If dancers are the messengers of the gods, as famed US choreographer Martha Graham once said, then Toon Lobach is simply divine, as the softly uplifting yet stirring melancholia of his performances transcend to a supernatural place. Having trained and studied at the Dutch National Ballet Academy and The Nederlands Dans Theater 2, the 25-year-old Amsterdam native has appeared in Juliano Nunes’ Synergy and COR, Paul Lightfoot’s Selvportraet and Alexander Ekman’s Cacti — while also making dance more Instagram-able. Here he tells us how a stage musical about cats in furry leg warmers first inspired him, and how he really loves letting go when nobody’s watching.

Has your whole life been dance - what first inspired you to it?

Cats! [the Andrew Lloyd Webber show] I just watched it so much, that really made me fall in love with dance, I wanted to be Magical Mister Mistoffelees! My Mom booked me into a little class, when I was younger, but I didn’t really start to take dance seriously until I was about 15 years-old, because then I saw this company called the NDT [Netherlands Dance Theatre] and I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is what I want to do’. So I started going to dance training.

After being in a dance company for quite some time, you went solo in 2020, why was that?

I knew I didn’t want to be in a dance company anymore, it’s just so intense and you don’t have time for anything else, and you do so many shows that it becomes exhausting. I stopped enjoying dance and was getting injured a lot, so I made the decision to leave and not long after that I was offered some freelance jobs, and since then I’ve been really enjoying dance much more. I aspire to keep the quality from my dance company in my freelance life, that’s my biggest goal, but also to grow artistically myself and grow my own voice.

You’re a contemporary dancer, so does the gender fluidity of the style appeal to you, as with ballet the male and female roles are very rigid and strictly binary?

You can dare to be more elegant, or feminine or vulnerable in contemporary dance. There’s still quite a lot of male and female partnering, but not as much or as strict as with ballet.

So what makes a good dance partnership work?

Communication is key, asking and listening to what the other person needs, and it really depends on the person’s body - if they’re lighter, or leaner or more muscular, all those differences make it fun. Partnering work is one of my most favourite things, as it doesn’t matter who you lift or are lifted by, there’s so much collaboration that needs to happen, and you need to be agile and able to switch really quick and connect to the weight of someone - that makes it interesting.

Do you have any dance icons?

Marco Goecke, the German choreographer, has influenced me a lot. I’ve danced to his work and I’m always blown away by it because of the intensity and anxiety, it’s always really dark but still so hopeful, and I think there’s something so beautiful about that. It’s also super fast, with big arm movements and it mentally overloads almost, but I get it, I understand it.

Is narrative important in dance?

In contemporary dance most of the time there isn’t always a narrative, just movement is really beautiful, and then maybe the choreographer can have an idea of what it means. I can just listen to beautiful music and watch the movement and that’s enough for me, so I’m more interested in the physicality of a dancer on stage or the communication between dancers. The focus on the physical movement brings the clarity to a piece. I also love the exhaustion of dance, that’s where the beauty lies.

If you could choose one scene from a film that describes your dance style, what would it be?

I think the last scene in the film “Summer 1993”, where the little orphan girl [Frida], is playing with her Aunt and Uncle, and she can’t stop crying, and they ask her what’s wrong, and she doesn’t know. It’s like she’s so full of trauma, or the world is just too much for her. There’s so much melancholy and yet warmth in that scene at the same time.

In my style I try to be numb, like quite sober almost, no bullshit, and I listen to a lot of sad Indie music, that gets me going! I do see myself as a happy person, but I love being in the studio and listening to singers like Phoebe Bridgers, and classical or instrumental guitar music too - it all triggers the melancholy in me which helps create an atmosphere.

I do love any type of dance though too, like I’ll do some hip hop in the studio, or ballet - I want to be as versatile as possible, that’s the ultimate goal.

Besides dance, what else inspires your movement?

I like going out in nature and going on a bike ride if I need to blow off some steam, and also the shapes you see, and the feeling of the breeze influences me, like you’re a little leaf just blowing in the wind!

Do you ever go clubbing and steal the spotlight, or do you prefer to shimmy around handbags with your friends?

Ha! Oh my god, I don’t think I’ve ever danced around a handbag! Usually when I go to a club, I go to the side of the floor where I have some space and can just dance the way I want to, so nobody has to look at me. Sometimes I go out alone without my friends and just dance somewhere in the corner living my best life, and also when I’m in a trashy gay bar too!

So what’s next for you?

There’s a top secret project which I’m really excited about, but I can’t tell you anything! I’ll be dancing at the Sadlers Wells in London in October in a new piece by Magnus Westwell, and also in the Roberto Bolle and Friends gala in Italy in June and July. Then I’m performing in Copenhagen again this Summer.

That’s full on, do you ever worry about burn out?

Oh yes, I had a full mental breakdown last week! Most of the time you’re in your own bubble, going from place to place, and you have to travel and arrange everything yourself, and it’s not like I’m super famous where I have someone doing everything for me. I have to do a lot of shit, like planning, and working out flights, and making sure the costumes are where they should be. I’m just trying to find a way of not burning out!

You need an assistant….

I do!! Can you put a little sidenote, like *looking for an assistant* in your piece?

Sure, I’ll make it the headline…

Ha! Purleasssssse yes!

Btw, what’s the chicken in your Insta bio about?

I was on tour with a company in 2017 in Brazil, and as well as Brahma beer there, they have these huge beautiful Brahma chickens, and I was playing that game where you stick a piece of paper on your head and have to guess who you are. So I got called a Brahma chicken, and it’s stayed with me ever since. I made myself a chicken and I haven’t looked back, ha!

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Interview by Kate Lawson

Photography by Hadar Pitchon

SENSUAL MELANCHOLIA

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