Opera Ballet Vlaanderen - Jan Martens - Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker - Christos Papadopoulos — On speed Grosse Fuge Opus

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen brings together three contemporary choreographic signatures, spanning different generations of the Flemish scene and the international dance landscape. Repeatedly featured at the Festival, Jan Martens adapts On Speed for the Flemish company: a choreography built on energy, endurance, and rhythmic pulse; a tight, repetitive, high-intensity physical writing that pushes the dancers into a state of continuous acceleration between precision, saturation, and loss of control. In a spirit of generational dialogue, but along a similar formal line, the evening continues with Grosse Fuge / Beethoven, the historic choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker —one of the most influential figures of contemporary Flemish and European dance. Created in 1992 and now an emblematic work in her repertoire, the piece draws on Beethoven’s monumental score to translate its contrapuntal complexity into a rigorous and vibrant choreographic architecture. The program closes with Opus, among the earliest choreographies by Greek artist Christos Papadopoulos, presented here in a new version for twelve dancers. Inspired by Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge, the work deconstructs and reconstructs the score through a choreographic language of almost microscopic precision, where the smallest gesture becomes structure, rhythmic unit, and perceptual matter.