Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker & Solal Mariotte: Rosas

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Image courtesy of Grec Festival de Barcelona.

The great Belgian dancer and choreographer and an emerging dancer and choreographer trained in break dancing use Jacques Brel’s songbook to connect different approaches to music and dance.

As they are from two different generations, they take different approaches to the songs of a musician born in Brussels in 1929, whose dense and political poetry was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. His powerful poetry contained all emotions and moods and combined them with an extraordinary presence and incredibly expressive gestures. What remains of Brel’s songs and spirit? How can we turn it into movement and bring it closer to our days?

In Brel, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Solal Mariotte perform together for the first time, exploring the challenge and potential of choreographing songs, as De Keersmaeker had already done in Once in 2002 with music by Joan Baez (it was seen at the Teatre Lliure in 2009) and in EXIT ABOVE, in 2023. They will raise questions about the changes and gaps in time that come to the surface when Jacques Brel’s chansons are revisited in today’s light.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, who has developed her own choreographic style through the Rosas company that she founded in 1983, is one of the leading figures of contemporary dance. In 1995 she founded P.A.R.T.S., one of Europe’s leading contemporary dance schools. Her legendary choreography Rosas danst Rosas was seen at the Teatre Condal in 1985 and, since then, she has performed several times at the Mercat de les Flors and at the Teatre Lliure. During the 2010 Barcelona Grec Festival, she presented En Attendant (Creació 2010) at the Teatre Grec.

Initially trained in break dancing, Solal Mariotte, born in 2001 in France, entered the Annecy Conservatory and then Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Brussels dance school, P.A.R.T.S, graduating in June 2022. He joined the Rosas company in 2023. He danced in “Any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones” by Jan Martens (Festival d’Avignon, 2021) and in EXIT ABOVE by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (Festival d’Avignon, 2023). In early 2024, he created his first piece, Collages/Ravages, with musician Jean-Luc Plouvier. In 2025, following the same principles, he created a new performance entitled Ravages/Collages with musician Lucas Messler. Together, they continue to develop a shared vocabulary between music and dance.

Sounds of the City: Summer Music Festivals

What are your plans for summer? If you’re staying in the city, you won’t be alone. Barcelona is becoming a go-to destination for festival lovers, given Catalunya’s covetable combination of culture, great weather and an increasingly diverse concert circuit. So if you’re looking to expand your horizons while staying put this season, check out our article Sounds of the City: Summer Music Festivals for a summary of the summer music events taking place in Barcelona, from big-name gatherings to boutique takeovers.

For more music events check our online events calendar.