“You will hear my four-stringed lyre, tuned in fifteen different ways.”
— Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

After the thirty Goldberg variations written by Johann Sebastian Bach, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker continues her choreographic trajectory with the fifteen “Mystery” or “Rosary” sonatas, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s best-known music.

Biber’s virtuosic sonatas are a musical translation of the fifteen Sacred Mysteries of the life of the Virgin Mary. Each movement is divided into one of three cycles: five joyful, five sorrowful, and five glorious. Intrinsically religious and narrative, they are at the same time an invitation to dance.

Attracted by the clarity of Biber’s structure and his numerical approach, De Keersmaeker examines the mystical and geometrical richness of this music and makes the sonatas her own in a choreography for six dancers. For this creation she renews her collaboration with violinist Amandine Beyer, with whom she previously made Partita 2 (2013) and The Six Brandenburg Concertos (2018). Beyer performs the Mystery Sonatas with her ensemble Gli Incogniti.

Part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival

Image description: A close up on the back of a head, with a thin, pale neck and brown hair cut in a straight line, flicked out at the ends. On the skin just below the choppy edge of the hair, there is a brown whorl of close-shaven hair, almost like a fingerprint. Beyond the dancer in close-up, there is a blurred, partial image of another dancer in a pale green t-shirt.

Co-presented by Sadler’s Wells and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Production: Rosas
Coproduction: Concertgebouw (Bruges) & La Monnaie / De Munt (Brussels)
With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
This production is realised 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 by the BNP Paribas Foundation.