Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Anne Teresa, Baroness De Keersmaeker (born 1960 in Mechelen, Belgium, grew up in Wemmel) is one of the most prominent choreographers in contemporary dance. The dance company constructed around her, Rosas, was in residence at La Monnaie in Brussels from 1992 to 2007.




Biography


De Keersmaker did not study dance until her last year of high school, instead studying music, specifically the flute. She studied from 1978 to 1980 at Mudra in Brussels, a school with links to La Monnaie and to Maurice Béjart's Ballet of the XXth Century. She has said that the percussionist and her music teacher at MUDRA, Fernand Schirren(Fernand Schirren (French)), was a major influence on her. In 1981, she attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. While at the Tisch she presented her first production, Asch (1980), in Brussels. In 1982 upon her return from the U.S.A. she created Fase (French), four movements to the music of Steve Reich. It was this production that brought her "a breakthrough on the international dance scene, performing, among other places, at the Avignon Festival".
The success of Fase contributed largely to the foundation of the company Rosas in 1983. Rosas danst Rosas - Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's first choreography for the young company to new compositions of Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch - brought Rosas the international breakthrough as a company. During the eighties, Rosas was supported by Kaaitheater of Brussels (director Hugo De Greef). Within the framework of Kaaitheater, her oeuvre took shape. Performances such as Elena's Aria (1984), Bartók/Aantekeningen (1986), a staging of Heiner Müller's triptych Verkommenes Ufer/Medeamaterial Landschaft mit Argonauten (1987), Mikrokosmos-Monument Selbstporträt mit Reich und Riley (und Chopin ist auch dabei)/In zart fliessender Bewegung - Quatuor Nr.4, (1987), Ottone, Ottone (1988), Stella (1990) and Achterland (1990) were produced in collaboration with Kaaitheater.
In 1992, La Monnaie's general director Bernard Foccroulle invited Rosas to become the resident company of Brussels' Royal Opera De Munt/La Monnaie. At the start of the residency, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker set herself three objectives: to intensify the relation between dance and music, to build a repertory, and to launch a dance school (after the disappearance of MUDRA from Brussels in 1988). That year, Rosas created ERTS and released Rosa - a film of a choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to Bartók music directed by Peter Greenaway. Later that year, Rosas created Mozart Concert Arias, un moto di gioia for the Avignon Festival. A production made in collaboration with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, directed by Philippe Herreweghe. In 1993, Rosas created Toccata, to the music of J.S. Bach, for the Holland Festival. In May 1994, the KunstenFESTIVALdes Arts in Brussels premièred Kinok, produced in collaboration with Thierry De Mey and the Ictus Ensemble. At the end of 1994, this collaboration resulted into a new creation: Amor Constante más allá de la muerte. In November 1995, La Monnaie premièred Verklärte Nacht, a choreography that was part of a production of Schönberg music Erwartung/Verklärte Nacht.
In 1995, Rosas and La Monnaie launched in Brussels a new international school for contemporary dance. P.A.R.T.S. - Performing Arts Research & Training Studios, where sixty students coming from some 25 countries are trained, over a three year period, by more than 50 teachers.
Over the past years, Rosas has also revived several earlier pieces: Rosas danst Rosas, Fase (French), Mikrokosmos, Achterland and others. Rosas' productions have been invited by theatres and festivals across five continents.






Awards

Both the performances and the films of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker have been distinguished by various international awards. Rosas danst Rosas won the Bessie Award (1988), Mikrokosmos received a Japanese Dance Award for the best foreign production (1989), Stella got the London Dance and Performances Award (1989), Drumming was prized with the Golden Laurel Wreath for the best choreography in Sarajevo (October 1998). In 2011, she received the American Dance Festival Award for her career and at this occasion presented one of her seminal work Rosas danst Rosas (1983).
 In 1994 in Lyon a Dance Screen Award was offered to the film Achterland (1994), while the film Rosas danst Rosas obtained the Grand Prix International Vidéo Danse in 1997 and the special prize of the Jury of the International Festival of Film and New Media on Art in Athens in 1998. In 2000, the short film Tippeke got the Grand Prix Carina Ari of the Festival International Media Dance in Boulogne-Billancourt. Furthermore, in June 1995, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In March 1996 the government of the province of Antwerp awarded her the Eugène Baie prize, and in May 2000 she was awarded by the French Republic the "Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" title. In 2002 she received the annual award of the Gabriella Moortgat Stichting and la médaille de Vermeil from the City of Paris and a medal ('Erepenning') of the Belgian Flemish government. In 2004 she was awarded the "Keizer Karelprijs" by the province of Oost Vlaanderen. In 2008, she became - again in France - "Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres".