By Victoria Looseleaf
No strangers to Los Angeles – though it’s been five years – Belgian-based Ultima Vez returns to SoCal this month. The troupe is on a world tour in honor of its 25th anniversary and is performing What the Body Does Not Remember. Artistic director Wim Vandekeybus choreographed the piece in1987 (and danced in it, as well), which put him on the terpsichorean map. It also won him a Bessie Award – not bad for a first dance!
In any case, we had the honor of chatting with him at the eighth edition of the dance portion of the Venice Biennale last summer when he premiered another mind-boggler of a work, Booty Looting. Click here, then, for our Los Angeles Times story and here for our Dance Magazine coverage.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see Wim’s work and are into hyperdance – or if you have seen Ultima Vez and love the Belgian’s take on raw physicality – get thee to UCLA’s Royce Hall on March 15-16. Alas, Vandekeybus won’t be in town with his troupe, as he’s working on his latest film, Galloping Mind, in Hungary and Romania. What can we say: The dude is jamming…not to mention that he’ll also be curating December Dance in Brussels at the end of the year. (P.S. We hope to be there.)
Photos: Danny Willems
