Vortex Temporum
Swirling, cyclical
In Vortex Temporum Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker takes on the polyphony in Gérard Grisey’s eponymous masterpiece with a danced counterpoint for six dancers. Probing the question: ‘how can you visualise polyphony by dancing it?’. De Keersmaeker decided to stage an intricate intertwining of sound and movement. Each dancer is linked to one of the six musicians, and colours his or her dancing with patterns of movement proper to the instrument. Both the dancers and musicians travel the stage following a pattern – a vortex – of swirling circles. As De Keersmaeker observes: ‘Time can be thought of as both linear and cyclical. That which we call ‘now’ is, in fact, a permanent tipping point; a balancing act between memory and anticipation, leaning back and forth between the ghost image of the past and a desire towards the future.’
Vortex Temporum was also the starting point for Work/Travail/Arbeid. De Keersmaeker reinterpreted the choreography as a nine-week exhibition at WIELS last spring.
#tenderdance #kteam #bignames #matinee
choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker | created with and danced by Boštjan Antončič, Carlos Garbin, Marie Goudot, Cynthia Loemij, Julien Monty, Michaël Pomero, Igor Shyshko | music Vortex temporum, Gérard Grisey (1996) | music director Georges-Elie Octors | musicians Ictus | piano Jean-Luc Plouvier | flute Michael Schmid | clarinet Dirk Descheemaeker | violin Igor Semenoff | viola Jeroen Robbrecht | cello Geert De Bièvre | light design Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Luc Schaltin | artistic advisor light Michel François | costumes Anne-Catherine Kunz | musical dramaturgy Bojana Cvejić | artistic assistant Femke Gyselinck | artistic coordination and planning Anne Van Aerschot | technical director Joris Erven | sound Alexandre Fostier, Vanessa Court | wardrobe Valérie Dewaele, Emma Zune | sewing Maria Eva Rodriguez, Tatjana Vilkitskaia | technicians Philippe Fortaine, Wannes De Rydt, Michael Smets, Bert Veris | production Rosas | coproduction De Munt / La Monnaie (Brussels), Ruhrtriennale, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Sadler’s Wells (London), Opéra de Lille, ImpulsTanz (Wien), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Concertgebouw Brugge | world premiere 3 October, 2013, Ruhrtriennale | special thanks to Thierry Bae, Jean-Paul Van Bendegem
