Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is not someone you expect to see dancing in silver sequined hotpants: a high queen of choreographic seriousness and an austere presence on stage. This solo is both a departure from and a distillation of what we know of the Belgian choreographer. Her 42 years of work has spanned starkly formal early pieces, shimmering group dances and sober solos, all wedded to the details of musical structures.
In this case the music is Bach’s late masterpiece The Goldberg Variations, and it’s not really a solo, because her stage is shared with pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. In white vest, black shorts and bare feet, he sits with his back to the audience – he’s playing for her, not us – introducing the music’s theme with divine delicacy. Kolesnikov’s playing dances and sings as De Keersmaeker provides some profound listening experiences, standing still to let Bach breathe, even cutting the lights in mournful variation 25 to cocoon us in sound.
