Bios
Wim Vandekeybus|1991 bio
Born in Belgium in 1963, Wim Vankekeybus is a choreographer, actor and photographer. After high school, he briefly studied psychology at the University of Leuven, but left to participate in workshops in theater, contemporary dance and tango, after which he became a principal performer in Jan Fabre’s The Power of Theatrical Madness for two years. He then created his own working structure, Ultima Vez, a company of a dozen young artists and prepared his first performance, What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), which was soon being shown on international stages. In 1988, Vandekeybus received the New York Bessie Award for "a brutal confrontation of dance and music: the dangerous, combative landscape of What the Body Does Not Remember.”
ln 1989, during a residency at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d'Angers, he created Messengers of Bad News while continuing international tours and working with Thierry De Mey on The Weight of a Hand. The latter, an on-stage confrontation of actors and musicians, was presented at the Theatre de Ia Ville in Paris in January 1990.
In September 1990 he received his second Bessie Award, this time for Messengers of Bad News. At the same time, Walter Verdin, Octavio Iturbe and Vandekeybus directed Roseland, a video which places the choreographic works of Vandekeybus in the remarkable setting of a dilapidated Brussels cinema which has been abandoned for 20 years. This video was awarded the Dance Screen Award '91 (IMZ Stuttgart).
In July 1991 Vandekeybus created Always the Same Lies, based on his meeting with an B8-year-old dancer and singer, Carlo Wegener, who lives in Hamburg.
For more recent information about Wim Vandekeybus, visit https://ultimavez.com and
Charo Calvo |1991 bio
Charo Calvo was born in 1960 in Madrid, where she studied physics while taking music and singing courses at the conservatory. She took up dance when, for the first time, several international teachers and choreographers arrived in Madrid. She then participated in several musicals, operas, films and singing groups. Together with Mayte Yerro, she founded a rock group, interpreting their own compositions and arrangements. In 1986 Calvo met Wim Vandekeybus and became a member of his company for the performances of What the Body
Does Not Remember, Messengers of Bad News and The Weight of a Hand as well as for the video Roseland. Ln 1989 she created and performed a dance to her own vocal score, for
which she won an award from Festwochen '91 in Vienna. In 1991 Calvo composed Trio for Boys for Always the Same Lies. The a capella work, based on respiratory sounds, is close to the physicality of the choreography by Vandekeybus.
For more recent information about Charo Calvo, visit https://soundcloud.com/user-562545561 and https://www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/en/artist/charo-calvo/
Peter Vermeersch|1991 bio
After studying architecture, Peter Verrneersch became a composer. He plays clarinet and saxophone. In 1983, together with Thierry De Mey, he wrote the music for Rosas Danst Rosas (choreography by Anne-Teresa De Keersmaeker), a process that resulted in the creation of the group Maximalist!. In 1988 he composed the music for Wim Vandekevbus' What the Body Does Not Remember (again in collaboration with Thierry De Mey), for which all three received
the Bessie Award in New York. The three worked together again on The Weight of a Hand in 1990.
Vermeersch's compositional work has also been an important factor in performances by Josse De Pauw, Radeis, Dito Dito, Charlie Degotte, Willy Thomas and others. Apart from his compositions for Maximalist!, Vermeersch has written De Horde for eight pianos, Ten Pieces for Small Orchestra for the Ensemble Musique Nouvelle and Pieces for String Quartetfor the Arditti Quartet.
He is a member/composer of the groups Union, Jazzwork from Berlin, De Simpletones and Flat Earth Society. In November 1988 he founded the “speedmetaljazz” group X-Legged Sally. Meanwhile, he has made the soundtrack for a dance by Pauline Daniels, written a composition for the chamber music orchestra Champ d’Action and composed music for choreography by Jose Besprosvany.
For more recent information about Peter Vermeersch, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Vermeersch
