BREL

BREL is a collaboration between Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Solal Mariotte, dancer and emerging choreographer. Even before they worked together on EXIT ABOVE - presented at the Festival van Avignon in 2023 - Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Solal Mariotte discovered a shared fascination for the Belgian chansonnier Jacques Brel. She already chose “Le plat pays” as the subject of text analysis in French class at school. And he danced his first solo to the acceleration of “La valse à mille temps”. The idea grew to create a performance around Brel. But would his music, his poetic and passionate universe lend itself to that? Can you even dance Brel? And which Brel would it be? The cabaret one, or the later one, the one from the Marquises? A choice had to be made from 150 songs, many of which belong to world heritage. They took on the challenge. She, the Flamande, the classically trained dancer and choreographer. He, the French breakdancer, two generations younger. They found common ground in the passion and energy that Brel radiated on stage to create a dance performance with duets and solos. Differences became counterpoints that provide tension. The verticality of Anne Teresa, the horizontality of Solal. The written-out choreography of one, the improvisation of the other. The black box in which she feels at home, the limited space within which breakdancers let themselves go – although Solal sees himself more as a hyphen between contemporary dance and breakdance, the geometry, the energy match. And then there is the third character in the performance: Brel himself, his music and his lyrics. His frenetic presence on stage, his sometimes burlesque mimicry, on the edge of ‘ trop ’, but acceptable, because he is simply Brel. His sharp observation of society too, of loneliness and friendship, love and war, being a child and growing old. Anne Teresa and Solal did not want to fall into the trap of imitation, that of the iconic singer, trapped in the spotlight of the Olympia in Paris – like a breakdancer in his cypher. They do not hijack Brel, they embody him. And they use his music as inspiration to question the world of today. Ces gens-là, monsieur, ça danse ! 'To the music of Jacques Brel, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker dances the biography of her life' - in De Standaard ★★★★