Episode 4. Forty years of Unfolding Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich

In 1982, before her company Rosas even existed, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker premiered Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich. Over the years, Fase has been passed on to multiple generations of dancers, meaning that over 40 years later, the story of this piece continues.
In 2025, STUK’s annual dance heritage festival, Body of Work - Unfolding Fase, was fully built around this classic in Flemish contemporary dance. As part of the festival’s exhibition interviews with dancers from different generations were shared. In this episode, we open up the exhibition archives to share those interviews. In this episode we listen to Michèle Anne De Mey—the original dancing partner of De Keersmaeker, Tale Dolven, who took over De Mey’s role, Yuika Hashimoto and Soa Ratsifandrihana of the third cast, and Madison Vomastek—one of the newest members of Fase’s lineage at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. They unfold the intricacies, challenges and humanness of dancing this iconic piece. 

Sound featured in the episode: Piano Phase, by Steve Reich. Performed by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Jean-Luc Plouvier, 2008 — Come Out, by Steve Reich (Nonesuch Records) — Theme music composed by Inne Eysermans.
Voices of: Michèle Anne De Mey, Tale Dolven, Yuika Hashimoto, Soa Ratsifandrihana, Madison Vomastek 

Interviews: Delphine Hesters

Narration: Tessa Hall

First montage: Hennie Roukaerts

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:01

You could say that dance is ephemeral. That it's performed in the present and then gone. That the only way to know it is to experience it live. So, how can a live art form like dance survive across time? How can we experience choreographies from the past the same way we can experience paintings in a museum? How would that happen? Especially if the object is movement, not something tangible like stone or canvas. To keep dance alive, it needs to be transmitted from body to body, audience to audience. Choreographies from the past, revived, and performed in the present. This is what we call repertory, and it's a way of keeping dance alive and connecting us to dance heritage. But the practice of doing repertoire isn't always obvious. There are many ways to pass on a work through time and many questions to face. Welcome to Body of Work, a podcast that explores the question of doing dance heritage. This is a podcast by Stuck, House for Dance Image and Sound in the city of Leuven. My name is Tessa Hall, I'm a dancer myself and also a dance heritage researcher. At Stuck, we've been researching the heritage of the contemporary dance scene in Flanders. And with this series, we'll share that with you. To do that, we'll meet all kinds of dance practitioners who've been working in the field of repertory. In 1982, before her company Rosas even existed, Antheresa de Kerzmarke premiered Fasa, four movements to the music of Steve Reich. She was 21 years old at the time, and this was her first full-length performance. While one section is a solo, the other three are danced as a duet. And back in 1982, Anteza's dancing partner was Michel Anne Dumay. Let's start at the beginning.

SPEAKER_06 3:03

They're getting ready, they're doing their hair. They get a five-minute cue from the technician. Oh putain de tour.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

There's a last minute rush.

SPEAKER_05 3:25

And then off they go. It's over 40 years later, and Fazer is still dancing. Across the years, Fazer has been passed on or transmitted to multiple women. So the story of the piece continues. In 2025, Stuck hosted its annual Body of Work Festival, which centers around contemporary dance heritage in Flanders. That edition celebrated the life of Fazer. As part of the festival, a series of interviews were held with dancers from the different generations of Fazer, and we made a selection from the archives.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

In dance history lessons, I I had become familiar with Rosa Sans Rosas in Oslo. Yeah, of course, when we came to parts, I saw drumming and became familiar, more familiar with the company and with Anna Teresa. I joined the company a year after I finished school. Quite soon after that came up this idea of performing Fasa with Anna Teresa. So I actually I'd seen photos, I was familiar with the imagery of it, but um I didn't know the piece.

SPEAKER_05 5:16

For Yuika, it was a similar case. She also studied at parts before moving into Rosas, and likewise had never seen Fasa live before.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

But I have a memory in my college in Japan. We're learning some dance history and I might have seen it there, because I have a memory of some of this piano face in the shadow shifting. Somehow I have seen that before I came to Belgium. I'm not sure when exactly, but I had already seen the piece before I knew that that was Fazer from Anteza.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

These days, Uika is still dancing Farza, but also transmitting it to new dances. One of those was Madison.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

It first came into my life in my composition class while I was in high school, 14 years old, 15, and we watched the video, what was on YouTube. I discovered Rosa's Dance Rosa's first and was really obsessed with with that um that film and later put it together that that was the same choreographer of Faza.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

So my name is uh Suarez Ivangiana and I'm a dancer choreographer now. I didn't even see a video to be honest. Actually, it was through the body that I experienced it for the first time.

