A perennial classic, move through Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

In Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Radouan Mriziga set out to explore Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The starting point for this new choreographic work is the exquisite recording of Vivaldi’s composition by virtuosic violinist and long-time Rosas collaborator Amandine Beyer and her ensemble Gli Incogniti.

The Four Seasons is one of the most well-known, iconic and reproduced pieces of music; a veritable ‘hit’ of the classical repertoire. It is also a striking ode to nature. De Keersmaeker and Mriziga, who previously collaborated on 3ird5 @ w9rk(2020), share a keen interest in geometry, nature, and our increasingly troubling relationship with our natural environment.

Do we still have four seasons? In the face of the impending climate crisis, the choreography explores patterns present in the natural world. Vivaldi wrote this music three hundred years ago in the Mediterranean, a region at the intersection of different continents. The Four Seasons reflects on the movement of knowledge, power, and histories in the region.

In Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione, multiple strands come together to create a unique choreographic language. The piece aims to return to the structural core of Vivaldi’s famous composition, through movement and dance. It invites the audience to contemplate the familiarity of nature and The Four Seasons.

Co-Production
Berliner Festspiele, Charleroi danse – centre chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles, Concertgebouw Brugge (Bruges), De Munt/La Monnaie (Brussels), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Festival de Marseille, ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Sadler’s Wells (London), Théâtre de la Ville – Paris

This production is realised with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, in collaboration with Casa Kafka Pictures.
Rosas is supported by the Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission (VGC).

With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels

Header image description: Four performers with one hand held upto their head as if they have a headache. They wear sports shorts with a floaty top hanging over it in pink, purple, white and green.

Header image © Anne Van Aerschot