Creation 2023

Bach, Mozart, Schönberg - and now pop? Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is one of the most important choreographers of our time. Since the 1980s, she and her group Rosas have been considered masters of the dialogue between music and movement. The Belgian choreographer transforms even the most intricate compositions into captivatingly clear dance pieces.

In her new creation, she now turns to the genre of pop music. And this choice is less surprising than it might seem at first glance. De Keersmaeker has often used pop music in her pieces, for example the Beatles in her work The Song. "Pop is the music we deal with most in our daily lives," she has said. "It combines melody, rhythm, dance, poetry and a certain kind of theatricality, a spectacle." Pop tells stories, evokes human emotions that connect us to each other. Stories of relationships, love, celebration, grief and conflict.

But how do you embody these thoughts in the theatre, how do you relate to the lyrics with movement? De Keersmaeker addresses these questions with her new work, which she sees as part of her project to define dance as a site of resistance, because "joy and celebration, in all their simplicity, can be seen not only as healing but also as radical."

A joint project with Wiener Festwochen.