Rosas danst Rosas [transmission 2015]

Extrait de la pièce d’A.T. de Keersmaeker remontée par la compagnie De l’air dans l’art-SUAPS-université Paris-Sud-Orsay (Longjumeau-Orsay), coordinateurs Ghislaine Tétier, Philippe Chevalier, dans le cadre de “Danse en amateur et répertoire” (2014)

Choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
A choreographic extract remodelled by the company De l’air dans l’art-SUAPS-université Paris-Sud-Orsay (Longjumeau-Orsay), coordinators and coaches Ghislaine Tétier, Philippe Chevalier, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
The company De l’air dans l’art is active within the Université Paris-Sud-Orsay, around the teacher and choreographer Ghislaine Tétier (in collaboration with Philippe Chevalier). It has also devoted time to revivals of works by Odile Duboc and Dominique Bagouet. It gives performances eight times a year. Its seventeen members involved in the current project are aged between eighteen and forty-three, and are of various levels, ranging from beginners to amateurs of a very advanced standard. The group shows great intellectual curiosity, in no way discouraged by an introduction to dance notation systems or by the study of compositional structures. It is also eager to learn about the cultural and historical context of works. 

The choreographer
Born in1960 in Belgium, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker dominates the European contemporary choreographic landscape. Her compositions with their heightened sense of energy are based on a very thorough analysis of the structures of musical writing. In 1983, the work Rosas danst Rosas was her first group composition (for four female dancers), taking to its limits the principles of repetitiveness. A landmark in the history of 20th century dance, this work is currently enjoying a marked upsurge of curiosity, in the wake of its revival by the choreographer herself, but also due to its easier access by amateurs, through the 30th anniversary of the company – fittingly called Rosas – of which it was, in its time, the first work. 

The artist
Exceptionally, an academic and Laban notator is leading the revival of the 2nd movement of Rosas danst Rosas. Laetitia Doat danced this work during her training period and has already transmitted it in a teaching context. In this instance, notation and interpretation work forms a dynamic ensemble, for a group that also has an academic vein. The increase in number of interpreters to more than the original quartet provides an opportunity to explore fascinating combinations, on the basis of six movements only, relentlessly renewed. The attention focuses on a work of breathing and anchoring of movement in depth, beyond the rhetorical externalisation of gesture. Hence the use of balls, sticks or flexible bars and somatic methods.