A large group of dancers races from the back to the front of the stage, moving through a curtain of ropes with eager enthusiasm.

Rain

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas & Ictus

Rain, set to Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, is one of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s most characteristic performances. With this vibrant choreography, De Keersmaeker returned, in 2001, to two of her great loves: pure dance and the minimalistic music of Steve Reich. Accompanied by the pulsating tones of his music, for an hour and ten minutes ten dancers occupy the stage, delineated by a curtain of fine strings, displaying an impressive succession of virtuoso dance phrases. The mathematical figures, the sustained repetition, the geometric occupation of the space, the art of continuous variation — everything that had gradually become the choreographer’s signature was pushed to the extreme in Rain.

In Rain, De Keersmaeker approaches the company of dancers as a close-knit group of pronounced individuals who, one by one, play a vital role in the whole. Seven women and three men allow themselves to be propelled by an unstoppable joined energy that binds them together. It’s a bustling network in which breath and speed is shared as well as that special comradery that forms when you are beyond fatigue.

Credits

Choreography
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Created with
Marta Coronado, Igor Shyshko, Alix Eynaudi, Fumiyo Ikeda, Cynthia Loemij, Ursula Robb, Taka Shamoto, Clinton Stringer, Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Jakub Truszkowski
Danced by
Laura Bachman, Léa Dubois, Anika Edström Kawaji, Zoi Efstathiou, Yuika Hashimoto, Laura Maria Poletti, Soa Ratsifandrihana, José Paulo dos Santos, Frank Gizycki, Robin Haghi, Luka Švajda, Thomas Vantuycom, Lav Crnčević
Music
Music for 18 Musicians, Steve Reich
Music direction
Georges-Elie Octors
Musicians
Miquel Bernat, Tom de Cock, Géry Cambier, Michael Weilacher, Jessica Ryckwaert, Gerrit Nulens, Georges-Elie Octors, Laurence Cornez, Fabian Fiorini, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Stéphane Ginsburg, Dirk Descheemaeker, Carlos Galvez, Igor Semenoff, Geert de Bièvre, Micaela Haslam, Amanda Morrison, Julia Batchelor, Caroline Jaya-Ratnam
Set and lighting design
Jan Versweyveld
Costume design
Dries Van Noten
Co-production
De Munt/La Monnaie, Sadler’s Wells, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg

Images

  • One dancer is caught mid-leap in the foreground, as others move in lines intersecting across the stage.
    © Anne Van Aerschot
  • Two dancers entwined on the floor, sharing a passionate, intimate embrace.
    © Anne Van Aerschot
  • Five dancers perform, some holding their hands in detailed poses with distinctive mannerisms.
    © Anne Van Aerschot