A screening of Tippeke combines several equally important approaches, merging the different parameters of choreography, film and musical writing. The 20-minute film was shot in the forests around Brussels in March 1996.

The protagonist, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, tells/sings/dances an old Flemish nursery rhyme about a little boy who does not want to go home. The story reveals a recursive sequence of nine threats one after the other : a little dog who does not want to bite Tippeke, a stick that does not want to hit the little dog, a fire that does not want to burn the stick etc. reaching the point where all the domino pieces have fallen and it starts again in reverse order: yes, the little dog does want to gobble up the mouse, and the mouse does want to jump on the rope and gnaw it, and the rope wants to jump on the cow and tie it up etc.

For each key word there is a corresponding danced movement; for each concept a harmonic colour deduced from "multiphonic" nodes selected on the low strings of the cello; for each type of discourse in the nursery rhyme – affirmative, questioning, negative – there is a way of executing it, a way of associating different sound data: voice, cello and the sound atmospheres in the film.

In this round of interactions, the voice is subject to particular treatment: formants filter the cinema-like ambiances, there is a wind chorus in the trees, motorway noise and a blazing forest accompanying its modulations; the consonants are underlined by percussive sounds sampled on the cello (Ti-Pe-Ke...) before the rhythms which are unleashed reinforce the dynamics of the dance.

The accumulative structure of the story makes dance "necessary" too, a continuation of the cello/multi-diffusion soundtrack and cinematographic journey.

Thierry De Mey

Credits

Thierry De Mey, born in 1956, is a composer and filmmaker. An instinctive feel for movement guides his entire work, allowing him to tackle and integrate a variety of disciplines. The premise behind his musical and filmic writing is the desire for rhythm to be experienced in the body or bodies, revealing the musical meaning for the author, performer and audience. He has developed a system of musical writing for movement used in pieces where the visual and choreographic aspects are just as important as the gesture producing the sound, such as in "Musique de tables" (1987), "Silence must be!" (2002) and "Light Music", which premiered at Lyon's Musiques en Scène biennial festival in 2004.

A large part of his music production is intended for dance and cinema. He has often been more than a composer for the choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Wim Vandekeybus and his sister Michèle Anne De Mey, offering his precious collaboration in the invention of "formal strategies" – to use a favourite expression of his. Among his main work let us mention "Rosas danst Rosas", "Amor constante", "April me", "Kinok" (choreographies by A. T. De Keersmaeker), "What the body does not remember", "Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles", "Le poids de la main" (choreographies by W. Vandekeybus), "Dantons Töd" (dir. Bob Wilson), "Musique de table", "Frisking" pour percussions, un quatuor à cordes, "Counter Phrases", etc.

He participated in the foundation of Maximalist! and the Ictus ensemble which created several of his pieces (dir. G E Octors). His music has been performed by major ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, the Hilliard Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Muzikfabrik and the Orchestre Symphonique de Lille. Thierry De Mey's installations, in which music, dance, video and interactive processes work together, have been presented in events such as the Venice and Lyon biennials as well as in many museums. His work has received national and international awards (Bessie Awards, Eve du Spectacle, Forum des compositeurs de l'Unesco, FIPA, etc). The film/installation "Deep in the wood" (2002-2004) involved more than 70 dancers/choreographers. For the film "Counter Phrases" (2003-2004), nine composers answered his dance/film invitation : S. Reich, F. Romitelli, M. Lindberg, T. Hosokawa, G. Aperghis, J. Harvey, L. Francesconi, R. De Raaf and S. Van Eycken. In 2003, the working process with ATDK for "April me" was the subject of a documentary entitled "Corps accord", produced by ARTE which has also broadcast and co-produced most of his films.

Since July 2005, Thierry De Mey is artistic director of Charleroi/Danses along with Pierre Droulers, Michele Anne De Mey and Vincent Thirion.

In 2006, he realised an installation adapted from Perrault's tale, "Barbe Bleue" (Bluebeard), plus a film, "One Flat Thing, reproduced" based on the choreography by William Forsythe and broadcast by Arte in October. In 2007 he made From Inside for the Charleroi/Danses Biennale, an interactive installation in the form of a triptych. For the 2009 Charleroi/Danses Biennale, he created "Equi Voci", a polyptych of dance films accompanied by orchestral music and which includes "Prélude à la mer", a film based on one of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's most beautiful choreographies which he shot by the Aral Sea in October 2009. His latest film – "La Valse", choreographed by Thomas Hauert and the ZOO dance company – completes and close this project.

Source : Charleroi/danses

More information : www.charleroi-danses.be