Création 2023

In this new creation, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s exploration of the relationship between music and dance shifts back towards the genre of pop. Pop music invites us to dance. With its characteristic regular beat, basic form and catchy lyrics, it can test the edge of simplicity, but it gets us moving.

Pop music manages to create connection through its reliability. This is not just because of its driving dance force, bringing us together in movement, but because, through the use of storytelling, it touches upon certain emotional experiences that bind us as human beings. The narratives of pop often revolve around relationships, love, celebration, mourning, conflict, creating space for personal recognition. Here, the potential of theatre arises, leading to the questions: how do you embody thoughts? How do you relate to the lyrics? How to abstract something so outspoken?

In recent years, De Keersmaeker has defined dance as a place of resistance. When dancing–one of the most human and communal activities–faces adversity, perhaps it becomes even more crucial. Fun and celebration, in all its simplicity, can be seen as not only healing but radical. In partnership with the music of our times, this creation not only encourages the urge to dance, but highlights the necessity of stories to relate to, or reject, to recognise and identify with.

Première
Coréalisation La Monnaie, Kaaitheater, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles