Rosas

On September 17, 2024, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker made the following personal statement as part of a speech on dance repertory presented on the occasion of the colloquium Choreographic Legacies at Opera Gent. The text of the speech in its entirety may be found below.
 

As dancers and choreographers know, the practice of dance is an extremely intensive social process. What does it mean to be in a studio, to create, with different generations of dancers? What does it involve? Working with large or small groups, I’ve always tried to make it so that people can give the best of themselves, both as individuals and as part of a harmonious group. While I’ve never been a choreographer who imposes everyone’s every move, I do consider it my responsibility to guide those processes so that everyone, in the team, within a safe environment, can give the best of themselves.

Times have changed. I embrace the idea that the leadership style that people expect today involves more open dialogue, and more awareness of—and respect for—everyone’s limits. Today’s dancers rightfully expect this mindset and attitude from their leaders and choreographers.

While I have never believed, and firmly reject, that suffering and conflict are necessary conditions for artistic work, I do acknowledge that in our company’s past people have been caught up in conflicts and have been hurt. As a leader, I take full responsibility for the working environment that existed within Rosas, and as a person, I want to offer my apologies to all the people I have disappointed and hurt along the way.

I am aware that accepting responsibility and offering apologies for things that happened in the past is not enough. People also expect firm action that is aimed at creating a better future. That is why, for more than a year and a half now, we at Rosas have been working hard to build a new, safer and more inspiring working environment. It is a journey in which we learn as we go. Simultaneously, we continue to focus on our key missions: 1) creating together new artistic work, 2) keeping the repertoire alive, and 3) transmission to new generations.

I would like to thank everyone who has shown their support, loyalty, honest and critical feedback on our journey: our dancers, our team, our directors and our partners.

As I said in the beginning, I was doubting whether I should be here, but ultimately I thought it was important to reach out to you. After all, with joint forces we must defend the importance of dance and its heritage, particularly as we move deeper into these extremely challenging times in which the place of dance and culture is often questioned. This is why I am here today. To close with words loosely inspired by Samuel Beckett: let’s try, let’s fail, let’s try again better.

 

Full text of the speech made by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker on the occasion of the symposium Choreographic Legacies: Sustaining and Reviving Dance Repertoire, organized by STUK, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Universiteit Antwerp, on September 17, 2024, at Opera Gent, Ghent, Belgium.

I will start by saying that I had big doubts whether I should be standing here today. Nonetheless, I was asked to speak about repertory and heritage and here I am. It seems that my interest in the subject and belief in its importance outweighed my doubt.

What is repertory? It could be an inventory or list; the full range of what an artist or company is prepared to perform. What is heritage? In Flemish, “erfgoed” actually refers to the word “(farm)yard,” as in “get out of my yard!” as farmers might say. Everything we inherit from previous generations and we think is worthwhile to conserve for coming generations gives meaning to the space, the yard, we live in. It is also closely linked to “tradition”, a word which literally means “to hand over” in its Latin origin.

I often answer the question “what is dance?” by offering the possible definition that dance is embodied abstraction. Therefore, maybe we could speak today about embodied memory. That is, looking at the past, looking at history, from the embodied and poetic perspective of choreographers and dancers. The other direction is also important: to look at dance throughout human history. Let’s locate dance in the body itself. The body is where it all begins. Thus, embodied memory.

The legacy of dance is very different from that of other art forms. In theatre, when there is text, there is a codified language to which all artists can relate. The same is true in music, in the form of scores. To a certain extent this is also the case for classical ballet, which is a codified language with a famous repertory. We can assume that everyone in this room can give an example of classical ballet repertoire (for example, Swan Lake), but we can also assume that we don’t all know who the choreographers were. For actors, musicians and ballet dancers, repertory is readily accessible because of codified language.

The history of Western contemporary dance in the 20^th century is predominantly a history of individual artists. Compared to other arts, women have played a large role in it. When we think of key artists in 20^th century contemporary dance, the names of female artists that come to mind first. This is not the case in other fields of art. Isadora Duncan, Doris Humphrey, Mary Wigman, Martha Graham, Pina Bausch, Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Simone Forti,... Of course, there were men too, but these are the artists who wrote a large part of the history of contemporary dance.

