wim vandekeybus/ultima vez
Director, choreographer, actor and photographer Wim Vandekeybus was born on June 30th, 1963 in Herenthout (Belgium). Brought up in a rural environment as a son of a veterinarian, Vandekeybus was often in contact with animals in their natural environment. These experiences had a great emotional impact on him. Animals, their movements, their instinctive reactions and their trust in their own physical power are often integrated into his performances.
He began his studies in psychology in Leuven, but did not complete them, irritated, as he says himself, by the surplus of ‘objective science’. His interest in the complex relationship between body and spirit remained. A workshop with the Flemish theatre director and playwright Paul Peyskens brought him into contact with theatre. He followed some dance courses (classic, modern, tango) and took up film and photography.
1985
In 1985 he auditioned for Jan Fabre. Vandekeybus was taken on and for two years he travelled the world with the The Power of Theatrical Madness, playing one of the two naked kings. While touring with Jan Fabre he met painter/photographer Octavio Iturbe in Madrid, who later became an important artistic collaborator.
1986
In 1986 he withdrew for several months in Madrid with a group of young, inexperienced dancers to work on his first production and founded his company Ultima Vez (Spanish for ‘last time’). In June 1987 What the Body Does Not Remember premièred at the Toneelschuur in Haarlem (the Netherlands). The dancing in What the Body… was powered by the music of Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch. With tempestuous energy and strength the performers made daring leaps, launched themselves into the air and smartly intercepted each other’s falls. Bricks were thrown above each other’s heads. Every gesture had to stick to absolutely precise timing; the performers put their trust in and surrendered to their instincts. Although the première was received with scepticism, the performance was soon being presented on international stages. In 1988, Wim Vandekeybus received the Bessie Award in New York for this production, which was credited “a brutal confrontation of dance and music: the dangerous, combative landscape of What the Body Does Not Remember.”
1989
In 1989, after a residency at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d'Angers, he created Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles. For this creation Wim Vandekeybus received his second Bessie Award.
1990
The Weight of a Hand (1990), an on-stage confrontation of actors and musicians, was based on the choreographic material of the first two productions. In that same year Wim Vandekeybus also created - with Walter Verdin and Octavio Iturbe - the dance video Roseland, placing the choreographic material of his first two works in the remarkable setting of a dilapidated Brussels cinema.
1991
Immer das Selbe gelogen (1991) was a sensitive portrait of 89-year old German variety artist Carlo Verano and of Vandekeybus' friendship with the man. While the first performances are characterized by a lack of coherence or storyline, more narrative and theatrical elements crawl into his creations: texts, literary, mythological and philosophical references.
1992
In June 1992 Wim Vandekeybus and Walter Verdin directed La Mentira, a dance video based on Immer das Selbe gelogen, recorded at deSingel in Antwerp, and in the rough and deserted landscape around Granada in the south of Spain.
1993
For Her Body Doesn’t Fit her Soul (1993) Wim Vandekeybus collaborated with non-seeing dancers for the first time: blindness became a metaphor for the submission of the body to its instincts, for vulnerability and the fragility but also the strength of the body. The short film Elba and Federico, also directed by Wim Vandekeybus, was part of the performance. From this moment onwards film became a constant element in Vandekeybus’ work.
From 1993 until 1999 Wim Vandekeybus was artist in residence at the KVS (Royal Flemish Theatre) in Brussels.
1994
A film - shot in Morocco - and short stories by Paul Bowles and Milorad Pavic formed the theme for Mountains Made of Barking (1994).
1995
In 1995 Wim Vandekeybus made Alle Grössen decken sich zu (1995), a theatre piece based on the life of his friend Carlo Verano, who had died in the meantime. During that same year Wim Vandekeybus also revived his debut choreography What the Body Does Not Remember.
1996
Bereft of a Blissful Union, a large-scale piece, which brought together twelve dancers and twelve musicians on stage, incorporating film and acting sequences, followed in 1996. The music for the performance was composed by Peter Vermeersch and George Van Dam and executed by X-Legged Sally and The Smith Quartet. The short film Dust, based on a scene from Mountains Made of Barking and part of the performance Bereft of a Blissful Union in video format, as well as the short-film Bereft of a Blissful Union were later released separately.