SPEAKER_05 6:42

Whether they had seen Faza on YouTube or like Soa, not at all. These women have all become part of the lineage of the piece. Tala was the first person to dance this piece other than the original duet of Antadeza and Michalan. She spoke about how special it was to be asked to take on the role of Michalan.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Being asked to do a duet alongside her was huge. And then of course, as we embarked on learning it and dancing it, I realized how much history is behind it and yeah, the fact that it had always been danced with Michelin, and of course they have their own history. It's something very intimate also to transmit a duet. Um, and especially if you've danced it with only one dancer for so many years, but it was a very generous and nice process to go through together.

SPEAKER_05 7:40

To talk about Fase, you need to know the four sections of the piece. The first movement is piano phase. The second is called come out, the third is the solo, which is violin face. And it finishes back as a duet with clapping. Now we can break it down. So what was the process of learning Faser? How did this transmission go? Why don't we answer that question by starting with piano face, the first of the four movements?

SPEAKER_03 8:12

So we just started learning ABC. Just we didn't touch the structure yet, we just worked on the phrase work. Repeating, repeating, repeating, lots of marching, lots of in plie, like really bent legs, trying to um grasp the marching. I just keep hearing uh Fumio's voice going, marching, marching, marching.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Fumio Ikeda has been the rehearsal director for this piece for many years. That means she's helped the dancers to learn the piece in the studio, but also been the biggest support for them as they perform and go on tour, giving feedback and assistance.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

We just analyzed and a lot of it was also repeating A for long periods of time, and then we would get to B, and then we would try a little bit of C, but it kept moving at a pace that maybe from the outside would feel rather slow, but that time was imperative. Every detail was discussed from your pinky to to your calf. So that's kind of how the process started.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

I think the choreography itself kind of detects the method of teaching it because it's so inherent in the piece itself. So in piano phase, there are only three movements, so you can learn the physical movements themselves very fast. But then you have to practice and you have to learn the structure in your head, and then you just have to practice moving those uh components around.

SPEAKER_05 9:55

What about the other sections like come out and clapping?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Come out to show them, come out, to show them.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

How do the dancers learn those?

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Show them, come out to show them.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

With come out, there are many more components, and there is kind of a canon or we we don't have the same voice. There are two voices. So that's a bit more of an individual way of learning because I need to know my role and she needs to know her voice, and so but we practice it side by side, of course, but uh that's that's a little bit of a different way of learning because we need to know we both need to know our voices in order to run it, and then clapping is maybe more of a physical stamina challenge. So we would start by doing it, for example, for one minute, and then we'll do it two minutes and then three. It's seven minutes long, I think. Because it's just those few movements that you repeat all the time and it's jumping up on your toes. So it's it's quite tough uh on the calves. Very tough on the calves, I should say.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

I had so much left leg pain. I was in complete armor. I had like heel, um, like if you have Achilles tendonitis, you can get these little like orthopedic things to put in your shoes. The body has to recondition to every piece of repertoire. So when you're constantly repeating that same pivot on the left leg, you're you're just negotiating in your body. And as we kept talking about pain and the struggles of FASA, like we discovered that Yuika's left calf is actually a little bit bigger than her right one. And I was thinking, like, wow, for like six years when you do this, your body actually redefines itself or reconfigures to to serve the work. And I thought, what a beautiful thing the body can do for choreography.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

So it's really not that simple. In fact, it takes an expert level of precision to execute this kind of simplicity.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

It's a craft and it's a bit like woodworking. Like it takes a while to get like the shape of it, and you re- you rehearse and rehearse and rehearse. But then once you have it, when you have the tools, then it becomes interesting, and then comes the playfulness, and then comes the freedom of it. It feels like it's super narrow and structured, but in the end, once you have the vocabulary, it's like a language, and then you can just play with it. But you play with it with your partner and with the music within this frame.

