Wim Vandekeybus
Information
Portrait of the Flemish choreographer, Wim Vandekeybus, who is staging his latest creation, a dreamlike and energetic one, at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.
Context
The Flemish-Belgian Wim Vandekeybus, dancer, choreographer and director, was born in 1963. He started as a performer in a contemporary dance choreography show by Jan Fabre, with whom he'd travel the world. In 1986, he founded the Ultima Vez company. His first creation, What the Body Does Not Remember(1987), caused international interest straight away and received a Bessie Award in New York. He won the prize again for his second show, Les Porteuses de Mauvaises Nouvelles. From the start he expressed the violence of the world through his powerful and impulsive corporal movements, with frenetic and intensely physical energy, the fundamental characteristic of his dance.
From 1991, he integrated narrative elements into his shows and inAlle Grossen decken sich zu, in 1995, theatre took over from dance. Wim Vandekeybus made films used on stage, and in this way the film adaptations of his shows. In 2002 he created a solo for the Belgian dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Ultima Vez were resident at the KVS, the Royal Flemish Theatre, from 1993 to 1999 and other municipal theatre of Ferrara in Italy from 2000 to 2002.