For EXIT ABOVE, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker retraces her steps: to the roots of dance, the roots of Western pop music. Since her earliest work, “my walking is my dancing” is one of her guiding principles.

In terms of the music, the piece explores the roots of pop music and blues. The starting point for the performance is the song “Walking Blues” by legendary blues artist Robert Johnson. The journey leads back to Franz Schubert, the best-known singer-songwriter of the 19th century. Meskerem Mees, a fascinating young Flemish singer-songwriter with Ethiopian roots, will compose a series of variations, permutations and other adaptations of 'walking songs’. She is collaborating with Jean-Marie Aerts, sound architect of TC Matic, the legendary Belgian 80s rock formation, and with the dancer and guitarist Carlos Garbin.

EXIT ABOVE explores the tension between ‘marching together’ and ‘stepping out’, between romantic solitary ‘wandering’ and the political potential of a group of unarmed people walking together. Walking generates thoughts and dreams that reveal the extent to which our inner world is also a landscape – a landscape that can often only be traversed on foot. EXIT ABOVE – with its title quoting a stage direction from Shakespeare’s The Tempest – is also a piece about the precarity of our reality; the watershed moment we are facing. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is working with very young dancers on this future-themed work.

Choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Danced by Abigail Aleksander, Lav Crnčević, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Carlos Garbin, Nina Godderis, Robson Ledesma, Solal Mariotte, Meskerem Mees, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Naverrete Valverde, Jakob Storer

Created with Abigail Aleksander, Jean Pierre Buré, Lav Crncevic, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Carlos Garbin, Nina Godderis, Solal Mariotte, Meskerem Mees, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Naverrete Valverde, Jakob Storer

Music compositions Meskerem Mees, Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin Music played by Meskerem Mees, Carlos Garbin Scenography Michel François Light design Max Adams Costumes Aouatif Boulaich Texts and lyrics Meskerem Mees, Wannes Gyselinck Opening Text Walter Benjamin On the Concept of History Thèse IX Dramaturgy Wannes Gyselinck Rehearsal direction  Boštjan Antončič, Cynthia Loemij, Clinton Stringer Artistic Coordination and Planning Anne Van Aerschot Assistant to the Artistic Director Martine Lange Tour Manager Jolijn Talpe Technical Director Thomas Verachtert Technicians Jonathan Maes, Arno Truyens Sound Alex Fostier Costume Coordinator Alexandra Verschueren assisted by Els Van Buggenhout Wardrobe Els Van Buggenhout Sewing Chiara Mazzarolo, Martha Verleyen Production Rosas Koproduction Concertgebouw Brugge, De Munt (Brüssel), Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Le théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), GIE FONDOC OCCITANIE (Le Parvis Tarbes, Scène nationale ALBI Tarn, La Cratère Alès, Scéne nationale Grand Narbonne, Théâtre Garonne) With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels This production is realized with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, in collaboration with Casa Kafka Pictures – Belfius.

Rosas is supported by the Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission (VGC).