SPEAKER_05 12:37

So what is Fasa about? What is it the core? For me Shalan, Fazer is about the same in the different and the different in the same.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

And in the time we do totally in interaction with the music, and it's not a communion perfect.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

But the two dances have to be in complete harmony, totally in tune with the music and each other.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

It's also the phase is about being one body with other body. And also yeah, the phase is about uh a bit of letting go yourself but not give up. Because we are human you know we might make some mistake or your day was not that good. But all things like you just embrace and somehow to show through this is so simple movement and yeah, we cannot hide. Yeah, and we shouldn't hide. But then to not afraid to show it, that's something also I learned from performing FAZ. Yeah, we're not trying to be perfect. Faz is about like honest to yourself. That's what I found. That's not easy each time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

I don't think I've ever been so in tune with another person ever in my life. And what I mean by tune is that the relationship between the other is almost more important than the choreography. The choreography there and serves as a vessel, like a trajectory that we're supposed to achieve together, but I can I can sense where Jasmine is going from just her back.

SPEAKER_05 14:57

Yasmin Ashzadi is Madison's partner in Fazer. In this work, your relationship with your duet partner is of utmost importance.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

It's really hard to explain. It's it's very emotional on the inside because you have to be so aware, and the awareness promotes a sense of freedom, I would say. And it makes it different than any other piece I've danced.

SPEAKER_04 15:27

I think with Fazer and I think I haven't been that close and intimate with someone than in this piece, and we don't even touch each other. When we go to the left, we follow Laura. When we go to the right, she follows me riding together, like Bonnie and Clyde, like okay. And sometimes you feel a little bit like uh I have pain on my legs, I'm tired, but still, you know, like you have the music running and you have your friend, and that's that's nice.

SPEAKER_05 15:59

So I danced with Lorra Bachman and Yuika speaks of her partner too.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Lauham Maria said once, wow, this is like uh active meditation.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

You need to all the time update and renew where you are in the structure, so that's very important to be in the present moment and to not evaluate or hold on to what you did, but really just hold on to where you are in the moment and also not think too far ahead because then you'll get distracted. So you really need to be just in the present moment all the time.

SPEAKER_05 16:33

For Misha Lan, piano phase in particular is a cleansing piece to dance. She told a story of how back in the day when she was performing alongside Anta Deza, sometimes they weren't in the mood. Understandable if you're repeating the same thing again and again and again.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

But piano face is a piece extraordinaire. It's a piece of love.

SPEAKER_06 17:19

But they always knew they would feel amazing afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

For me, it's the only piece I've encountered both as a dancer and that I've seen or through dance history or such, which is so minimal in the sense of choreography. Not only are the components few, but they're also very short, which means that your body will not remember the choreography. You need to keep the structure and the choreography in your head at all times, and you need to know where you are in the structure at all times. Even in Rosescans Rosess, which is also a similar piece in terms of construction, each section is longer, and so your body will remember it kind of as how we remember a sentence in poetry or but in Fasa, because it's such a kind of mathematical ordering of components. You can't just start dancing and let it flow, you know. You need to all the time say, I'm doing the A movement, I'm doing the B movement, I'm doing the C movement. You can't really let go and kind of let the body take over, which in all other dancing I think you can. Yeah, it's very interesting and challenging to perform. It's like solving a task every time. It's really like a riddle, kind of, or you know the answer, but you have to construct the piece every time, every evening. In FASA, mistakes are inevitable. I learned to accept failure in dancing this piece because it's such a challenging piece to perform, and it's very, very difficult. And but Anna Teresa also said quite early, you know, we almost always make mistakes, and I think audience members might agree is that, and we know that as performers, that if there is a mistake in piano face, for example, where it's so transparent, there is a kind of a gasp through the audience. So it also shows a very human and vulnerable side in a piece that is so kind of machine-like or so, and and I think that combination or allowing for that humanity to be present is also what makes it very unique. So, in that sense, I really learned in that piece to work, you know, with it with a task and to accept that you probably won't manage, and that's very liberating to realize and to accept. And that is very hard to really take in. In that sense, it's actually a very confronting piece on a human personal level, because you have to you you really go through a little personal crises if you if you perform those errors and if you don't manage to let them go. Just as hard as it is to learn the piece itself is to learn to, it's like trying to solve you know a very challenging riddle in front of many people and having to accept that you will most likely fail and moving on without that being uh a big mistake.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

