Dance maestro emotionally drowns audience with resurrection of 'Rain'

Courtesy of Shanghai International Dance Center

In 2001, Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker created “Rain” to the composition “Music for 18 Musicians” written by American minimalist composer Steve Reich back in 1976.

“Rain” was well-received for its compelling movement that visualizes musical structure, the various techniques applied in the show and the incredibly geometric use of space.

The choreographer recently revived and brought back “Rain,” one of her greatest successes, with a new cast of 10 dancers from her dance company Rosas. The new version was well-received in Europe and will soon come to the stage of Shanghai.

“I probably did (push the choreographic composition further than before) in terms of the complexity of the patterns, the counterpoint to the control over a group that dances together. ‘Rain’ is about the convergence of things,” De Keersmaeker said. She also added that the changes in the new version were physically very demanding for the dancers because “much of the work is on the vertical axis.”

The 58-year-old said that many techniques in the piece, related to floor work, are techniques typical of the 1960s.

The work is also demanding for the performers due to its immediacy, the physical intensity and the precise surrender that are necessary to interpret the roles.

She had earlier revealed the various inspiration behind “Rain” — the song by Madonna, a quote from Macbeth and a poem by Paul Van Ostaijen, as well as the title of a novel by New Zealand writer Kirsty Gunn.

“The song is connected to ‘In Real Time,’ which we made with tg STAN and Aka Moon. The final words of that piece were ‘I hope it is not going to rain tomorrow’,” De Keersmaeker said.

“In Real Time” was a large-scale theater performance in 2000, collaboration between the choreographer with other actors and musicians exploring the possibilities of integrating dancing and acting through dialogues, live music and film projections.

“We made an exceptional transfer of choreographic material written for ‘In Real Time’ to music by Aka Moon, inspired by music by Reich,” said the choreographer. “Also, the dancers immediately showed great enthusiasm for using Reich’s music and to jump into that flow together and dance it.”

Another source of inspiration mentioned by De Keersmaeker — Kirsty Gunn’s novel of the same title — follows the story of a young woman who tries to apply life-saving techniques to reanimate her younger brother who was drowned.

Courtesy of Shanghai International Dance Center

“What attracted me to the text is a subtle metamorphosis of an objective medical description into an intensive emotional realization that life is lost, and that there is no way of bringing the dear person back to life,” said De Keersmaeker.

“The accident of drowning endows water with the notions of flow, danger, and melancholy, as a response to a feeling of loss. Mentioning ‘rain’ in the title was keeping the trace of a loss and acceptance of the impossibility of revival. It’s a metaphor for contrary feelings of vitality and melancholy.”

Many of the artist’s works share a similar trace with “Rain,” inspired by both music and texts, often working with scores from minimalist composition by Reich.

De Keersmaeker is also known for mathematical and geometric structures in her choreography, paying a lot of attention to balance and symmetry.

She once explained that the golden ratio’s nice feature as “asymmetric,” which indicates a tension that leads to change, rather than staying still.

Performance Info

Date: May 4-5, 7:30 pm
Tickets: 80-880 yuan
Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center
Address: 1650 Hongqiao Rd