, without parents or any family.

Diffuse anti-model
The performance ends with these statements. The joker comes on and ... well we don't know yet. Premiere is February 12. Three actresses, a choreographer, a designer and a director created this play. It should offer young spect-actors the opportunity to insert their own images and do research on the origins of violence and on its alternatives. Tolero was deliberately developed as a diffuse anti-model, trying to avoid the trap of the statement theatre in vogue in Holland at the moment. Various companies present TIE/Forum melanges with a message so blunt that there hardly is room for real research.

Tolero will evolve during the tour and we are curious about its definitve shape (if any).

Under Pressure 5, January 2001