Bach, Mozart, Schoenberg – and now pop? Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker masters the dialogue between music and movement like no other and, in her latest choreography, she explores the emergence of pop music from the spirit of the blues. Taking My Walking Blues in the version by legendary musician Robert Johnson (1936) as her starting point, the up-and-coming singer-songwriter Meskerem Mees has teamed up with producer Jean-Marie Aerts and guitarist and dancer Carlos Garbin to create interpretations of ‘walking songs’. The piece travels through the musical history of the 20th century as it does so: from Delta blues to today’s melodically and rhythmically reliable pop. In keeping with her conviction that ‘my walking is my dancing’, De Keersmaeker elaborates from simple steps a space-filling choreography for twelve dancers. She remains true to the ‘walking’ theme: on the threshold from major to minor, the image of the romantic lonely wanderer finds its place as much as the power and political potential of an unarmed group marching forward together.
Choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker By and with Abigail Aleksander, Jean Pierre Buré, Lav Crnčević, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Carlos Garbin, Nina Godderis, Solal Mariotte, Meskerem Mees, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Navarrete Valverde, Cintia Sebők, Jacob Storer With music by Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin, Meskerem Mees Music Carlos Garbin, Meskerem Mees Text, Lyrics Wannes Gyselinck Dramaturgy Wannes Gyselinck Set Michel François Light design Max Adams Costumes Aouatif Boulaich Rehearsal direction Cynthia Loemij, Clinton Stringer
Production Rosas (Brussels) Coproduction Concertgebouw Brugge (Brügge), De Munt / La Monnaie (Brussels), Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Le théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), FONDOC Supported by the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government In collaboration with Casa Kafka Pictures – Belfius
Rosas is supported by the Flemish Community, the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), and by the BNP Paribas Foundation.
Premiere May 2023, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles (Brussels)
Wiener Festwochen 1989 Ottone, Ottone
Wiener Festwochen 1996 Verklärte Nacht in der Version für 14 Tänzer*innen
Wiener Festwochen 2003 Counter Phrases
Wiener Festwochen 2019 Die sechs Brandenburgischen Konzerte
Wiener Festwochen 2020 Die Goldberg Variationen, BWV 988