This is not to say that there are no female figures in the history of other arts, but, unfortunately, they are often much less known. They never attained the place they deserved. Due to the idea of “patrimony”, which literally means the inheritance of ideas from father to son, many 20^th century female artists were restricted from accessing the codes and institutions of their art forms. However, in the field of contemporary dance there has always been a specific way of working that is about individually inventing one’s own language rather than referring to an external language. This is perhaps the reason why the path for female choreographers has been more accessible. Perhaps the lack of codification has been a gift? Perhaps there is more space for the individual to write her own language? Perhaps it is related to the body?

While choreographers invent their own language, this rarely happens without the presence of others. Dance is a social act and the word “choreography” literally stems from the Greek word “chore” which refers to a choir or troupe of people. In this sense, choreography is the writing of people. Around a choreographer is often a team of individuals who play a fundamental role in the invention of movement language and the development of repertory—in the studio, behind the scenes and on stage. It is a combination of the individual and the group.

This conference was initiated by STUK as the organization starts to dive into the state of dance heritage in Flanders. I think it’s important to realize, in all modesty, that, compared to Germany, France, England and America, the legacy of contemporary dance is only starting in this country. There has been, of course, the work of Jeanne Brabants and the Ballet of Flanders, and the huge influence of Maurice Béjart and the Ballet of the 20^th Century, but the history of contemporary dance in Belgium is associated mainly with the early 80s. Béjart’s dance school Mudra played an important role in this.

The history of Rosas takes us back to 1980. The history of the Rosas repertory began when we became artists in residence at La Monnaie in the early 90s. At that time, we had three main goals: 1) to make new work, 2) to develop a repertory, 3) starting a school—PARTS. Since the 1980s, there have been over 45 years of work. In those years, I made 65 pieces and worked with more than 150 dancers. It has been a long history of creating new choreographies, working with different generations of dancers, and developing multiple ways of approaching repertory.

What is specific to the Rosas body of work is its diversity. There is, for instance, Fase, which is danced by two female dancers, but also The Six Brandenburg Concertos with a large cast of mostly male dancers. There are pieces that stem from music (music being my very first partner) and more recently pieces that start from visual arts, not to mention certain pieces that involve text. There are large and smaller scale productions. There are pieces for the stage, the museum, the forest. To keep a diverse repertory alive is extremely challenging and different for each company.

The various ways of approaching repertory have made for a beautiful adventure at Rosas. A key, and most obvious, aspect of this is the changing of casts. From Fase and Rosas danst Rosas onwards, many pieces have been danced by new casts within Rosas. In 2016, we had a new start with a group of young dancers who worked intensively on mainly the early repertory. The plan was to have a second company for this part of the work, but unfortunately this was completely wiped away by the storm of COVID, for the simple reason that it was not financially sustainable. Understandably, at a moment when the whole dance field was suffering, organizers wanted to give priority to new work. Other companies have also restaged Rosas pieces: the Paris Opera made wonderful versions of Rain, Bartok/Beethoven/Schönberg, and Drumming. Even right now the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen is performing Rain. This follows their performances of Mozart/Concert Arias in 2022, and a part of Fase earlier this year, all accompanied by live music, which Rosas can’t afford to do.

Renewing the cast implies collaboration of different generations and the transmission of knowledge. It is the passing on of memories from one body to another, from the original dancer to a new dancer, while simultaneously creating fresh perspectives on the material. It raises the questions: what is dance as “une écriture souvereine”, a writing that stands for itself? How is the same movement material embodied by many different dancers? What qualities are gained or lost as it passes from the original inventor-dancer to the next?

