Anne Teresa De KEERSMAEKER (°1960)
Profession: Choreographer and dancer
Nationality: Belgian
Why an honorary doctorate?
In 1995 choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker receives a VUB honorary doctorate.
The renewal
An honorary doctorate is in order because De Keersmaeker's work shows a noteworthy purity and honesty. But also because of the innovative way in which she elevates the relationship between music and dance to an almost amorous level. Fascination, for her innovative approaches, which force the art of dancing to be re-examined. Her work invites recognition, merging, rapture, and amazement. It is the élan on which the university prefers to move, in whatever branch, discipline, or science.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker fills her audience with fervour. She infects them with passion in such a way that only the scene seems to be in motion. The head stands still, the heart pauses to think, the world revolves around the stage. De Keersmaeker exposes herself through her creations and her creations bare nothing but a pure story. Interpretation is free, it frees, and it always leans on a pristine truth. A story does not need words and arguments if your being already says everything.
"When you're really convinced of your identity, you don't need tough statements or flags."
About her career
2008
She receives the title 'Commandeur dans l'ordre des arts et des lettres' for her contributions to the enrichment of the arts in France and worldwide.
Full of character
Breathtaking, energetic, often minimalist, emotional, with élan.
Rosas
Her dance group resides in the Muntschouwburg (1992-2007).
Dynamic love
11 June 1960. Anne Teresa is born into the De Keersmaeker family. Together with her brother and three sisters, including well-known actress and stage director Jolente, she grows up in Wemmel. She is ten years old when she takes her first steps - and moves - in dance class. It is love at first sight. De Keersmaeker listens to her heart and takes up classical ballet at the École Lilian Lambert in Brussels. It is there that she meets Michèle Anne De Mey and her brother Thierry, who later become her artistic partners.
1978 announces itself, the year in which Anne Teresa turns 18. She enrols in the prestigious Mudra dance school in Brussels. The world-famous French dancer and choreographer Maurice Béjart was calling the shots at the time. Béjart is also the one who founded the school in 1970 and gives it international colour. De Keersmaeker attends lessons by musician Fernand Schirren, among others. With him, she sharpens her knowledge of musical analysis, structure, and tempo. She applies for a scholarship from Vocatio, a foundation that supports passionate young talents to realise their vocation. De Keersmaeker moves to the United States for two years to study at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York. There she discovers post-modern dance.
In 1980, Anne Teresa creates her first choreography Asch. Two years later, Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, premieres. The success does not go unnoticed, and in the aftermath, De Keersmaeker founds her own dance company 'Rosas'. That resides from 1992 until 2007 in De Koninklijke Muntschouwburg AKA de Munt or La Monnaie. During this period, she directs operas and large ensemble pieces that bring repertory companies from all over the world to the stage. Her fresh and distinctive vision of the relationship between dance and music gives a breathtakingly energetic, often minimalist and emotional feel to her entire oeuvre. Her dance grows in circles, spirals and diagonals that embody harmony together with pure sounds of all kinds of music.
It is 1995. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker establishes P.A.R.T.S. in close cooperation with De Munt. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios). She wants to translate and pass on her choreographic language in theory. The rest of the world also succumbs to De Keersmaeker's geometric dance styles. Performances at the MoMa in New York, Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris follow.
De Keersmaeker publishes a three-volume book series A choreographer's score in which she gives co-author and musicologist Bojana Cvejic insight into the creation of some of her major works. In the year 2020, she creates new choreography for the musical West Side Story on Broadway.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker dances, creates and directs, always with dedication, into depth, with refinement, from the more than simple to the extremely complex. It is not without reason that the praise is repeated: her dance art is like pure writing with movements in time and space.
A true artist
Baroness, praised, honoured, and admired immensely
First choreographies
Her debut 'Asch' and her second work 'Fase: four movements to the music of Steven Reich' are the beginning of a success story.
What is an honorary doctorate?
VUB has awarded honorary doctorates every year since 1978 to personalities from the most diverse backgrounds who have made a remarkable contribution to their field and to society. From this solemn moment of recognition, they bear the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of VUB.