The biggest challenge is letting your ego go. I thought making mistake was detrimental, but actually they're welcomed, and it's how you get out of it together. How do we recover together? It's not about me or my mistake I made, or it's not about me witnessing her make a mistake and making a deal out of it or anything. It's it's just recovery together, and then it means we just have to tune deeper, and I think that's the work. No matter how much time you dance it. Don't know if you ever really achieve that. Because sometimes we want to scream and cry. Like I've had days where I needed to leave the room, I needed to, I needed to take a breath because it was just so it was too much. And then you have days when you make mistakes and you just laugh at yourself and you see how you pick it up together and then you phase shift. And actually, that was something, oh my gosh, I remember this so clearly. I think about this day. We had been on stage before, but it was the first day showing Anna Teresa, like the whole thing for the first time. I've never been more nervous. I think it was the worst Jasmine and I had ever had ever done it. And I was very um concerned about what the feedback would be after that. But she was like, you make a mistake, you face shift. Like it was so easy for her to tell us the strategy, and she also told us like personal anecdotes of making mistakes, and she was so personable, and it kind of let everything. Go that I had created in my head about how I should be inside of the piece. It was a new space. So I remember that fully. Just how bad I felt afterwards, but then feeling, you know what? Actually, when in doubt phase shift.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

So what is phase shifting? It starts with two identical fragments of music that are layered on top of each other. One of the fragments slightly speeds up, so the two fragments shift out of sync. Eventually, they will come back together again. Phase shifting is a compositional technique that was pioneered by Steve Reich in the 60s. And Teresa de Kersmark's Faser is an interpretation of his music. So she also works with phase shifting, transposing it from music to the body. With the complex structure and the inevitability of mistakes, what's it like to perform this duet?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

I think the fact that it's a duet, in the sense of how challenging the piece is in itself, it's quite comforting to be two, you know. It feels like we're a little team working our way through. Since very early on, since learning it, we we can talk. So you can always ask, you know, where are we in the structure if you're lost or if you lose counts, you ask what's the count. So there's quite a lot of communication going on verbally or kind of sound-wise.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

You can also ask what's next, or like what? So we know, okay, then we have to answer A or B, so then they know which movement comes next. And also we kind of agree between the dancers to how to ask or what to say. It cannot be like a long discussion while dancing, right? So sometimes like what's next? You just like say one you know letter which indicates a movement. When I want to cut to go for a face shifting, for instance, then I say shift. That also depends on I think the couples to kind of make own vocabulary.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Of course, in piano phase we don't see each other often. I mean we see each other's backs, but we don't see each other often, except for in those moments of actually in those moments of phasing, which is when we go out of sync and our hands gradually come towards each other, and then we go out of sync again. It's always very nice to see each other, to check in, to see each other face to face, and then we would always kind of uh you know ask just in expression, how are you doing? There's definitely a space for communication, and I think it's very helpful. I mean, because the piece is so challenging, so it's really great to have a a friend. You know, it's great to be two and and to be working on it together and support each other and to have the support of one other person in that challenge.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

And what about the other sections of the piece, like come out?

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Come out, I had a different experience with dancing with Laoha Maria and Luha Bakma. Come out is also difficult to keep the some musicality because there is a voice and voice studied shift. When I danced with Laha Maria, we actually didn't follow the music because I found that's too difficult and we also hear different things. So in the beginning, when the voice is clear, so we kind of follow that rhythm of the voice, but then after a while we start to make our rhythm of the movement, and the music just runs. And then we also create own like phrasing, we call it, of the movement. So we never know when music, you know, stops. I mean that's the same as uh Loha Pachman, but she has more different way of listening to music, and she hears this bass sound, and she cannot ignore that sound. So she was constantly on that rhythm to make a movement. So that was when I danced her like the first time, I was like, Wow, you listen to the music, and she was how can you not listen to Jessica be together? And also saw she also has a more strong sense of musicality, so they both kind of feel the this another rhythm in the music, so they start to follow that one.

