Fase

The choreographer and dancer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker needs no introductions. Thirty years on from her first work ("Asch", 1980), she remains one of the most outstanding figures in contemporary dance. And it was De Keersmaeker who put Belgium at the epicentre of the world dance stage. Having studied at Maurice Béjart’s Mudra school and at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York, De Keersmaeker shot to prominence with just her second work, "Fase" (1982). De Keersmaeker had studied music before deciding to dedicate herself to dance, and she drew inspiration for her choreographies from the work of the celebrated American composer, Steve Reich, whose musicians she had known in New York. It was the international success of "Fase" that led De Keersmaeker to found the Rosas company in 1983, and to carve a significant career for herself as a choreographer.

In "Fase", which was originally danced by De Keersmaeker herself and Michel Anne De May, the cerebral choreographer is entirely at ease with Reich’s austerely structured minimalist music. The mathematical precision of the choreography, which is based on small movements and a game played out between the dancers’ bodies and their shadows, demands absolute concentration as well as stamina. However, the fluidity and purity of the perpetual motion creates a hypnotically beautiful dancescape. When Steve Reich saw the choreography many years later in 1999, he was much impressed and declared that he had learnt something from it about himself and his work. De Keersmaeker, who has said that she continues to be inspired by his music and to create with it, will be dancing "Fase" on stage 29 years after her début performance of the work.