Artistic goodies galore

Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of this year’s festival will be a new work by internationally-renowned Flemish choreographer Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker whose work has become an established feature of the major festivals across Europe. Her dance has been described as ‘the pure embodiment of music’ and de Keersmaeker has worked with both classical music and contemporary composers such as Steve Reich throughout her career, as well as, on occasion, popular music.

A place at her Brussels-based dance school P.A.R.T.S is much coveted by young dancers from across the globe and the divine British choreographer/dancer Akram Khan also did post-graduate dance work there. Her new piece is a personal collaboration with the wonderfully whacky French dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz, head of the National Dance Centre at Rennes in Brittany.

Charmatz never fails to surprise and delight and this collaboration with the Queen of European Dance (entitled Partita 2—Sei Solo), in which de Keersmaeker takes to the stage again herself, promises to be something very special. Staged in the warm, relaxed ambiance of the Kaaitheater (where you can also grab a bite or imbibe a beer in the friendly café / restaurant), this is an opportunity to see her work in the more intimate spaces where it belongs and understand the potency of closer engagement with the audience.

Another highlight will inevitably be the new piece by the Swiss Music Theatre giant Heiner Goebbels in collaboration with the sublime Vocal Theatre Carmina Slovenica. Music Theatre bears no relationship to Broadway or Bollywood and Goebbels himself has been one of the major artists defining a genre that seems to defy definition. Perhaps it owes a debt to Brecht and German Expressionism, but certainly, to categorise is to miss the pleasure.

Each of Goebbels’s new works is original in concept and execution, blending music with other elements, sometimes, dance, object theatre / scenography and literary and philosophical texts. Goebbels is undoubtedly one of the truly great and visionary theatremakers-composers working today who can enchant and inspire us while renewing our perspectives. When the Mountain Changed Its Clothing is about change and, as is the case with most of Goebbels works, will rise above the mundane and inspire us.