SPEAKER_05 27:06

And what about violin phase? Violin phase is the third chapter of the piece and is the only solo moment.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Violin phase until now it's only Anna Theresa, Soa and me who danced. And let's say the three dancers are totally different colours and quality of the movement. Of course there's always like a question of okay being a repertory dancer and who dances someone else, but you cannot be exactly other people. So I'm a bit playing both, acknowledging that I'm performing Anna Teresa's role and which colour she has, but then I also try to I mean even not to try to if I dance then it actually shows my colour somehow. Also seeing Soa dancing via face, she developed a very different color and uh her natural quality of movement which I don't have. So it was nice to already like I can take from Aunt Teresa but also from Soa and to see what I like and to propose something different. For instance, Anna Teresa, she has often some awkwardness in her movement, and which somehow it's it attracts a bit weird yeah, weirdness. This I found is very difficult to reproduce. And so she has kind of more roundness or soft and almost like very like s natural sexiness in her movement, which I don't don't have it. And I think I'd have more sharpness in my quality. I sometimes tend to bit like too like hard, so so I really learned like a different quality from others, and I hope that's enriched different qualities.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Violin phase was the most challenging, also, I think. Also, because I think I was I had a lot of doubts when I was doing it. Somehow it's balletic, you know, like how it's organized, like the spine and and the the hands. Yeah, it's really vertical. Technically, I was uh I was doubting. Yeah, uh physically I I couldn't find like the the comfort or like the the release inside the movement. It took me a while to to find this. Somehow I wanted to fit in and I wanted to like to copy what I was seeing, but it wasn't working, like it wasn't good for my body, so I had to find another way. And so at some point I've decided to do it a bit like uh okay, I'm gonna do it myself, like how I can do it, and actually that was the right path. And that's I think the the difficulties when you when there's a transmission of movement, is that um from which approach you you pass it on? Is it like through the form of it? Is it like through the spirit of it? Is it through both? For me, it was uh difficult, uh, also because I knew also like the importance also that she never passed it on to other people before us, before you can and I, so it was like symbolically it was important. You want to do it good, you know, you want to respect it. But when the body says, Yeah, well, I don't know how to deal with this, you know. You then you have to find other ways to appropriate this. But I think I I found like within my hips and my belly also like um more flexibility throughout the years, swinging a bit more.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

During violent phase, I rest. Yeah, I rest and then I prepare her costume for the the quick change. You know, we change very quickly between the pieces.

SPEAKER_04 31:12

And speaking about costumes, Michelin and Antheresa, they bought the dresses in the free shop, I think. And I was like, wow, so much taste. It's still the original dress. So in the first movement, uh Laura is wearing the the original dress, and then on the third movement for Violet phase, we exchange and I wear her dress.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

I mean, there was a bit of an art to the shoes, what you put in them, how many socks you wear. I wear two socks and a little insert for my heel. I think Jasmine does one sock and an insole, so each person has like their own custom it's kind of like a point shoe, like how you customize the shoe for your comfortability and your benefit and what you need.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Very specific about the shoes. Because they are well, I remember when I learnt it, I got Michelin's old shoes. I don't know if in Rosas or Anna Teresa or also the costume crew, you know, the originality of costumes is quite important. So when I learnt it, we used the same dresses and shoes as they had used since 1982. And the shoes they have they need to be kind of soft enough that you can go on half point on them for piano face, and there is an extra sole under that makes it easy to spin on because this kind of spinning movement is also not so common. In clapping, the shoes are created specifically to be able to go up on the toes. So yeah, it was quite a challenge, I think. But I mean the older shoes are also very old, so they're very soft, and the new ones are much harder, which can be both heavier for the leg and also a little bit more difficult to perform the movements in them. But actually, on the second night of shows in London, my shoe broke, and then I just had to take it off and perform in socks, which was definitely or one sock. Yeah, I think I took them off when I performed in socks, which was definitely an extra challenge. And then they, you know, glued it back together for the millionth time. But then I think maybe after that it was agreed that we should get new shoes.

SPEAKER_05 33:25

Sometimes dancing repertoire can be like stepping into the shoes of another, literally, but also metaphorically.

SPEAKER_04 33:37

When you're trying to learn it, you somehow imitate first before you start, you know, like being yourself in it. You start by imitating, so you imitate also the habits of the ones who is teaching you the movement. And that is I remember like for violin phase I was trying like to catch like the small you know habits of Anteresa while she was dancing, and and it's fun because it gets into your body and then it becomes unconscious. And this transmission is really precious, and to see that in the bodies also, and to see ah okay, you've been dancing with that person, I can see that in your body, it's really beautiful. Like actually, I had the chance to see the new generation of bards doing FAZ with Laura Maria, and I could recognize in the bodies I could see Laura Maria.

