Sadler’s Wells, London
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s choreography for the composer’s music, played by cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, is austere and enigmatic
If you were going to choose a choreographer to pair with Bach, it would be Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. They are united by austerity, maths and moments of transcendence. Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind (“In the Midst of Life”) is set to Bach’s six Cello Suites, which are performed on stage by Jean-Guihen Queyras. As with all of De Keersmaeker’s work, the score is her map; the choreography appears improvisatory while being structurally exact. There is an artless normality in this undemonstrative running, walking and jumping, yet also an enigma.
Four dancers, plus De Keersmaeker herself, take turns moving in duet with Queyras, showing their individual signatures. Marie Goudot has the most beautiful touch in the way weight moves through her body, with great vigour but little exertion, each movement glancing off the one before. De Keersmaeker, 58, is the most enigmatic of all, dancing the same sequences in every suite, each time recast by its accompaniment. Sometimes the dancers alight on a rhythm in the music, catch themselves on a repeated motif, but even when the musical connection is not so visible, an inner rigour holds up the work.
Around the fifth suite, the structure fractures. Boštjan Antončič dances in silence, a strain of music is heard off stage, a haunting. Then Queyras returns alone, and in fact some of the best moments are when the movement ebbs and we focus only on his supple, subtle playing. Over two hours, the sobriety of De Keersmaeker’s choreography can feel wearying, but it also brings great satisfaction. Bach’s music comes without agenda, not pushing for a reaction, just deeply, incontrovertibly itself. This dance is the same.