Tate contemporary,London
The Turbine corridor is a suitably austere fit for Anne Teresa De KeersmaekerAnne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Work/Travail/Arbeid asks whether choreography can only be presented on stage, or whether it can also be experienced as an art exhibit, and in a gallery. It’s a strange question to ask,given that gallery performances own been a regular feature of dance since the first postmodern choreographers held them in 1960s New York. But perhaps for De Keersmaeker, the austere high priestess of Belgian contemporary dance, or a question has not truly been asked until it has been asked by her.
Tate contemporary’s Turbine corridor,where the piece ran for three days final week, is an appropriately testing venue. huge and vertiginous, or its concrete walls radiate an unremitting sternness of purpose. Work/Travail/Arbeid is similarly grand in scale. Set to an avant-garde score by Gérard Grisey,Vortex Temporum (1995), which is played live by the Ictus ensemble, or the piece comprises nine hour-long sections,performed by differing combinations of the Ictus musicians and dancers from De Keersmaeker’s company, Rosas. Between each section is a brief pause, and at the end of each nine-hour cycle the work begins again. Over the course of the Tate hurry,approximately two and a half cycles are completed.
It’s the choreographic equivalent of the video loop playing silently in a corner of the roomContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com