Another important aspect of our repertory is rewriting, which can be approached in many different ways. For example, Zeitung was rewritten as Zeitigung in collaboration with Louis Nam Le Van Ho. I shared with him the principles upon which this piece was based and gave him carte blanche to make his own version using the same principles. We then came together to combine the original writing with his new approach. A second example of rewriting is the transition from Vortex Temporum to Work/Travail/Arbeid, which involved shifting from the black box to the white cube. The difference between these spaces called for a rewriting of the original material. The resulting two pieces, which are branches of the same tree, are characterized by different relationships to time, space (fixed or liquid), audience, and music. We have also done the reverse, by moving a choreography for the white cube back into the black box.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Rosas repertory is the role it can play in education. An example of this is Drumming XXL. From the beginning, Drumming has been taught at PARTS. The piece was originally danced by a cast consisting of first-generation PARTS graduates. In Drumming XXL, three dance schools came together: The Paris Conservatoire, L’École des Sables in Senegal, and PARTS. With Clinton Stringer, Moya Michael and other dancers, a large-scale version of the piece was written for over 60 dancers. It was a navigation between keeping the spatial logics of the original composition, using the original vocabulary, and transforming it with each student developing their own material.

Students can learn a lot through studying repertoire in school. For me, as a dancer and choreographer, the best way to understand a piece is through the body, learning and performing it. It’s about analyzing the vocabulary, the compositional tools, and approaching a discourse through an embodied experience. Again, the idea of bringing it back to the body. For the students at PARTS, who learn choreographic works like Drumming and Set and Reset by Trisha Brown, it is comparable to how musicians study and learn to play pieces of the diverse musical repertory. Whether you want to develop yourself as a performer or as a choreographer, learning repertory is an in-depth study that challenges your imagination and ideas, helping to guide you on the path you want to take.

Another example related to education is re:Rosas! This project started after I came across “Les Leçons de Stromae,” an initiative by the Belgian musician in which he explains how he makes songs as a guide for aspiring musicians. With re:Rosas! the idea was to share, via the internet, the tools and movements of Rosas danst Rosas, giving people the freedom to play with them. People from all walks of life, from all over the world participated. I realized that rather than absolutely guarding my work, it could be more interesting to open it up and share it. This made for such a joyful experience.

In all its vastness, the internet allows work to be shared across the world and safeguarded for the future. Thanks to this medium more people saw the work of Rosas in video form than as live performance. But film is different. It involves editing, montage, sound and spatial adjustments, and close-ups. Film and internet should not be a replacement of live performance but can be tools for sustaining our heritage.

To keep repertory alive, live performance is essential. It allows choreographies to carry on in the bodies of performers. But I think that repertory is important for the public too. When we took back Rosas danst Rosas, there were people in the audience who had seen it 40 years earlier and were seeing it again in the 21^st century. Your perception of the work changes with time, but you also look at the world, and look at yourself looking at the world. While there is embodied memory in the dancing of repertory, there is also embodied memory in viewing it.

Another aspect of the Rosas repertory adventure is the work I did with Bojana Cvejić a number of years ago. I think this is one of the most interesting examples in regards to today’s subject. With the support of Vrije Universiteit Brussel we created the series “A Choreographer’s Score.” In these books, we wrote about the creation processes of eight different pieces: how the vocabulary was constructed, the compositional tools that were developed, the organization of time and space, geometrical patterns, poetics, dancers, music, costume, lighting design, and what the sources of inspiration were. Thorough, well-researched dance writing such as these publications is invaluable to our heritage.

So, with all of this experience in mind, what, for me, are the conditions necessary to keep repertory alive?

1. The most important is to perform the pieces. Dance is a live art form. This implies having places to perform. Performance allows embodied memory to go on, not only in the dancing but also in the viewing.
2. To find the appropriate approach. Not to treat choreographic works as holy, untouchable objects, but to decide for each piece what should be kept and what should be changed. To rewrite, or not to rewrite. 

