This special repertory evening will present three early works by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, each of which is based on a piece of classical music. The programme features a combative choreography set to the layered rhythms and harmonies of Bartók’s Quartet n°4, a group piece that defies gravity and depicts the ingenious counterpoint in Beethoven’s Die Grosse Fuge, and a shamelessly romantic duet set to Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht. Ictus and the Brussels Philharmonic will accompany the pieces live especially for the Brussels series.

The legendary opera Einstein on the Beach by Phillip Glass, Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs premièred at the Festival of Avignon in 1976. For this new concertante version, the Ictus ensemble is joining forces with the Collegium Vocale Ghent and with neo-folk legend Suzanne Vega. The musical composition and the musicality of the libretto are the central focus in a minimalist and hypnotizing soundscape that lasts 200 minutes.

The unrelenting logic of profit and technological development have reduced human beings to disposable objects. The next step is making our environment completely uninhabitable. The new production by Kris Verdonk explores our physical and psychological state of being in light of an imminent extinction. The dancers are often not more than shadows in a landscape of blow-up sculptures, cello-noise, and a robotic drum.