As a guest choreographer for the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company, Wim Vandekeybus created Exhaustion from Dreamt Love. The piece premièred at the Opera of Tel Aviv in 1996.
1997
For the first time since The Power of Theatrical Madness, he worked again with Jan Fabre in 1997. Body, Body on the Wall…. is a solo written and directed by Jan Fabre for Vandekeybus, integrating a short film. Also in 1997 with Ultima Vez, Wim Vandekeybus made 7 for a Secret never to be told. Silver, a video adaptation of one of the scenes of the performance was released in 2001.
1998
In 1998 Wim Vandekeybus and Franz Marijnen, stage director and artistic director of the Royal Flemish Theatre, worked together on The Day of Heaven and Hell, a performance about the life and work of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Franz Marijnen withdrew during the rehearsal period and Vandekeybus continued alone.
1999
In Spite of Wishing and Wanting, a performance with only male dancers and music by David Byrne, premièred in 1999. The performance incorporated the short film The Last Words, based on two surrealist short-stories by Julio Cortázar. A dance video adaptation, shot on location at the Vooruit (Ghent), the Hippodrome of Watermaal-Bosvoorde and in the streets of Ferrara (IT) was released in January 2002.
2000
The death of his father strongly influenced “Inasmuch as Life is borrowed...” (2000). Life and death become the central themes of the performance and short-film “Inasmuch…” that is part of it. Marc Ribot composed the music.
2001
For Scratching the Inner Fields (2001) Vandekeybus worked with an exclusively female cast and the Flemish author Peter Verhelst.
2002
In 2002 What the Body Does Not Remember was revived at the 10th edition of the KLAPSTUK Festival in Leuven. Inspired by the author Djuna Barnes, the young German actress Nicola Schössler directed Wim Vandekeybus in the solo ‘s NACHTs as part of the project De Stokerij (KVS/de bottelarij) during that same year. Also in 2002, Wim Vandekeybus was asked by dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to create a solo for him for Le Vif du Sujet (SACD / Festival d’Avignon 2002). The starting point for it was the short story The Circular Valley by Paul Bowles. It premièred at the Festival d’Avignon. A full evening version, integrating a film by Wim Vandekeybus, followed in January 2003.
Blush (2002) was the start of a new collaboration between Ultima Vez and the KVS. The music for the performance was created by the American singer-songwriter David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower, Woven Hand). For the text, Wim Vandekeybus continued his collaboration with Peter Verhelst. In 2005 a dance film adaptation of Blush, shot at different locations in Brussels and Corsica, was released.
2003
For Sonic Boom (2003), a co-production of Ultima Vez and Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Peter Verhelst wrote the text. On stage Vandekeybus brought together three actors from the Dutch repertory company and eight Ultima Vez performers. Sonic Boom was selected for the Dutch-Flemish Theatre Festival 2003.
2005
PUUR, Wim Vandekeybus’ latest creation for 13 performers - amongst whom the 79-year old Flemish actor and playwright Tone Brulin - premièred during the Singapore Arts Festival in May 2005.
In 2002 a workshop with youngsters in the frame of the Brussels’ literature festival Het Groot Beschrijf was the starting point for a series of projects with children and youngsters, lead by Wim Vandekeybus. Bericht aan de Bevolking/Avis à la Population (2002) is followed by Viva! (2004), Rent a kid, no bullshit! (2005)and Bêt noir (2006), based on theadaptation of the Oedipus myth by Jan Decorte.
2006
Next to Spiegel, Wim Vandekeybus created Quiebro for 16 dancers of the Spanish dance company Compañia Nacional de Danza (artistic direction Nacho Duato). The piece premièred in Madrid in November 2006. Wim Vandekeybus was also one of the seven choreographers invited by the Flemish production house Victoria to create a piece for a professional stripper for their project Nightshade.
Vandekeybus is currently also working on the scenario of his first feature film.
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