Bartók/ Beethoven/ Schönberg brings together three early choreographies by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, originally created by her company Rosas to seminal works by Béla Bartók, Ludwig van Beethoven and Arnold Schönberg.

To Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet, De Keersmaeker created a choreography with playful and combative accents that finds its danceability in the complex and layered rhythms and harmonies. In Grosse Fuge (1992), the dancers defy gravity in a ‘masculine’ dance vocabulary. The starting point for this ensemble piece is Beethoven’s ingenious interweaving of simultaneously running melodic lines. Verklärte Nacht (1995) is a shamelessly romantic love story in which the contrasting feelings of a man and a woman are dissected, set to Schönberg’s music of the same name.

The dancers of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen perform the large-scale versions of these choreographies, accompanied live by the strings section of the house orchestra.

Book presentation with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Before the premiere of Bartók/Beethoven/Schönberg on 25 September 2026, our artistic director Jan Vandenhouwe will interview Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker about the Flemish dance scene, her distinctive choreographic language, and her remarkable career as a dancer and choreographer.

Together, they will present Wanneer ze danst. Gesprekken met Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker by author Laure Adler.

The book, translated into Dutch for the first time, brings together two years of candid conversations with the legendary French journalist Laure Adler. She was given access to De Keersmaeker’s archives, rehearsal studios and home in the countryside. The result is a rare and intimate insight into her roots, her working methods, and the joys and challenges of her early work.

You are warmly invited to join us at 6:15 PM for this festive book presentation, organised in collaboration with publishing house Manteau and Rosas.

The book presentation will be held in Dutch and is free for all ticket holders of the premiere of Bartók/Beethoven/Schönberg on 25 September 2026 in Capitole Ghent.

Due to the book presentation the regular introduction is cancelled on the premiere.