There is something vague and remote about Rosas in Drumming. There’s no doubt about it – the meandering can only have been inspired by the movement of a mobile swinging in the wind. Rosas is an odd experience – we South Africans are so accustomed to performance that is laden with meaning that it is almost frustrating to encounter an hour of nothing but movement and form.
Like mechanised parts of a clock, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s dancers move in perfect unison – then back off into randomness. Perhaps they’re performing dolls, or perhaps they’re adults acting as children. Whatever they’re going as, in the end, Rosas in Drumming turns out to be one of the most lyrical experiences one is likely to witness in a lifetime. The impenetrable beat of Steve Reich’s music provides an inevitable backdrop. Dancing and drumming – could there be any two activities more primordial? – Matthew Krouse
There will be a final performance of Rosas in Drumming at the Dance Factory, Newtown, tonight at 8pm