This production introduced a new period of modern dance. With 130 world-wide appearances to its credit, it has become a near legend since its 1983 Brussels premiere. Nowadays, after its resumption in Spring 1992 with a new cast of dancers, it is seldom seen.

Four young women seek to create their very own femininity under the pressures of everyday life. It takes tremendous power to break away from life’s seemingly endless repetitions. Each of the women somehow tries to fight the pressures of male dominance to the best of her ability although its authority is sublime and shadowy and not defined. Seldom has an evening left its audience so distraught and fascinated as »Rosas tanzt Rosas« (»Rosas dances Rosas«).

Everything about the play is unusual: the total silence of its drawn-out beginning, the strenuous music of the four follow-ups and the amazing condition of the four dancers with their enrapturing synchronisation. Alongside the intensive gesture language, the »minimal dance«, based on few body movements and their variations, is a trademark of the choreographer.

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker attended varies dance academies, amongst them the, Maurice Béjart-founded, Mudra School. She started her choreographic career in 1981 at the age of 21. Together with three other women, she founded the dance group Rosas two years later. This group has by now grown to eight soloists and includes three men. Right now, de Keersmaeker is not only one of the most celebrated but also one of the most controversial cult figure of the European and American dance avant-garde.