The eddies and whirls of nature are as timeless and stately as the title. Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is one of the greats of contemporary European dance, a master of abstract form. In 34 years of creative work her exploration of 20th-century and contemporary music has become increasingly powerful.
In Vortex Temporum seven dancers from De Keersmaeker’s company Rosas and six musicians from the new-music ensemble Ictus perform alongside and with one another on an equal footing. The French composer Gérard Grisey completed his intense and colourful chamber piece Vortex Temporum two years before his death in 1998. As if making a legacy, he describes the circling of an invisible axis of space and time. The 60-minute dance takes up this motif, becoming a part of the music. At the end, when the minute hand of the clock has returned to its starting point, the music itself has become dance.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker studied dance with Maurice Béjart in Brussels and the Tisch School of Arts in NYC. In 1983 she founded her company Rosas, which was company in residence at De Munt/La Monnaie from 1992 till 2007. Since 1995 De Keersmaeker has been the director of the Brussels dance institution P.A.R.T.S., from which countless new talents have emerged.
Video trailer: Interview Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker:
Co-production: De Munt / La Monnaie (Brussels), Ruhrtriennale, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Sadler’s Wells (London), Opéra de Lille, ImpulsTanz (Vienna), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Concertgebouw Brugge (Brugge) Magazin im August article