ROTTERDAM, 15 OCTOBER 2025 - What does a Barbie doll say about who we are allowed to be? And who we are not? In the award-winning show Let's go Barbie by Sue-Ann Bel and Hali Neto, barbies slip out of their pink straitjacket. Using dance, movement and images, the makers show how deeply ingrained social expectations are in our bodies - and how liberating it is to shake them off.
The show Let's go Barbie is aimed at everyone aged 8 to 99 and will have its festive premiere at the Maaspodium in Rotterdam on Saturday 18 October.
From perfection to liberation
At Let's go Barbie the audience steps into Sue-Ann's carefully created world - a world where everything is right except for herself. When a crack appears in the perfect picture, a physical and emotional escape ensues. Without words, but with an explosion of dance and movement, the audience feels what it is like to be trapped in expectations - and what it means to break out of them.
Representation matters
It is a conscious choice to work with black barbies. Generations of children grew up with white barbies as the norm. "Now that I am older, I would have granted myself several barbies as a child" explains creator Sue-Ann Bel who is of Surinamese descent,and plays one of the Barbies "It is not only about colour, but about recognition. About being seen - and daring to recognise yourself in the world around you." In Let's go Barbie the puppets gradually become people of flesh and blood, without demands or perfection. The audience literally moves with the transformation - from cramped to free.
Liberation dance
The makers call Let's go Barbie a "liberation dance". It is not a performance to watch, but to experience. Its physical intensity makes tangible what happens when you are constantly pushed into boxes, and what is released when those boxes disappear. Maker Hali Neto who is of Angolan origin: "For me, this piece is about the world I live in, which is becoming increasingly harsh and polarised. Let's go Barbie is my way of creating air in it - to make room for gentleness, humour and freedom."
Young generation
The show is made for audiences as young as 8 years old. That choice is also deliberate. Sue-Ann: "Children are the future. They see an awful lot, really think about it and take that home with them. So it feels like we can communicate a lot with this target group. In addition, Hali and I like to invite adults who come along to see through their children's eyes. Their gaze has a certain kind of openness and open-mindedness that they can learn from".
Nationwide tour
The show Let's go Barbie will premiere on Saturday 18 October at the Maaspodium in Rotterdam. This will be followed by a nationwide tour of theatres in the Netherlands, running until January 2026.
