Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Björn Schmelzer

At the start, all is dark; the audience’s eyes have to adapt and their ears are pricked. Feet patter and a polyphonic chorus begins. First, light gradually dawns and bodies and movement can be discerned. One can make out that the dancers are singing and the singers are dancing: bodies and voices interact. “Cesena” is a co-production of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s company Rosas and Björn Schmelzer’s vocal ensemble graindelavoix. It was originally conceived for an open-air performance in the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, and it was meant to be performed in the early morning. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker loves the subtle nuances of dawn and visual artist Ann Veronica Janssens has recreated this atmosphere for the indoor version with a dawn in the early evening which is more intense in the enclosed space. The title of the piece is a reference to the massacre of Cesena that rang in the end of the papal residence in Avignon in 1377. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker refers to this slaughter as “a Srebrenica of the 14th century.” Highly complex vocal music by ars subtilior announces this battle and violence that was accompanied by a change in era. Towards the end, Johannes Ciconia’s “Le Ray au Soleyl” is heard: a hymn to the rising sun, and to the beginning of a new epoch.

Concept Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Björn Schmelzer
Choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Musical director Björn Schmelzer
Created with and danced by Rosas and graindelavoix
Scenography Ann Veronica Janssens
Costumes Anne-Catherine Kunz
Music Ars Subtilior
Rehearsal director Femke Gyselinck
Assistant to the artistic director Anne Van Aerschot
Technical director Joris Erven
Sound Vanessa Court, Alexandre Fostier
Production Rosas

With
Els Van Laethem, Haider Al Timimi, Bostjan Antoncic, Aron Blom, Carlos Garbin, Marie Goudot, Lieven Gouwy, David Hernandez, Matej Kejzar, Mikael Marklund, Tomàs Maxé, Julien Monty, Chrysa Parkinson, Marius Peterson, Michael Pomero, Albert Riera, Gabriel Schenker, Yves Van Handenhove, Sandy Williams