Wim Vandekeybus evokes a dramatic effect by juxtaposing plastic movement, music and scenography. Thus, according to one critic, the performance entitled What the Body Does Not Remember (1987) was distinguished by “a brutal conflict of dance and music, by a bellicose, aggressive landscape, which showed what the body really did not remember”. In the video film Roseland (1990), which Vandekeybus made in collaboration with Walter Verdin and Octavio Strube the dance was performed in an unexpected and visually effective setting of a half-ruined disused cinema theatre in Brussels.
The video film is made from the material of Vandekeybus’ first three choreographies: What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles (1989) and The Weight of a Hand (1990).
Roseland places these choreographic works in the remarkable setting of a dilapidated Brussels cinema which has been abandoned for the past twenty years.
Roseland received the Dance Screen Award for ‘transforming the theatrical energy of the stage choreography into a dynamic screen experience, using a full range of cinematic techniques.’