Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (NYU Tisch alum!) started choreographing in 1980. She founded Rosas in 1983 during the creation of the piece Rosas danst Rosas. In Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind, she collaborates with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras in an embodied exploration of Bach’s Cello Suites. 

Learn more about Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Rosas, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind – including a behind-the-scenes documentary and book about the rehearsal process and production, and dramaturgical resources:

Experience without Additives” – an interview with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Jean-Guihen Queyras by Wannes Gyselinck

Between gravity and levitation” – an interview with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Jean-Guihen Queyras by Jan Vandenhouwe

A Spiral Between Heaven and Earth” – an Essay by Jan Vandenhouwe

Office Hours

Indefinite Article

Ethan Philbrick on Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Is the cellist dancing? Are the dancers playing? Who is following whom? Who is accompanying whom?

Get Into It

Get Thee to the LIbrary

Recommended readings to accompany the Indefinite Article by Ethan Philbrick.

Christian Dumais-Lvowski (ed.), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker: Rosas 2007–2017. Mercatorfonds, 2019.

Elena Filipovic (ed.), Work/Travail/Arbeid: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Mercatorfonds, 2016.

Eirini Kartsaki, Repetition in Performance: Returns and Invisible Forces. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

Rudi Laermans, Moving Together: Theorizing and Making Contemporary Dance. Antennae, 2015.

Eric Siblin, The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece. Grove Press, 2011.

Read All About It

Sara Veale for the Guardian | Apr 28, 2019

Review: Mitten wir im Leben sind

It’s a compelling feat of choreography that affirms the perceptive musicality of one of Europe’s pre-eminent contemporary dancemakers.

Laura Hoffman for Art Forum | March 28, 2017

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker speaks about Work/Travail/Arbeid at MoMA

“During rehearsal I don’t always sit in front but travel around the space in a circular way, watching and constructing sequences step by step, layer by layer.”

Roslyn Sulcas for the New York Times | Sep 25, 2018

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, The Passionate Formalist

“I really like to dance… I like the physical intensity and what it creates as both a physical and mental process. You could call me a workaholic in that way, but it’s also a pleasure.”

Erin Brannigan for Dance Magazine | Jan 12, 2016

In conversation with Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

“I take dance seriously…it can embody the most abstract ideas. For me, in order to continue dancing at my age, I have to take dance seriously. It demands a physical discipline.”

Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim for the New York Times | Sept 10, 2017

A Cellist’s Challenge

Austere, self-absorbed and soft-limbed, the dancers appeared like plain particles guided through space by laws of brilliant complexity, unexceptional humans slouching through a creation of undeserved beauty and perfection.

Laura Barnett for the Guardian | Oct 17, 2011

Portrait of the Artist

“It’s very challenging to create beauty on a large scale. That goes against the stra-tegies of the mainstream entertainment industry, which is concerned with numbers and transient experiences.”

Extra Credit

We’ve picked a book to complement each show in our season. We’ve got novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and memoir. Before opening night of each show (usually Fridays, but not always!), we’ll meet in the lobby for happy hour drinks and discussion. It’s an fun, informal way to find a new favorite book, meet people, and get your brain into gear for the show – even if you haven’t had a chance to read the book yet.

NYU Skirball Book Club | Thursday, Feb 13, 2020

The Gift by Barbara Browning

Barbara Andersen begins spamming people indiscriminately with ukulele covers of sentimental songs. A series of inappropriate intimacies ensues.