Cesena
A capella voices rise, their only allies are silence, breathing and the floor that squeaks and resonates under their feet. Blending into a single body, the 19 performers of the dance company Rosas and the vocal ensemble graindelavoix express devastation and the hope for a better tomorrow, a new dawn. Dancers and singers merge together as they grope through the shadows seeking sunlight. They bring to vibrant life the spellbinding harmonics of songs from the 14th century, an era of drama and violence when a pope ordered the massacre of the town of Cesena, Italy. This space-time bubble is graced by spare, uncluttered dance inspired by walking and human footsteps.
In the second part of a diptych that began with En Atendant, the choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and the musicologist Björn Schmelzer orchestrate a pure marvel by extolling the exquisite essence of the ars subtilior musical style, and contrasting it with the gravity and bounding energy of a mostly male cast. Transcendent.
PRODUCED BY ROSAS + GRAINDELAVOIX
CREATED BY ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER + BJÖRN SCHMELZER
CHOREOGRAPHY ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER
MUSIC DIRECTION BJÖRN SCHMELZER
CO-CREATED AND PERFORMED BY OLALLA ALEMÁN + HAIDER AL TIMIMI + BOSTJAN ANTONCIC + ARON BLOM + CARLOS GARBIN + MARIE GOUDOT + LIEVEN GOUWY + DAVID HERNANDEZ + MATEJ KEJZAR + MIKAEL MARKLUND + TOMÀS MAXÉ + JULIEN MONTY + CHRYSA PARKINSON + MARIUS PETERSON + MICHAEL POMERO + ALBERT RIERA + GABRIEL SCHENKER + YVES VAN HANDENHOVE + SANDY WILLIAMS
SET DESIGN ANN VERONICA JANSSENS
COSTUME DESIGN ANNE-CATHERINE KUNZ
COPRODUCTION LA MONNAIE (BRUSSELS) + FESTIVAL D’AVIGNON + THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE (PARIS) + GRAND THÉÂTRE DE LUXEMBOURG + FESTIVAL OUDE MUZIEK UTRECHT + GUIMARÃES 2012 + STEIRISCHER HERBST (GRAZ) + DESINGEL (ANTWERP) + CONCERTGEBOUW BRUGGE
PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH PLACE DES ARTS
WRITTEN BY FABIENNE CABADO
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH
ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER (BRUXELLES + ANVERS)
ROSAS + GRAINDELAVOIX
Mathematics of Space and Time
A leading figure in contemporary dance renowned for her acute understanding of music, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker established an international reputation in the early 1980s with her duo Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich (presented in 2008 at Usine C), and the ensemble piece Rosas danst Rosas, which was the inspiration for the name of her company.
BJÖRN SCHMELZER (BRUXELLES + ANVERS)
ROSAS + GRAINDELAVOIX
Updating Ancient Music
An ethnomusicologist and anthropologist by training, Björn Schmelzer lives in Antwerp where he founded the experimental collective graindelavoix in 1999.
