An evening with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at the Opéra National de Paris

On this repertory evening Rosas brings together three early works by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker In 1986 De Keersmaeker first ventured into the terrain of contemporary classical music with Bartóks string quartet Quartet No 4 In a choreography punctuated by both playful and combative accents De Keersmaeker took on the task of distilling a dance score out of Bartóks complex rhythms and layered harmonies In the Grosse Fuge 1992 De Keersmaeker sets out to find a male vocabulary with Rosas dancers challenging gravity in a piece that sought to provide a physical translation of Beethovens ingenious use of counterpoint The final piece of the evening Verklärte Nacht 1995 presents a shamelessly romantic love story in which the contrasting feelings of a man and a woman are dissected and interpreted in an expressive duet based on Schönbergs eponymous musical score