LA MONNAIE / DE MUNT

Twelve dancers, backlit in an orange hue reminiscent of a glowing cinders, succumb to one of the monuments of American minimal music. Drumming is without a doubt a key work in the Rosas repertoire. In this interview, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker herself explains how she tackled the choreography.

There are many reasons why Achterland has been a cornerstone of the Rosas-repertoire since its premiere in 1990: its historical value, being the first of their productions to debut in La Monnaie, or the unique musical marriage between Györgi Ligeti and Eugène Ysaÿe. But what stands out the most after close to thirty years, is the groundbreaking choreography. Discover the iconic production in the photo series below, and see for yourself that even still images can resonate with the dancer's energetic virtuosity. 

No clear-cut reprise, but not a complete rewrite either: Zeitigung might be the most original example of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s ever continuing search for new approaches to the Rosas repertoire. Ten years after the premiere of Zeitung, the choreographer starts off with the same musical building blocks – an anthology of two centuries of German classical music, now performed live by pianist Alain Franco – but she also invited dancer-choreographer Louis Nam Le Van Ho to bring his own flavour to the source material. A conversation with the three creators, in between the folds of a never-ending creative process.

Toward the end of the summer of 1964, John Coltrane left his studio with the draft of a composition that would serve as the foundational text for a whole new genre. Here and there, some schematic indications for the piano or the bass and, in the bottom margin of the score, the following exclamation—All paths lead to God / Prayer entitled—A Love Supreme—hastily scribbled in ballpoint.

In Bartók / Beethoven / Schönberg, Rosas stages three repertoire pieces in an evening arrangement. The performance is branched throughout the oeuvre of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, propagating roots in the early years but also displaying the various transformations over the years. Dance is an art that is continuously changing but always exists in the now, something made clear by Bartók / Beethoven / Schönberg.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s music has made regular appearances in Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's oeuvre. The Six Brandenburg Concerti marked her fifth performance to the music of the German baroque composer. Yet it was only in 1994, fourteen years after her first choreography Violin Phase, that she began to work with Bach's own music in the performance Toccata.