MINNEAPOLIS, September 18, 2014—Thirty-one years after her Rosas danst Rosas set the dance world on fire, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker offers a rare remount of her groundbreaking early dance-theater masterpiece Wednesday—Friday, October 15—17, 8 pm in the William and Nadine McGuire Theater. Although the Walker has presented her work previously, this signature piece has never been seen in the Midwest. Now widely viewed as a seminal work of art for its rhythmic complexity, stylized minimalism, and nuanced feminism, the piece has had an impact on several generations of dance, theater, and design creators on both sides of the Atlantic. Rosas danst Rosas has also seeped into popular culture—one well-known example is the music video for Beyoncé’s hit song “Countdown,” which drew directly from De Keersmaeker’s costuming, set, and choreography. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to see a masterwork by one of the defining choreographers of our time. Copresented with Northrop, University of Minnesota.
Note: 110 minutes, no intermission. No late seating.
About Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
After studying dance at Maurice Béjarts Mudra school in Brussels and at the dance department of New York University’s School of the Arts, choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker started her career with Fase, four movements to the music of Steve Reich (1982). She founded the Rosas company in 1983, on the occasion
of the creation of Rosas danst Rosas. Both works provided a quick international breakthrough and have been restaged at different occasions, most recently in the project Early Works (2010). From 1992 until 2007 De Keersmaeker was resident choreographer at La Monnaie, the Brussels opera house, creating a wide range of works that have been presented all over the world. In 1995 Rosas and La Monnaie jointly set up the international educational project PARTS, the Performing Arts Research and strong positions as dancers and choreographers in Europe and beyond.
From the beginning De Keersmaeker’s choreographic works have focused on the relation between music and dance. She has worked with compositions ranging from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century, premiering creations of George Benjamin, Toshio Hosokawa, and Thierry De Mey and collaborating with various ensembles and musicians. She has also investigated different genres such as jazz, traditional Indian music, and pop music. She has a great affinity with Steve Reich’s compositions and has worked with his music in pieces such as Fase (1982), Drumming (1998), and Rain (2001). Her choreographies present an ever-evolving marriage between a refined sense of compositional architecture and a strong sensuality or theatricality. This unique signature has been recognized with many awards.
De Keersmaeker has also left the confines of pure dance and has ventured into the realms of dance and text, creating performances that blend the different disciplines: Kassandra, speaking in twelve voices (2004), I said I (1999), and In Real Time (2000). She has also directed operas: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle by Bela Bartók (1998) and Hanjo by Toshio Hosokawa (2004). Several of her works have also been turned into autonomous dance films, directed by Thierry De Mey, Peter Greenaway, and De Keersmaeker herself, among others.
In recent years, she has strongly rethought and refined the core parameters of her work as a choreographer. The close collaboration with artists such as Alain Franco (in Zeitung, 2008), Ann Veronica Janssens (Keeping Still Part 1, 2008; The Song, 2009; and Cesena, 2011), Michel François (The Song and En Atendant, 2010), Jérôme Bel (3Abschied, 2010), and Björn Schmelzer (Cesena, 2011) prompted her to reconsider the bare essentials of dance: time and space, the body and its voice, its potential to move, and its relation to the world. Her most recent works are Partita 2 (2013), a duet with dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz, set to Bach’s Partita No. 2 and Vortex Temporum (2013), on the music of Gérard Grisey. In A Choreographer’s Score, a two-volume monograph published by Rosas and Mercatorfonds, she offers wide-ranging insights into the making of her four early works as well as En Atendant and Cesena in conversations with the performance theorist and musicologist Bojana Cvejic.
Tickets to Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas danst Rosas are: $32 ($28 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600
Dig Deeper!
The Balcony Bar is open one hour prior to and after performances.
Post-show Discussion, Wednesday, October 15
Stay after the show for an on-stage conversation with Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Philip Bither, Senior Curator of Performing Arts
Post-show SpeakEasy, Friday, October 17
It’s like a book club for the performing arts—your questions, your answers, risk-free. After the Friday show, head to the Balcony Bar to jump into a discussion or just listen in as others hash it out. Led by a Walker tour guide and a local choreographer.
Rosas danst Rosas Master Class
Monday, Oct 13, 5:00 – 6:30pm
Hubbard Broadcasting Rehearsal Studio, Northrop (ground floor; east entrance)
84 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Free (reservations required: call Melissa Wray at 612-301-1961 or email northrop@umn.edu)
Join Rosas’ Rehearsal Director and dancer Fumiyo Ikeda in a master class that explores two select dance movements from Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s seminal work, Rosas danst Rosas. Open to all levels of dance and movement experience. Limited to 25 participants.
Rosas danst Rosas: A Panel Discussion of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Dance-Theater Work
Thursday, Oct 16, 4:00 pm
Ellie and Tom Crosby Seminar Room, Northrop (second floor, east side)
84 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Free and open to the public
Philip Bither, Senior Curator of Performing Arts at the Walker Art Center, discusses the Midwest Premiere of Rosas danst Rosas with the members of the Rosas dance company. Presented as part of the University of Minnesota Institute for Advanced Studies Thursdays at Four series.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Support provided by Producers’ Council members Leni and David Moore, Jr./ The David and Leni Moore Family Foundation and the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts.
The Walker Art Center’s performing arts programs are made possible by generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through the Doris Duke Performing Arts Fund, the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Producers’ Council
Performing Arts programs and commissions at the Walker are generously supported by members of the Producers’ Council: Russell Cowles; Nor Hall and Roger Hale; King’s Fountain/Barbara Watson Pillsbury and Henry Pillsbury; Emily Maltz; Dr. William W. and Nadine M. McGuire; Leni and David Moore, Jr.; Josine Peters; Mike and Elizabeth Sweeney; and Frances and Frank Wilkinson.