Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker: What will remain of our seasons in a world threatened with collapse?

What led you to work together on this show?

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker : We had already collaborated in 2020, as part of Kunsten, and during covid, for a show in the garden of the arts center in Schaerbeek. Radouan and I share certain interests such as what a choreographic approach can mean today. We are both fascinated by the idea that dance is an embodied abstraction that emerges from the observation of nature as well as geometry, architecture, even mathematics. There is also the same interest in the spiritual dimension in the choreography, and working with a group of dancers. I offered him to work on The four Seasons, undoubtedly the most iconic piece in the history of Western music but which also suffers from being an image as hackneyed as a sunset. It’s magnificent but it’s music that’s heard so much that everyone knows it. It is part of our collective memory. Creating together means searching. It’s about finding the balance between harmony and invention. And there are separate spaces for both in the process before bringing them together. I have worked before with other choreographers like Salva Sanchis and Némo Flouret. What matters in the end is the entire show.

Radouan Mriziga: I had known Anne Teresa and her work for a long time. From the outside and now from the inside. We share a lot of things, in the intellectualization of the process as well as in the emotional and spiritual aspects.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts: in the face of the storm, the jubilation of dancing

What is this link between nature and dance? You talk about “structures and elements present in nature and celestial configurations as possible starting angles for the choreography”.

ATDK : Doing a choreography is organizing movements in time and space. We can approach this in a scientific, analytical way. I have been using geometry and how it manifests in nature for a long time. It has been a constant Source of inspiration. I am obsessed with a point, a line, ellipses, spirals, how they manifest everywhere in nature. Here, in the trees, there in the cosmos, there again in the hurricanes that revolve around the Earth, in the laws of gravity. And algebra has its sources in the Arab world, in northern Africa. In Islam, abstraction and non-figuration are a basic principle.

RM: Through dance and movements, we become part of nature. It is important not to see nature from the outside – that would behubris, pride – but to accept being part of it. I was born in the mountains in Marrakech. In the traditions I come from, in Islamic art, there is a constant exchange with the laws of nature. In art and architecture, we deal with shadow, the presence of water. I have always been obsessed with nature in my work, in a minimalist and geometric way. I worked a lot in my choreographies on landscapes: those of the Atlas, the desert. Also on the spirit of nature which animates bodies.

Where does the title of “Il Cimento dell‘Armonia and dell‘Invented”?

ATDK : This is the original title chosen by Vivaldi for a set of concerti including The four Seasons. “Armonia” is a word to be understood as meaning “what works”. We chose The four Seasons first of all because it is magnificent music. Certainly, it has been exploited commercially and it is known all over the world. But Amandine Beyer made a magnificent recording ten years ago. She manages to make the music make you dance. When talking about it with us, she mixed very technical things with all her imagination, spiritual and political that she put into it. By going with her inside this music, we discovered lots of spaces that open up for the dancers. We were also inspired by images of mythological paintings and Bruegel’s four seasons. The perception of music changes through dance. I no longer listen to this Vivaldi music in the same way. His well-known side has completely disappeared for us in favor of music that we listen to in a fresher way. Our show is also a humble invitation to listen differently to music that is so often heard.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and the place of dance in a world threatened with sinking like the Titanic

RM : We made the choice not to be afraid of very popular music. It’s a nice joint exercise to work on something that could have scared us. As far as I’m concerned, I also like working on pop or rap music, music that everyone knows.

Have you wondered about the meaning to be given to this creation around the four seasons at a time when they are suffering the consequences of climate change to the point that the very reality of four distinct seasons threatens to disappear?

ATDK: Parts of the world only have two seasons. For the first time in the history of humanity, the question arises of our place as a human race in relation to survival on the planet and in relation to all other living and non-living species. Will we continue to follow the biblical precept which would make us lords and masters of the world? The problem is enormous, for the climate and even more so the disappearance of biodiversity. And we see today how these climate problems have major influences on geopolitics. How are we going to survive with so many people on this planet, with what we see today of the extreme brutality of wars and the arms race. I no longer see these things separately. The climate, inequalities, brutality, wars, are increasingly intertwined. It’s become difficult to be in art and not ask yourself these questions. What can we do ? We feel like we’re on the sinking Titanic and we’re the string quartet that keeps playing! We are without words, without power, and we have this feeling of anger within us. I had already addressed these questions in EXIT ABOVE, in our show in the rooms of the Louvre and in Somnia, in Gaasbeek Park.

RM: What students around the world are doing by protesting is closer to what needs to be done. But at the same time, we are here in the theater space, and it’s important to put these things on stage.

Dancing the night among the treasures of the Louvre

ATDK: How can we talk about this through dance? Speak clearly without hiding it in gift wrapping, asking questions that avoid nothing but leave space in the viewer’s head. The problem arises in every artistic act, whether writing a book or putting on a show: how to help raise awareness? But despite all the books and all the protests, nothing really changes. We are confronted every day with images of violence and cruelty.

RM: Even if the result of a choreography is abstract, it must be inspired by what we experience. We don’t make art to simply distract and forget.

So what is art for?

ATDK: Art is a political act in that it imagines another world, another future, in that it opens a space of celebration, of consolation for what we have lost, but also a space of reflection on this what happened to get here.

RM: Create a space for contemplation or, at least, we can stop for an hour and a half to look at bodies, and to see ourselves reflected in these bodies. This is important because we are all consumed by screens. I share with Anne Teresa that we both come from farming families, one from Brabant, the other from the Atlas. I am still in contact with my family there who have a very strong relationship with the seasons, the rain sometimes too heavy, the drought which has been raging for five years.

ATDK: A hundred years ago, 75% of the world’s population were small-scale farmers. Today, it is less than 20% and with industrialized agriculture which is killing biodiversity and killing the social structure. In Syria, before the civil war, there were major land reforms that drained the water table and brought people from the countryside to the cities. It’s like a tsunami is coming to us. Will people only realize this when there is no more water in the tap? It is difficult in these conditions not to have a certain apocalyptic feeling.

“He Cement of‘Armonia and dell‘Inventione” from May 11 to 31 at the Rosas performance Space in Forest. Then on Belgian and international tour.