Retour en Avant / Past Forward Biennale de la Danse Lyon - France

Anne Teresa De KeersmaekerThis Flemish Belgian dancer and choreographeris a major figure on the contemporary-dancescene in Belgium and around the world. Sheestablished her reputation in the early 1980sthrough her endeavours to revive the intensebond between dance and music.During her childhood in Wemmel and inBrussels, where she went to secondary school,De Keersmaeker studied classical ballet at ÉcoleLillian Lambert in Brussels. It was here that shemet her future artistic partners: Michèle AnneDe Mey and her brother, musician Thierry DeMey. She attended École Mudra, founded byMaurice Béjart; and then spent two years in theUnited States studying at the Tisch School of theArts at New York University, where she discoveredpostmodern American dance. During thisperiod, she was exposed to many of New York’sartistic movements and to phase music, knownas minimalist music, which has been decisivelyinfluenced the direction of her choreographicworks throughout her career. After scoring abig international hit with her flagship pieceFase (1982), a duo inspired by Steve Reich’scompositions Come Out (1966), Violin Phase(1967) and Piano Phase (1967), she foundedCompagnie Rosas in 1983. After creating workswith more theatre-oriented elements such asJust Before (1997), written in collaboration withher sister Jolente De Keersmaeker, and videosincluding Erwartung (1995), Anne TeresaDe Keersmaeker returned to puredance with Drumming (1998) andRain (2001). Then came moreintimate works where sheperformed solo, such asOnce (2002), to musicby Joan Baez, or witha few other dancers,as in Desh and Ragafor the Rainy Season(2005), set totraditional Indianmusic and to JohnColtrane’s albumA Love Supremerespectively. In2004, she stagedthe opera Hanjoby Japanese ToshioHosokawa at theAix-en-ProvenceFestival. To date, AnneTeresa De Keersmaekerhas created nearly 30 danceworks and five films.D’un soir un jour /2006 creationUnder the title D’un soir un jour, Anne Teresa DeKeersmaeker combines six short choreographicepisodes in an exceptionally rich musical journeythat starts and ends with the music of ClaudeDebussy. At the core of this choreographic andmusical voyage are two compositions, one ofwhich was created for Rosas by the contemporaryBritish composer George Benjamin, whichare preceded and followed by short pieces byDebussy’s contemporary Igor Stravinsky. Sixopportunities to share in De Keersmaeker’sunceasing obsession with the relationshipbetween pure movement and music.Extra info:www.rosas.be37