Inner Tools – Brutal Poetry

Pina Bausch Centre under construction, Bundesallee 260, Wuppertal
Admission: €15 / reduced €8

Buy ticket

Julio César Iglesias Ungo about his working methods:

Inner Tools – Brutal Poetry is built on three essential pillars that guide us toward a deeper understanding of ourselves, both as performers and as human beings. This method is a journey of permission, of pushing our own limits, and of embracing the process.

1. Functionality: Understanding and Inhabiting the Body
The first pillar of the Inner Tools method is rooted in body awareness. It is not about resisting physical laws, but about embracing them, understanding how our body works until that knowledge becomes instinct — intuition. Through concrete physical exercises, we create tools to explore this functionality.

“Nothing is accidental — it happens because we want it to.”
Here, precision meets awareness, and the body becomes an instrument of intention.

2. Illusion: Project, Don’t Show
We are not interested in showing the work behind the movement — we want to project the illusion. Like a magician: if the trick is visible, the magic is lost. This second phase focuses on concealing the effort, allowing movement to serve the illusion, the emotion, the image. The body is in action, but what the audience perceives is poetry.

3. Filling Your Inner Vessel: Imprinting Your Essence
Every physical task in Inner Tools is like an empty vessel — a form waiting to be filled. This phase is about pouring your essence into every action: your energy, your personality, your inner colour. It is not about repeating steps, but about inhabiting the process.
You do not perform a movement — you become it.
Unleash your inner beast.

Inner Tools are rooted in the fundamental conditions of being human. It is a path for creating tools that allow us to take ownership of our actions and emotions, unlock our full potential, and become fully aware of it. This method places the NOW at the centre of the practice — an intuitive search that moves through physical and mental states in order to access authentic expression. It is a journey inward and outward, a performative exploration of the self.
The future is now. Welcome to Brutal Poetry.

Julio César Iglesias Ungo studied at the E.N.A. in Havana from 1995 to 2001, graduating as a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. He was a soloist and resident choreographer with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, and has worked as a dancer with, amongst others, Wim Vandekeybus / Ultima Vez, Samir Akika and Renegade. He has choreographed numerous works of his own, including in Cuba, Colombia and Mexico, for the Bolshoi Dance Festival in Moscow, Unusual Symptoms, Pottporus and Renegade.

The workshop is aimed at professional dancers, students and young people aged 13 and over who are keen on hip-hop. It is being held as part of the guest performances by El Vacio and La Cura on May 5 and 6. For the first time the Compañía Colombiana de Danza Contemporánea performes in Germany. The choreographies are by Cuban urban art specialist Julio César Iglesias Ungo, who previously visited us in 2025 with two productions. Exciting urban and contemporary dance styles come together.

This guest performance and the workshop are made possible thanks to the kind support of the Goethe-Institute.

29 April is World Dance Day! https://www.iti-germany.de/weltverband/welttanztag