3. Working with different generations of dancers. The transmission of movement material and all the knowledge it contains from original casts to new casts. This also happens in schools.
4. To a certain extent, continuity helps. A company of dancers continuously sharing and learning together, developing the same tools and the vocabulary of the language they dance.
5. Archives and the documentation of dance are crucial. Particularly when there is no system of codification like there are in other art forms. Video documentation is an essential tool to record choreographic works, allowing dancers to relearn material across the years, or for future generations to learn for the first time. (This reminds me of a rehearsal with Fumiyo Ikeda, when we were taking back Elena’s Aria after many years. At that time, we didn’t have the appropriate videos to check if it we had to take five or three steps. Suddenly, we were confronted with a case of, citing the title of the piece by Wim Vandekeybus, "What the body does not remember" and what it does remember. While we could certainly have benefitted from better video documentation, very often when you try to relearn a piece, embodied memory takes over.)
   Dance archives have the potential to go beyond a form-focused approach to include memories, thoughts, experiences, discourse, and even the social aspect of a creation process, which is central in the world of choreography. We have to be creative about what these dynamic archives include, and focus not merely on preservation but also on activation. Rosas has been desperately trying to safeguard its immense archive, but there are few means here in Flanders.
6. The development of dance research. We have a few researchers in Flanders who help to situate repertory in the history of dance and the development of dance writing. This is where reflection can take place. It is important that universities encourage and allocate space to good dance writing if we want to protect our heritage and develop our art form.

Now let’s be clear: repertory companies are a disappearing kind. One reason is that it’s financially and organizationally very hard. Also, not all pieces are worth keeping in the repertory. Some are simply not good enough, and this goes for some of my own work too. Another reason is that room must be made for new generations, as both the audience and organizers very often prefer to encounter new work rather than give space to existing work. I think this is very fair. On top of that, not all choreographers consider repertory important. I remember a conversation I had with William Forsythe at one point about repertory in which he mentioned that he had let the idea of it go. For him, dance is doomed to disappear. I like to think about dance as not for eternity, but in "the meanwhile eternity.”

For me, repertory remains important. It’s simultaneously looking at the past, being in the present, and constructing the future. In order to understand the present and imagine the future, we need to look back to the past. Let’s come back to this idea of the body. If dance is embodied abstraction, the organization of movement in time and space in an embodied way, what is a more contemporary art form than dance? What is more present than the body you live in every day? Dance is about the here and now, just as the body which carries all our memories and experiences.

As dancers and choreographers know, the practice of dance is an extremely intensive social process. What does it mean to be in a studio, to create, with different generations of dancers? What does it involve? Working with large or small groups, I’ve always tried to make it so that people can give the best of themselves, both as individuals and as part of a harmonious group. While I’ve never been a choreographer who imposes everyone’s every move, I do consider it my responsibility to guide those processes so that everyone, in the team, within a safe environment, can give the best of themselves.

Times have changed. I embrace the idea that the leadership style that people expect today involves more open dialogue, and more awareness of—and respect for—everyone’s limits. Today’s dancers rightfully expect this mindset and attitude from their leaders and choreographers.

While I have never believed, and firmly reject, that suffering and conflict are necessary conditions for artistic work, I do acknowledge that in our company’s past people have been caught up in conflicts and have been hurt. As a leader, I take full responsibility for the working environment that existed within Rosas, and as a person, I want to offer my apologies to all the people I have disappointed and hurt along the way.

I am aware that accepting responsibility and offering apologies for things that happened in the past is not enough. People also expect firm action that is aimed at creating a better future. That is why, for more than a year and a half now, we at Rosas have been working hard to build a new, safer and more inspiring working environment. It is a journey in which we learn as we go. Simultaneously, we continue to focus on our key missions: 1) creating together new artistic work, 2) keeping the repertoire alive, and 3) transmission to new generations.

I would like to thank everyone who has shown their support, loyalty, honest and critical feedback on our journey: our dancers, our team, our directors and our partners.

As I said in the beginning, I was doubting whether I should be here, but ultimately I thought it was important to reach out to you. After all, with joint forces we must defend the importance of dance and its heritage, particularly as we move deeper into these extremely challenging times in which the place of dance and culture is often questioned. This is why I am here today. To close with words loosely inspired by Samuel Beckett: let’s try, let’s fail, let’s try again better.