Performance

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Violin Phase

Saturday 15 Sep 2018 from 1pm to 1:15pm, from 3pm to 3:15pm, from 5pm to 5:15pm

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Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, "Violin Phase", Lafayette Anticipations, 15 septembre 2018
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Violin Phase, Lafayette Anticipations, 15 septembre 2018 © Marc Domage

For Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, dance is a "liquid architecture". It structures itself around rigorous geometrical principles which the Belgian choreographer likes to gradually abandon. This belief is conveyed as early as in 1981 with Violin Phase, her very first choreographed piece written to the repetitive music of the American minimalist composer Steve Reich. The choreography progresses by repetition and accumulation of movements which she gradually phases out. As the choreographer dances, she turns in circles on a thin layer of white sand creating interlacing patterns that form a rosette.

In the last few years, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has gradually freed herself of the frontality of the stage in order to create a more complex and fluid relationship with her audience. In this way, she has rethought certain historical pieces such as Violin Phase, to fit the gallery space. After MoMA’s atrium in 2011 and Tate Modern’s Tanks in 2012, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will adapt Violin Phase to Lafayette Anticipations' architecture so that this heady choreographic piece can be appreciated from various points of view, from the ground floor to the higher floors that become balconies.

Choreography: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Dance: Yuika Hashimoto
Music: Steve Reich (Violin Phase, 1967)
Concept: Thierry De Mey
Co-presented by Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette and Festival d’Automne à Paris

First performed in April 1981 at the Festival of Early Modern Dance (New York).

Saturday, September 15 at 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm
Running time: 15 minutes
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Violin Phase / Echelle Humaine Lafayette Anticipations
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker,
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Violin Phase, Lafayette Anticipations, 2018 © Marc Domage
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker,
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Violin Phase, Lafayette Anticipations, 2018 © Marc Domage
After studying dance at the Mudra School in Brussels and New York University, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker came to prominence in 1982 with Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich. The following year, while creating the work Rosas danst Rosas, De Keersmaeker founded in Brussels her dance company titled “Rosas”.
Since then, her choreography has been grounded in a rigorous and prolific exploration of the relationship between dance and music (from early music to contemporary and popular idioms). Between 1992 and 2007, Rosas was in residency at La Monnaie, the Brussels opera house, where De Keersmaeker has directed a number of ballets and operas. Contemporary music ensemble Ictus has been a constant partner, with key performances such as Drumming (1998) and Rain. In 1995, De Keersmaeker established the school P.A.R.T.S (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels, now an internationally renowned incubator for talented choregraphers. De Keersmaeker’s latest works mark a visible “stripping down” of her choreography to essential principles. In 2013, she created Vortex Temporum to Gérard Grisey’s spectral music. In 2015, this choreographic piece was adapted to a durational exhibition format at the WIELS art center in Brussels under the title Work/Travail/Arbeid subsequently presented at MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, and Tate Modern.