A cross-pollination between walking and the blues, EXIT ABOVE, after the tempest / d'après la tempête / naar de storm is a dual return to the choreographer’s roots in gesture and contemporary music. Thirteen performers take us on an escapade that reaches as far as pop.
In her search for simple forms, attentive to gestures that have become so familiar they go unnoticed, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker applies a guiding principle to her choreographic works: “My walking is my dancing”. After all, isn’t walking our first-ever dance? EXIT ABOVE, after the tempest / d’après la tempête / naar de storm examines this assumption in a return to the roots of movement that encounters the blues along the way. The starting-point of this choreographic walk for 13 dancers is a song: Walking Blues. The Belgian choreographer thus invited Meskerem Mees, a young Flemish singer-songwriter of Ethiopian heritage, to compose a series of adaptations and variations around this song by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, alongside Jean-Marie Aerts, the sound architect of Belgian group TC Matic, and dancer-guitarist Carlos Garbin. In their ceaseless exploration of the ties between dance and music, De Keersmaeker’s works render visible the harmonies, rhythmics and scores in the dancers’ bodies, causing daydreams to blossom. Here, these are experienced in the same way as one traverses a space: on foot.
Duration
01:30
Credits
Piece for 13 performers – 2023
Dance company Rosas Art direction Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker Performers Abigail Aleksander, Jean Pierre Buré, Lav Crnčević, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Carlos Garbin, Nina Godderis, Solal Mariotte, Meskerem Mees, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Navarrete Valverde, Cintia Sebok, Jacob Storer Music Meskerem Mees, Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin, en direct par Carlos Garbin and Meskerem Mees Text and lyrics Meskerem Mees, Wannes Gyselinck Playwriting Wannes Gyselinck Stage design Michel François Costumes Aouatif Boulaich Light design Max Adams Rehearsal directors Cynthia Loemij, Clinton Stringer Artistic Coordination and Planning Anne Van Aerschot Assistant to the Artistic Director Martine Lange Tour Manager Jolijn Talpe Technical Director Freek Boey **Technicians ** Jan Balfoort, Thibault Rottiers Sound Alex Fostier assistée par / assisted by Els Van Buggenhout Wardrobe Els Van Buggenhout Sewing Chiara Mazzarolo, Martha Verleyen
Production Rosas Coproduction De Munt / La Monnaie (Brussels), Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Concertgebouw Brugge (Bruges), Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Le théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), GIE FONDOC OCCITANIE (Le Parvis Tarbes, Scène nationale ALBI Tarn, Le Cratère Alès, Scène nationale Grand Narbonne, Théâtre Garonne) With support from Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, in collaboration with Casa Kafka Pictures – Belfius
Rosas is supported by the Flemish Community, the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), and the Fondation BNP Paribas
Acknowledgements Baptiste Alexandre, Naomie Bentein, Bert De Swert, Michel Dierickx, Steven Fillet, Nicolas Fiszman, Ann-Sofie Merlier, Miet Ongena, Tom Pauwels, Jean-Luc Plouvier, Olivier Thys, Emma Zune