Press Release
Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN
A Sadler’s Wells Co-production
UK Premiere
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas
Golden Hours (As You Like It)
Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 March 2016
Performances at 7.30pm
Tickets: £20
Ticket Office: 0844 412 4300 or www.sadlerswells.com
Contemporary dance icon Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her hugely influential
Rosas company return to Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 March 2016
with the UK premiere of Golden Hours (As You Like It), co-produced by Sadler’s
Wells.
Loosely structured around Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the latest radical creation
from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker seeks to transpose the exquisite musicality of the
Bard’s language through movement and expression. The rhythms and poetic imagery of
the play take on a new life through dance in a delicate balance between formal
abstraction and concrete gesture.
A ‘deeply thoughtful choreographer trying to carve out new terrain’ (New York Times), De
Keersmaeker has developed a distinctive choreographic style, challenging 11 dancers to
embody the meaning behind the words through richly detailed, colourful and energetic
idiosyncratic movements. Playing with notions of gender, seduction, attraction, repulsion,
misunderstanding and silliness, she conjures a bright but gently ironic world.
Golden Hours takes its name and features excerpts from a song on Brian Eno’s seminal
1975 album, ‘Another Green World’, regarded as a transitional moment in his career, as
he moved toward an ambient, minimalist sound. Repetition of the song, Golden Hours,
forms the general framework for the choreography. Central to De Keersmaeker’s
exploration of temporality in the piece is the question of whether, in a society that praises
busyness and acceleration over navigation and duration, we have time for golden hours.
Are we even capable of discerning them?
According to De Keersmaeker: “The utopian motif of returning to the golden world of
nature, represented in the Forest of Arden, resonates with my environmentalist concerns.
As You Like It contrasts two worlds: the one of the court as the place of malign intrigues
and the other of the forest, to which a part of the court retreats in order to find a more
harmonious mode of existence. This implicitly links to the pressing concern which will be
central in the decades to come: the environmental issues about human life on the earth,
and our relation to nature, which has gone out of balance.’
In 2015, Rosas became an inaugural Sadler’s Wells International Associate
Company along with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Sadler’s Wells’
presentation of Golden Hours (As You Like It) follows hot on the heels of Paris Opera’s
‘triumphant’ (New York Times) triptych of De Keersmaeker’s early works in November
2015. Also in 2015, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker was awarded The Golden Lion for
Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the Venice Biennale, in recognition of her 30 year
Press Release
Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN
contribution to the international dance world, joining such luminaries as Merce
Cunningham, Pina Bausch, William Forsythe and Sylvie Guillem.
After studying at the Mudra dance school and the Tisch School of Arts in New York, in
1980 De Keersmaeker created Asch, her first choreographic work. 1982 saw the
premiere of Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, one of the most iconic
pieces of choreography of the era, which went on to become one of the inaugural works
staged at the Tate Modern’s Tanks Gallery in London in 2011. In 1983 De Keersmaeker
set up her Rosas company at the same time as creating the work Rosas danst Rosas.
She established the P.A.R.T.S. dance school in association with De Munt / La Monnaie in
1995. Other major works include Rain (2001), The Song (2009) and Drumming (1998) for
which De Keersmaeker received numerous awards. In 2011 year Sadler’s Wells hosted a
retrospective of Rosas’ Early Works, Fase, Rosas danst Rosas, Elena’s Aria and
Bartok/Mikrokosmos. In 2010 she premiered two works in medieval surroundings at the
Avignon Festival, En Atendant at the Cloître des Célestins and Cesena at the Cour
D'honneur. Her other recent works include Partita 2 (2013), a duet with dancer and
choreographer Boris Charmatz, set to Bach's partita No. 2 and Rosas & Ictus Vortex
Temporum (2014), set to renowned French composer Gérard Grisey’s score of the same
name, both at Sadler’s Wells.
Press night: Tuesday 8 March at 7.30pm
For further information please contact Georgia McKay on 020 7863 8119
or georgia.mckay@sadlerswells.com
Notes to Editors:
Press images can be downloaded from http://media.sadlerswells.com, please
contact the Press Officer for login details.
A Sadler’s Wells co-production with De Munt / La Monnaie (Brussel/Bruxelles),
Kaaitheater (Brussel/Bruxelles), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Théâtre de la
Ville (Paris), Steirischer Herbst (Graz), Opéra de Lille, Ruhrtriennale, Concertgebouw
Brugge, Festival Montpellier Danse 2015
The Monument Trust supports co-productions and new commissions at Sadler's Wells
Rosas is a Sadler’s Wells International Associate Company
Pre-show talk Insight Into Rosas' Drumming & Rain - A Choreographer's Score
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Bojana Cvejić in conversation with Jonathan Burrows
Tuesday 8 March at 6pm, £7.50 (joint ticket with Golden Hours, £24)
About Sadler’s Wells
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and
presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London
and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theatre’s
acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to
flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has
helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its award-winning commissions
and collaborative productions regularly tour internationally. Sadler’s Wells supports 16
Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and an Associate Company and nurtures the
next generation of talent through hosting the National Youth Dance Company, its Summer
University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.
Located in Islington, north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site
since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in
the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English
National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells.
Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives
approximately 10% of its revenue from Arts Council England.