Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s THE SIX BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS audaciously attempts to trump Bach

• By drediman
• October 6, 2018
• No Comments

Rosas dances Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s “The Six Brandenburg Concertos” at the Park Avenue Armory.

Last night, I caught a performance of iconic contemporary dance choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s The Six Brandenburg Concertos at the Park Avenue Armory. Ever since my first exposure to Ms. De Keersmaeker’s work, her groundbreaking Rosas Danst Rosas – Beyoncé was notoriously alleged to have drawn heavy inspiration from that dance – I was intrigued. Since then, I’ve sought out her work whenever Rosas, her dance company, have visited New York (usually in festival-like settings, like BAM’s Next Wave Festival or the now-defunct Lincoln Center Festival). The Six Brandenburg Concertos, set to Bach’s famous sextet of chamber-sized concertos, marks the sixth work of Ms. De Keersmaeker’s I’ve seen.

The usual De Keersmaeker trademarks continue to be heavily apparent. Initially, her work can be frustratingly minimalist and repetitive. Indeed, last night, it took me the first few concertos to finally warm up and reacquaint myself to her rigorous aesthetic. There’s a formality to her dances that seems to stubbornly resist the music to which they are set (often times bypassing obvious musical cues), which is even more conspicuous when paired with the rhythmic richness of Bach’s music. But if you submit to her audacious vision, a certain austere beauty and authentic physical vocabulary begin to emerge. It’s as if she insists, at least for the duration of the performance, that the music exists because of the dance, instead of the other way around. Also, her dances won’t wow you with their momentary pyrotechnics, but will instead draw you in with their insistent glacial force.

The 16 Rosas dancers performed with attitude and coolness, as usual. In particular, I was taken by how they managed to fill the epic-sized circular stage that dominates the mammoth Wade Thompson Drill Hall, creating striking stage pictures on a scale one rarely comes across (except in venues like the Park Avenue Armory), without being drowned by its proportions. As for the music-making, it was superb. The last time I experienced Bach at the Armory was when the Berlin Philharmonic, under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle and stage direction of Peter Sellars, performed St. Matthew Passion. It remains one of the most inspired, transcendent classical music performances I’ve seen in my life. Here, the concertos were played with spirit and vitality by the baroque ensemble B’Rock (in their first appearance in North America), as conducted by Amandine Beyer, who impressively managed to aurally fill the hall (like the Rosas dancers). Happily, they honored my memory of Bach in that space.

Ms. De Keersmaeker’s next project? It’s to choreographed the upcoming Broadway revival – more likely a revisal – of the much loved classic musical West Side Story, which will be directed by her fellow Belgian auteur, the red hot Ivo van Hove. True to form, Ms. De Keersmaeker continues to intrigue.

RECOMMENDED

THE SIX BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS
Dance / Classical Music
Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory
2 hours (without an intermission)
Through October 7