Children of Zeus
Mythical whispers of the inner wounded.
A performance as Living Exhibition by Robbeduz and Valentina Gal
Children of Zeus is a living exhibition and an intuitive journey. This living exhibition questions our relationship with nature, the body, and spirituality within today's technological lifestyle.
The premiere of Children of Zeus will take place 12th of May 2026 at Bellevue, Amsterdam.
Two queer Children are discovering the healing power of water within a mythical swamp. Here, they manifest their freedom, free from the oppressive patriarchal powers of Zeus. Old paradigms fade, but not without obstacles. Through their transformative powers, the children will create a fluid world in which they attempt to restore the balance between humanity and nature. The knowledge of their ancestors is found here in breath and rhythm, and is discovered through the body, water, and installation. The friction between forgotten histories and the rise of technological humanity forms a key starting point of their journey into this mythical swamp.
Dancemaker Robbeduz (them/their) and visual artist Valentina Gal (she/her) jointly create an installation consisting of water and sculptures. The collaboration arose from a shared fascination with water, which serves as a metaphor for fluidity and healing powers. Based on this installation, they explore how a sustainable relationship with nature can be created, which includes using natural materials and recycling. Children of Zeus builds on the makers' previous works, Cyborg DNA (Robbeduz & Lux Nautilus, 2023) and Troubled Waters (Gal, 2024). Objects from these earlier works are sustainably rediscovered within this research, aiming for a tangible transmission and contemporary translation of queer ecology.
What You See Festival - Karin Jonkers
Queer ecology offers an alternative framework centered on non-binary fluidity. The lived embodiment of queer ecology provides a lens through which this artistic team shares liberation movements in various ways. Seeking liberation from Western patterns and oppression, maker and performer Robbeduz, explores their Thai heritage more deeply and connects this to the creative process for both installation and performance. In Thailand and Buddhism, the lotus symbolizes purity and spiritual awakening. This journey embodies all the emotional aspects encountered during such a profound transformation: from mud to the beauty of the lotus.
“Listen to the forgotten melodies,
wounded children follow the wind
trusting the rhythm of nature to find healing and transformation.”
-Children of Zeus
"From the muddy and even blood-colored water of the swamp, the silver splendor and beauty of the lotus flowers grow."
"In the dimly lit surroundings of the pond, the performers find their healing dreamland."
"Choreographer and performer Robbeduz creates a delicately refined performance in this idyllic work of visual art."
"What we see is a fascinating dance play, of a stylized dynamism."
"We hear paradise-like sounds of birds, of string instruments and very lightly touched percussion instruments, such as singing bowls."
"Uit de modder en zelfs met bloed gekleurde water van het moeras groeien de zilveren pracht en schoonheid van de lotusbloemen."
"In de halfduistere entourage van de vijver vinden de performers hun genezend droomland."
"Choreograaf en performer Robbeduz creëert in dit idyllische beeldende kunstwerk een ragfijne uitvoering."
"Het is een fascinerend dansspel dat we zien, van een gestileerde dynamiek."
“We horen paradijsachtige klanken van vogels, van snaar- en heel licht aangeraakte slaginstrumenten, zoals klankschalen."
-Kester Freriks, Theaterkrant- https://www.theaterkrant.nl/recensie/children-of-zeus/robbeduz-valentina-gal/
Credits
Artiest (initiator), dansmaker, productie
Robbeduz (Robin Nimanong)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbeduz/
Website: www.nimanong.com & DOX: https://wijzijndox.nl/producties/agenda/children-of-zeus
Scenografie en sculpturen, beeldend kunstenaar & co-creator
Valentina Gal
Website: https://www.valentinagal.com
Uitvoerend dansers
Qiqi (Qiyun Zheng), Fleur van der Schaaf, Robbeduz & Jieon Ko
Dramaturgy
Suzy Blok & Sophie Cohlen
Coaching
Hildegard Draaijer (DOX)
Co-production
Dox Utrecht
cCreative production support & dramaturgy
Athina Liakopoulou
Movement Research & Ballroom Artist
Shiva Mugler
Music
Guenter Raler, Nils Davidse, Robbeduz
Costume
Reconstruct & Eva Marie-Louise
Light Design
David Vermeulen
Ecological decoration and research
Oliver Toxopeus and Ache Charlène Wang
Residency 2025 (work in progress)
Huis Conny Janssen Danst, Pleintheater, Hollandse Luchten,
What You See Festival 2025 (Theater de Kikker), RightAboutNow, Magnezy
Video’s online
Filmed by MMMViideo (instagram personal: tremattia)
Artistic research
Dovilee Krutulytė & Jordan Achiano
Supported by: Cultuurfonds, Stimuleringsfonds, Fonds 21, Diorapthe, Fonds Podiumkunsten (De nieuwe makers regeling with DOX Utrecht), Gemeente Utrecht, Norma.
Valentina Gal (1994) is a Dutch multidisciplinary artist whose work moves along the threshold between physical reality and the worlds we build to survive it. She has developed a practice centred on immersive video installation, sculpture, and sensory experience.
Her approach is deeply anthropological: she embeds herself in communities that exist at the edges of mainstream visibility, drawn to the places where people reinvent themselves through digital identity, avatar, and online persona. From professional dog shows and ASMR culture to VTubers, furry fandom, and wellness spaces, she traces how people use image, voice, and presence to escape, transform, or tenderly remake themselves. From these investigations she builds total environments, works that open like cracks in reality, where the ordinary and the digitally strange dissolve into each other. Alongside video and sound, she works with 3D-printed objects, light, and scent, often choosing bio-based materials that keep the ecological footprint of the work in mind.
Her work is a quiet insistence that the strange is sacred, and that the worlds we imagine ourselves into are as real as any other.
Oliver Toxopeus is an artist, engineer and architecture student focused on integrating queer ecology into every discipline imaginable. They are researching trans-species collaborative design and have applied their research to Children of Zeus by growing decor pieces together with more-than-human colleagues.
Oliver has been collaborating with Ache. Ache Wang, a French designer based in the Netherlands. Together they have been designing with Chia seeds for Children of Zeus.
Sophie Cohlen (1998) is a Dutch dramaturg, curator, and moderator specializing in dance. She studied Theatre Studies and International Dramaturgy at the University of Amsterdam. She currently curates the Theatre & Dance program at We Are Public, moderates context programs at a.o. Het Nationale Theater and International Theatre Amsterdam, and works as a dramaturg with emerging dance makers. Her work focuses on experimentation, social and political themes, and the intersection between performing arts and nightlife culture.
Agatha Prieto Jeanty (she/her) is a multidisciplinary visual artist and design researcher working between the West and the Caribbean. She reconfigures realities through a diasporic imagination and a travelling stance. Rooted in community, she explores decolonising practices through embodied experience and a feminine gaze. Influenced by Afrofuturism, her work weaves contemporary narratives with ancestral wisdom to challenge dominant histories. For this project, she will be moderating and being a part of the conversation for the after-talk that will take place on the 12th May.'
Zahira Mous (she/they) is a dance theater maker, performer, writer, and guide of collective processes through movement and magic. For Children of Zeus, Zahira is involved as an archivist, putting the work (part process/part performance) in writing in contexts of decolonization, queer theory, and feminine dramaturgy.
Suzy Blok (Dutch/Argentinean, born in Colombia) is a mentor, advisor, and curator in dance and performance. She is currently mentor at Artists Circle, coach for various emerging artists and advisor at Funds for Performing Arts and Utrecht. She’s co-founder and board member of the Moving Futures festival and network.
Working together with Oliver Toxopeus
Ache Charlène Wang (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist, designer-researcher from the Sino-diaspora. Born in Paris in 1999, raised within the multiplicity of languages and cultural crossings, their practice unfolds a dialogue of decolonial narratives, translating gestures, materials, and meanings. Specialised in knitting programming and metal working : from the weight of steel to the fluid tension of yarn, Ache builds narratives that interlace craft and migration, memory and machinery.
Shiva Mugler is a performer, dancer, and voguer working in the international ballroom and queer club scene. As a "Legendary" member of the House of Miyake-Mugler, she brings a powerful physical and aesthetic signature that fuses performance, attitude, and queer empowerment. In addition to her work as a performer, she is active as a coach and mentor for young artists and dancers developing within contemporary movement languages. She teaches, floor siren, runway and contemporary classes and has been coaching Nimanong within Ballroom and their work already for several projects. Projects with Robin: Bimbo Manifesto, Children of Zeus
Guenter Råler is a music producer and sound artist based in Rotterdam. By shaping textures and atmospheres, they create evocative and emotionally-charged musical pieces. For this project they explored different sonic palettes around the themes of nature, water, healing and transformation, bringing together electronic and acoutisc sounds that would embody the narrative and visual nature of the performance.
Nils Davidse graduated with a bachelor degree for piano at the conservatory of Utrecht and during his studies he fell immediately in love with electronic instruments. After a long time of performing music and being involved in the art scene he started a master research at the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, successfully graduating in 2023.
Music Credit
Canoe – Taylor Dupree - Remix Robbeduz
Spoken Text voice: Maya Link – written by Robbeduz
Bells, Piano to Glitch track - Nils Davidse
Garden music, Yon Eta - Next Orbit & Valentina Gal
Knife music – Guenter Råler
Spoken text voice: Som Schouten – written by Robbeduz, supported by performers and translated to Thai by Som Schouten
Remix (small adaptations) Chant Pearson Sound edit and mastered – Guenter Råler
Storm and Glitchy birds track – Robbeduz
Singing by Robbeduz
Spear song – Blue Heron – Milan W.
Sounds – Nils Davidse
No hoist Total Internal Reflection - Raii point of view ASL – Robbeduz Minor Remix
Frequency and drumm – Robbedyz and mastered by Guenter Råler
Underwater – Guenter Råler & Nils Davidse
Mastered by Guenter Råler