Cascade, a dance by Meg Stuart, Centre Pompidou, Festival d’Automne, Paris, France, October 12–16, 2022; The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, a dance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg, Rotterdam, Netherlands, October 20, 2022.
Meg Stuart’s Cascade and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 are exercises in endurance. Each choreographer uses a different strategy of endurance to grapple with the theme of interruption. Stuart’s approach is maximalist, while De Keersmaeker employs bareness. The world of Cascade stages stamina and fortitude through excess of scale, sound bombardments, and electrified bodies ricocheting off one another in a dazzling push-pull of shared space and weight. On Philippe Quesne’s set of exaggerated inflatables, dangling rope baskets, and a sharp ramp to nowhere, Cascade blasts pulsing beats, bright lights, and sensory overdrive in a plea for feeling and togetherness. On another stage, De Keersmaeker’s persistence and determination takes shape...