Desh (the second part of the night)

For a number of years now the choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has been fascinated by the spirituality and structural richness of traditional Indian music, both in its vocal and instrumental form. This interest in Eastern compositions was also stimulated and deepened by the music western jazz musicians such as John Coltrane wrote after their introduction to and confrontation with Indian ragas. The Indian word ‘raga’ means something like ‘colour’ or ‘mood’. They are often filled with the sound of nostalgia: the departure of the sun at the start of the rainy season, or the absence of a loved one. 

Desh comprises five sections: a duet, a solo, a trio and then another solo and trio. The phrases of movement on which the choreography is based were developed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and the young Spanish choreographer Salva Sanchis. Both also appear on stage as dancers. Marion Ballester completes the trio. Narrative movements are contrasted with abstract movements and fixed phrases with improvised movements. The human voice, the flute and the tabla dominate the Indian music selected; in John Coltrane’s composition India, to which Salva Sanchis dances, a clear soprano saxophone seeks a connection with the Indian cultural heritage. In the improvisation within certain themes and contexts, jazz and Indian music also come to terms with one another. Moreover, Coltrane was not only attracted by the artistic qualities of these Indian compositions but also by spirituality. In Hindu philosophy all forms of the visible world originate in sound, in the hum, the essential vibration that is without beginning or end and continues always and everywhere.