Documentaries about the work of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

Instead of the originally planned Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 DANCE presents to you three different films about the work of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker:

Mitten (Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes, 2019)

Mitten follows the final weeks of rehearsal of Mitten wir im Leben sind, a performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, her company Rosas and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, based on the six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The film offers an intimate glance into De Keersmaeker’s meticulous methodology, in which a choreographic universe is built up through a careful study of musical composition. This intense creative process of continuously reshaping and honing, characterised by De Keersmaeker’s inexhaustible longing for precision and detail, is reflected in the filmmakers’ patient look at the work of the choreographer, the musician and dancers.

A Film by: Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes / With: Boštjan Antoncic, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Marie Goudot, Julien Monty, Michaël Pomero, Jean-Guihen Queyras / Image: Olivia Rochette / Sound: Lennert De Taeye / Producer: Rasmus Van Heddeghem, Ruben Desiere / Editing: Dieter Diependaele / Music: Johann Sebastian Bach 6 Cello Suites, BWV 1007 to 1012 / Sound Editing: Sabrina Calmels / Sound Mix: Aline Gavroy / Colour Correction: Raphaëlle Dufosset / Production: Accattone films / Co-Production: 24images, Mezzo, Kaaitheater & De Munt / La Monnaie, Sadler’s Wells / With the Support of: Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Canvas, RTBF, Le Mans Télévision

Hoppla! (Wolfgang Kolb,1989)

In Hoppla!, two choreographies by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker are brought together and performed to the music of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók: Mikrokosmos, seven short works for two pianos, and Quatuor no. 4, Bartók’s fourth string quartet. The reading room of the Ghent University library, designed by the renowned architect Henry Van de Velde, serves as location. In the film the music is performed live by the pianists Walter Hus and Stefan Poelmans on the one hand and by the Dutch Mondriaan Quartet on the other. Mikrokosmos is a “pas de deux”: for the first time a male dancer enters Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s universe. Four women dancers perform to the string quartet. In Van de Velde’s open space lit by large windows, the black clothing of the dancers sharply outlines their movements. One senses an immense complicity between the musicians and the dancers: the exhilaration of playing music together and dancing simultaneously is as it were the artistic motor of this project. In Hoppla!, Bartók’s dansant music, De Keersmaeker’s inventive choreography, Van de Velde’s austere space, and Wolfgang Kolb’s dynamic editing merge into one enormous convincing composition.

A Film by: Wolfgang Kolb / With: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jean-Luc Ducourt, Nadine Ganase, Roxane Huilmand, Fumiyo Ikeda, Johanne Saunier / Image: Remon Fromont, Philippe Guilbert, Philippe Maendly / Sound: Ricardo Castro / Editing: Rudi Maerten / Music: Béla Bartók / Production: A.O. producties / Co-Production: Kaaitheater, Rosas, La Sept, Arcanal, Zed ltd / With the Support of: het Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Le Cargo Grenoble, BRTN / In Association with: Canal 4, NDR, NOS, Théâtre de la Ville, RTBF

Rain (Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes, 2012)

On 25th May 2011 the world-renowned Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris presented Rain, its first ever performance of a choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. The filmmakers Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes followed the rehearsal process from the auditions to the opening performance. The documentary focuses on how De Keersmaeker and the Rosas dancers convey the dance idiom of the choreographer to the classically trained ballet dancers. The rigidity of ballet gives way to another kind of severity, namely the mathematical pattern of Rain, which, however, conceals a powerful emotional layering. A poetic documentary about searching, looking and hesitating within the walls of the opera, which at times can be claustrophobic.

A Film by: Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes / With: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Leonore Baulac, Jakub Truszkowski / Image: Olivia Rochette / Sound: Gerard-Jan Claes / Producer: Bart Van Langendonck / Editing: Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes, Dieter Diependaele / Music: ‘Music for 18 Musicians' by Steve Reich performed by Ictus & Synergy Vocals / Sound Editing: Olivia Rochette, Gerard-Jan Claes / Sound Mix: Thierry De Vries / Colour Correction: Reinder Vankeerbergen / Production: Savage Film / Co-Production: Sciapode, Opéra national de Paris / With the Support of: Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), CNC, the Media Development Program of the E.U., the Belgian tax shelter for film financing (investor: B-architecten) / In Association with: Eyeworks