Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker isn't somebody you count on to see dancing in silver sequined hotpants: a excessive queen of choreographic seriousness and an austere presence on stage. This solo is each a departure from and a distillation of what we all know of the Belgian choreographer. Her 42 years of labor has spanned starkly formal early items, shimmering group dances and sober solos, all wedded to the small print of musical buildings.
On this case the music is Bach’s late masterpiece The Goldberg Variations, and it’s not likely a solo, as a result of her stage is shared with pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. In white vest, black shorts and naked toes, he sits along with his again to the viewers – he’s taking part in for her, not us – introducing the music’s theme with divine delicacy. Kolesnikov’s taking part in dances and sings as De Keersmaeker offers some profound listening experiences, standing nonetheless to let Bach breathe, even reducing the lights in mournful variation 25 to cocoon us in sound.
You wouldn’t blame De Keersmaeker for additionally needing a breather. Over the course of two hours she is nearly always shifting, casting her physique in numerous lights: in sheer darkish gown for essentially the most composed, centered, exact materials (trying little completely different from her youthful self); later in champagne-coloured trouser swimsuit she throws in some punky swagger, earlier than stripping to scorching pants and pink shirt – solely this closing part hints on the vulnerability of the flesh.
At first, you'll be able to see the choreographic materials of De Keersmaeker’s theme returning in variations, designed with rigour and quotations from her personal canon. Then it spins out in tangents, infinite extrapolating, till she’s hanging beneath the piano, actually partnering it. She’s an opaque presence, eyes principally down on the ground or watching her limbs, po-faced even when making comical shapes. It’s someway intimate whereas giving us little of herself.
By the point the theme returns now we have been on a journey of riches and strangeness, indulgence, frustration and exquisite music. There’s one thing unimaginable about witnessing De Keersmaeker’s steadfast dedication to her craft, her mining of musical type (and her undimmed talents) however there’s not a lot in the best way of connection or pleasure.
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