BREL

BREL is a collaboration between Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Solal Mariotte, dancer and emerging choreographer. The starting point for this new work is a selection of compositions by the chansonnier Jacques Brel. De Keersmaeker and Mariotte represent very divergent approaches to choreography and dance. They belong to different generations and have different histories with the singer. 

Jacques Brel was born in Brussels in 1929 and achieved international fame in the 1950s and 1960s. His powerful lyrics are layered, poetic, and often political. They evoke a range of moods and emotions. Brel’s image is instantly recognizable, with his extraordinary stage presence and expressive gestures. He radiates an incredible energy, speaks to and moves his audience in a direct, personal, and almost physical way. Although Brel’s songs touch on ‘timeless’ themes (friendship, relationships, violence), his songs resonate very differently in today’s world. 

Which tools can the medium of the chanson and Brel’s performative qualities offer us? What should we preserve and how can we set it in motion in a way that is relevant to today? The challenge lies not only in finding strategies to ‘embody’ Brel’s music – ways to bring it to life – in a way that speaks to us today while maintaining a critical distance, but also in exploring ways to really share the stage with Jacques Brel. 

• Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (1960, Belgium) created her first choreography Asch in 1980, after studying dance at Mudra in Brussels and the Tisch School of the Arts in New York. Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich premiered two years later. In 1983 De Keersmaeker founded the dance company Rosas in Brussels, during the creation process of the performance Rosas danst Rosas. Her first pieces, including Bartók/Mikrokosmos (1987) and Achterland (1990, to music by György Ligeti), are characterized by strictly geometric trajectories in space that reveal a formal yet emotionally charged relationship to 20th-century classical music. Since then, her choreographic work has been based in a meticulous exploration of the connection between dance and music. With Rosas she created an extensive oeuvre that uses musical structures and scores from different eras, from early music to contemporary compositions and pop. Her choreographic practice also draws formal principles from geometry, mathematical schemes, nature, and social structures, resulting in a unique perspective on the movement of the body in time and space. In 1995, De Keersmaeker founded the school P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels, in collaboration with De Munt/La Monnaie. 

• Solal Mariotte (2001, France) started out in breakdance, and then continued his studies at the Annecy Conservatory and at P.A.R.T.S., Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Brussels-based dance school, from which he graduated in June 2022. In 2023, he joined Rosas. He danced in Any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones by Jan Martens (Festival d'Avignon, 2021) and EXIT ABOVE by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (Festival d'Avignon, 2023). In early 2024, he created his first piece, Collages/Ravages, with musician Jean-Luc Plouvier. He then rewrote the piece with musician Lucas Messler, with whom he developed a music-dance dialogue that they also shared through participatory workshops.