Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker Presents Masterpieces VORTEX TEMPORUM and WORK/TRAVAIL/ARBEID

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is among the most influential innovators in the European dance scene. This Belgian choreographer is considered to be a master of the abstract form. She's one of the few choreographers continually looking to collaborate with contemporary composers and musicians and explore new music.

For her works Vortex Temporum (2013) and Work / Travail / Arbeid (2015), she engaged two exceptional ensembles: Rosas, the dance company that she founded, and the Ictus Ensemble, which specialises in new music.

At the centre of both works is Vortex Temporum (English: swirl of times), a key work of spectral music by French composer Gérard Grisey, who passed away in 1998. Seven dancers and six musicians perform as equals with, and in parallel to, each other. Together they explore how time thickens and stretches, shrinks and then unfurls again.

Can choreography be performed in the form of an exhibition? This question was the starting point for Work / Travail / Arbeid, whose Germany debut will be presented by the Volksbühne. To answer it, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker revisited her stage performance Vortex Temporum and transformed the stage into an exhibition space. The audience turns into exhibition visitors, musicians turn into dancers, dancers into sculptures, instruments into objects. The four- or eight-hour performances in exhibition form, which are appropriate for the whole family, may be entered at any time. The exhibition has already been praised in London (Tate Modern), Paris (Centre Pompidou) and New York (MoMA): "Work/Travail/Arbeid is among the most substantive and challenging exhibitions of the year." (The New York Times, 30 March 2017).

Vortex Temporum

Dance, Music

Choreography: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

With Rosas & Ictus Ensemble

Music Direction: Georges-Elie Octors

20-22 April at 8 pm, 90 min

Volksbühne Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

Work/Travail/Arbeid

Dance, Music, Exhibition

Germany Debut

Concept & Choreography: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

With Rosas & Ictus Ensemble

Music Direction Work/Travail/Arbeid: Georges-Elie Octors

26-27 April from 6-10 pm and 28-29 April from 2-10 pm, accessible continuously

Artist talk on 26 April with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Chris Dercon / Audience Q&A on 28 April

Volksbühne Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz