Dance - Spiegel

The title of the latest show from controversial contemporary dance company Ultima Vez translates from the German as ‘mirror’. An appropriate choice, as Spiegel is a literal reflection of twenty years output from the company which was founded by Belgium-born choreographer Wim Vandekeybus in 1986. As part of the Flemish New Wave movement, Vandekeybus’s work was instrumental in challenging the formalities of modern dance and pursuing an instinctively raw approach. His shows have been described as startling, extreme, violent and famously incorporating elements of real risk for the performers. I talk to Vandekeybus about the decision to put together a career retrospective at this time. “This year marks twenty years of our existence”, he tells me. ‘We will have done twenty-three shows within twenty years. This show is like one big party for the company.” A sort of greatest hits? “Well, an amalgamation of many shows from the first 15 years."

How did you decide what to include? I ask. “We had so much material we could have made three shows but we were immediately able to discard pieces with specific narrative content or any repetition of ideas. We chose abstract scenes and tried to retain their original language”. Another consideration for Vandekeybus was trying to give a fair representation of the different musical work of the five composers who were involved over the time period. “For some there were years in-between. I had to pull all these things together and in the end what emerged was something new. Looking at the material in a new way and creating new transitional scenes which evolved organically from the physical content.”