+ Q&A with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Mitten will be preceded by Het Gerucht: Rosas danst Rosas (1983), a short documentary about the creation process of Rosas danst Rosas, the performance that forced Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s international breakthrough and has become a benchmark in the history of postmodern dance. This documentary, directed by Stefaan Decostere for the BRT cultural programme Het Gerucht [The Rumour, ed.], uses fragments of rehearsals and interviews with De Keersmaeker and composer Thierry De Mey, offering a glimpse of the choreographic creative process in which repeated abstract movements play a key role.

Mitten follows the final weeks of rehearsal of Mitten wir im Leben sind, the performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, her company Rosas and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, based on the six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The film offers an intimate glance into De Keersmaeker’s meticulous methodology, in which a choreographic universe is built up through a careful study of musical composition. This intense creative process of continuously reshaping and honing, characterised by De Keersmaeker’s inexhaustible longing for precision and detail, is reflected in the filmmakers’ patient look at the work of the choreographer, the musician and dancers.