SPEAKER_05 34:24

This is really crazy, and this is beautiful. When a dancer transmits Fasa to the next generation, she passes on a little bit of herself too. Also, the approach to transmission is different from person to person.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

I feel I learned a lot from them, how they interpreted a piece or how they propose the qualities and movement. And when Anteresa taught us she had more like using the images than the how how body should move. So that was kind of a bit new to me, and then I've discovered like a different approach to the repertory work. It's not only about to make the movements right and it's still you make a the same choreography or like movement, but then like through some images. And there's a say, like, oh I always think this movement uh some animals or when we learned uh a piano phase of this quality of suspension, she often makes a sound and which sometimes like works or like more understandable than try to explain with word. So when we did it like suspension, so your kind of process of falling, but you don't want to fall, try to suspend this time between start to fall and the actual fall, and the sound she makes always it's like ah you don't wanna fall, you don't want to fall, but the body is falling. Like ah then you go, and it's it's a bit funny, but if you try this sound in your head or even in the rehearsal in the studio, try this, make this sound, it helps, it affected the body.

SPEAKER_05 36:36

It's like a chain. One dancer learns from the way the piece was transmitted to her, and she'll carry that with her as she passes it on. And each time that happens, the dancers add something of themselves to the story. But the lineage is not a straight line. That's where people like Fumio come in.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

So I think her role is very unique. She's kind of the overarching witness and expert inside of observing the tendencies and and the details, and to have it from her directly to us was very special. The lineages might get broken here or there, but there is that central character to me that feels very anchoring is the word I would say.

SPEAKER_05 37:32

In the lineage of Fazer, it's not just dancers and rehearsal directors who have made their mark. Audiences have an ongoing story with this piece too, especially in Flanders. Michalan believes that forty-two years later, Faza has the same impact as when it was first created. Even if the movement and the aesthetics are coming from a certain era, it can still be timeless. For Michalan, it's important that the audiences can experience pieces like this year after year. But she brings up an interesting question. Can a piece that goes on and on and on have the same impact as it did back when the original dancers performed it?

SPEAKER_00 39:09

In a way I would think so that it's received differently now than when it's created, but at the same time, well, I wasn't there in the eighties. I mean I think it's always different to see something when it is new. Like when this piece was new and Anna Treza and Michelin were young and they were just coming up with this ambitious choreography and idea. And now I I don't think we can look at it without knowing the history and and we've seen so much at this point in our time. I think maybe now, because things move so fast, and I I just feel for myself, even with watching TV, or I think our our concentration span is shorter now than it used to be. And so I think to engage with something like that now, which is so minimal and clean and repetitive, I think it's an important um commitment to make.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

As dancers who dance repertoire, what do they think about repertory?

SPEAKER_03 40:13

I just think if we didn't continue to do repertory, we wouldn't recount, you know, culture. You know, all dance kind of reflects the culture in which it was created in. So it's such a marker, such a way to document a time. And I think it's important to to hand off time to future generations. To trace myself in FASA is the proudest thing I can, I think, say about my life. And I still haven't done like the full thing. Like it's a a little bit of an adjacent lineage, but I still can trace it, and that is really so special.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

And it's very special, you know, performing a piece that people have a history with. That's very unique in Belgium, I think, that the kind of general audience have this history with dance, and that they've seen the pieces throughout the years, or with different dancers, or and then they see it again, and I remember I saw it 20 years ago. These kind of experiences are so special.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

For Michalan, it's pieces like Farza that can link generations. She opens the conversation to the importance of cultural heritage. Like Michal Ann says, being aware of our cultural heritage is what brings philosophical, political, and structural meaning to a society.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Also, on our rare, don't care, I think it's a responsibility of public to prove the manner as that.

SPEAKER_05 42:29

And this is a responsibility that should be taken seriously. You're listening to Body of Work, a podcast created by Stuck, House for Dance, Image and Sound in the city of Leuven. This series is developed in the frame of Dance Map, a European research project and network funded by the European Union, Horizon Europe. The podcast was conceived by Delphine Hestes. Katharina Smetz worked on the edit and the scenario. Tessa Hall, that's me. I did research and narration. The interviews were done by myself, Katarina Smetz, and Delphine Hestes. Theresa van Eerken assisted the audio production. The theme music for the podcast was composed by Ina Esemans, and the mix was done by Ina Esemans and Yves Demet. You heard the voices of Michalan Dumet, Yuika Hashimoto, Tale Dolven, Soa Ratzafangiana, and Madison Vomestek. Special thanks to Rosas and Antares De Kersmacker and to Clankvibond for using their studio at Pasaporta.