The French Musée de la Danse, project of radical dance maker Boris Charmatz, is arriving in London this May, and as part of this season of choreographic exploration the Belgian contemporary dance icon Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker will take to the stage.
De Keersmaeker has been creating dance works of intense patterns and androgynous shapes with her company, Rosas, since 1983. But in a repertoire of some 40 works, this is the first duet she has created to perform herself.
She has a reputation for rather glum movement, mainly thanks to an almost obsessive geometry and regularity that restrains emotional display. But such regularity is also a blank canvas, against which small flashes of feeling and marks of individuality appear as though extreme.
Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker | Boris Charmatz
The duet will be performed with Boris Charmatz, whose far more conceptual style is expected to bring whimsy and improvisation into de Keersmaeker’s usual vocabulary.
Since her iconic breakout work, Fase, De Keersmaeker has sought a far more demanding marriage of music and movement than most, earning her the respect of several composers along the way. Violinist Amandine Beyer will open the performance in a first section of only music, played in complete darkness. This will be followed by a section of dance without music, before a final section marries the two.
Some critics were underwhelmed by Partita 2 when it premiered in May 2013 in Brussels, and you should not expect a work of technical wizardry. Instead, De Keersmaeker will return to an old maxim, “my walking is my dancing.”
But for the collision of ideas from two of the most strikingly distinctive choreographers working today, this is a rare sight, and any dance fan will have something to learn.
De Keersmaeker has been creating dance works of intense patterns and androgynous shapes with her company, Rosas, since 1983. But in a repertoire of some 40 works, this is the first duet she has created to perform herself.
She has a reputation for rather glum movement, mainly thanks to an almost obsessive geometry and regularity that restrains emotional display. But such regularity is also a blank canvas, against which small flashes of feeling and marks of individuality appear as though extreme.
Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker | Boris Charmatz
The duet will be performed with Boris Charmatz, whose far more conceptual style is expected to bring whimsy and improvisation into de Keersmaeker’s usual vocabulary.
Since her iconic breakout work, Fase, De Keersmaeker has sought a far more demanding marriage of music and movement than most, earning her the respect of several composers along the way. Violinist Amandine Beyer will open the performance in a first section of only music, played in complete darkness. This will be followed by a section of dance without music, before a final section marries the two.
Some critics were underwhelmed by Partita 2 when it premiered in May 2013 in Brussels, and you should not expect a work of technical wizardry. Instead, De Keersmaeker will return to an old maxim, “my walking is my dancing.”
But for the collision of ideas from two of the most strikingly distinctive choreographers working today, this is a rare sight, and any dance fan will have something to learn.
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| What | Partita 2: Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker, Sadler's Wells |
| Where | Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Angel (underground) |
| When |
22 May 15 – 23 May 15, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM |
| Price | £12-£27 |
| Website | Click here to book via the Sadler's Wells website |
