After Relentless: Penelope Freeh on Rosas danst Rosas

To spark discussion, the Walker invites local artists and critics to write overnight reviews of our performances. The ongoing Re:View series shares a diverse array of independent voices and opinions; it doesn’t reflect the views or opinions of the Walker or its curators. Today, dance artist Penelope Freeh shares her perspective on Wednesday night’s performance of Rosas danst Rosas by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas. Agree or disagree? Feel free to share your thoughts in comments!

Rosas danst Rosas is a seminal work for Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker; it is the piece that catapulted her onto the international stage as well as the impetus behind forming her company Rosas.

Known now for her relentless use of repetition to exhibit and reframe her quotidian movement, De Keersmaeker started it here, demonstrating virtually every repetitive iteration possible with four bodies. (Specifically four female bodies, but more on that later.)

Rosas danst Rosas begins with a slow burn of floor work. Performed in silence, it is a study in duration, cut through with crackling, rapid-fire gesture. The women move with languid sensuality then flop, drop and roll in the blink of an eye. Virtuosic for even a single performer, this section amplified by four is exponentially so. Tiny variations begin and, because of all the repetition, we can track and even anticipate them. One by one the women leave the group, still connected by movement synchrony or counterpoint. There is anger, defiance, even grumpiness.

Scene change to a stage set with groupings of chairs. Now we really comprehend the feminine as each dancer claims a seat and executes vamping gestures including a cupping of a breast. This sequence is brash and confrontational while also numbing and defamiliarizing as the speed increases. Hair is loose and messy. Sexuality and power are underscored musically and to great effect as the performers stop on a dime at the end of the section.

The chairs are moved upstage and so begins where I really fell into this work. A trio ensues upstage near the chairs as the fourth performer sits on an end. The trio dances in unison until De Keersmaeker separates, coming downstage and into a hallway of light. Like the beginning, again we see connection in separation, distance amplifying and bolstering movement relationship. Many variations occur, more hallways of light, more downstage vs. upstage action.

And so it goes until the fourth dancer joins and yet new ways of patterning take hold. Two women maintain a ground, gently traveling back and forth, while the other two, in opposing squares of light, execute emotional and experiential gestures*. (*There is a sequence of gestures. The emotions are employed too, inherent to a gesture. As gestures repeat, the dancer seems to feel each one again, like it’s new, and yet there’s a cumulative effect.)

There are repeats inside repeats. Movement phrases constantly recur, as do whole passages. I love this micro and macro use of duplication. Again the sound score supports the dance and buoys the dancers. The demand for endurance is unforgiving and yet exhaustion works to get the point across.

Movement washes over us, coming from upstage to down and sweeping across in wide arcs. The dancers spread apart then suddenly converge like a flock of birds creating contrails. Eventually one by one they opt out, collapsing into individuality.

Another satisfying, stop-on-a-dime finish; blackout.

And after, work lights fade up as the dancers, separated by their respective conclusions, respond to the moment. Reminiscent of Toto exposing the man behind the curtain, it is a raw and revealing scene. Echoing gestures from earlier, these are far less dancerly, far more sweaty and necessary. And as quickly as this work was long and took its time, it was over.

Rosas danst Rosas continues in the McGuire Theater tonight (Thursday, October 16) and tomorrow night (Friday, October 17, 2014).