Achterland

Blurring boundaries

Achterland is a seminal choreography in Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s oeuvre. In this 1990 performance, for the first time, the choreographer gave the musicians a central position on stage and let them play an active role in the overall dynamic – an approach she would repeat in many subsequent projects. The unusual combination of György Ligeti’s and Eugène Ysaÿe’s music inspired De Keersmaeker and her dancers to create an original dance score with a delicate balance between energetic virtuosity and deceleration. This also was the choreographer’s first time writing dancing material specifically for men: three male dancers joined Rosas, which at the time was still a predominantly female company. The minimalism and dominant femininity of early Rosas pieces gave way to an ambiguous no-man’s-land in which boundaries and signs were blurred.