Rosas - Partita 2

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don't have very much exposure to modern dance.  But I know enough about the dance scene in Belgium to be aware of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her impact on modern

dance, not only here in Belgium, but internationally.  De Keersmaeker is a world renowned dancer and choreographer and the woman around whom the Rosas dance company is centered.  And when I saw that she would be performing herself in this Rosas production in Leuven, I convinced Linda that we should include tickets to this in our annual culture subscription.

I am very glad I had already seen a Rosas production (see my post on Vortex Temporum below) because I already had a little bit of an idea of what to expect.  The performance began in pitch black with violinist George Alexander Van Dam playing Bach's Partita 2.  Then, the lights came back on to a bare stage and two dancers, De Keersmaeker and Boris Charmatz, who danced the entire choreography in silence, except for the occasional squeak of their gym shoes on the floor and a few unintelligible vocalizations.  Finally, Van Dam rejoined them, and the two pieces were joined together: the music and the dance.

I really enjoyed it.  I especially loved the choreography pictured (right) where one of the dancers was lying on the ground but following the footsteps of the other dancer as if he/she were the other person's shadow.  There was a beautiful movement they made to exchange places by grasping hands and letting the weight of the one person pull the other up.  You can get a bit of a feel for it, as well as hear an excerpt of the music, in this video:

As in the performance of Vortex Temporum, I enjoyed the running and jumping movements, the simple, athletic costumes and the bright gym shoes they wore.  But most of all, I loved the interface with the music, the interaction with the musician, and the way watching the movements on stage took me to a completely different planet for an hour.