ICTUS

HOKETUS [dance version + concert version]

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HOKETUS [dance version + concert version]
Location

Hoketus by Louis Andriessen: this musical hapax, unlike anything else in the history of music, caught the attention of Thierry de Mey and Anne Teresa when it was first performed in the late 1970s. The work is an important source of inspiration for ‘Rosas danst Rosas’.

It retains the American minimalist sense of gradual, rudimentary processes that are transparent to the audience, but distances itself from the contemplative Californian aesthetic: Hoketus exudes rebellious energy and a Stravinsky-esque taste for dissonance.

Andriessen was profoundly politically engaged, striving to embody a sense of the “aestheticization of politics” in the very texture of his music. His eloquent reflection in the preface to Worker's Union, written a year earlier, remains strikingly relevant:
Only in the case of every player playing with such an intention that their part is an essential one, the work will succeed; just as in the political work.

The process is simple and diabolically virtuosic: two separate instrumental groups (on the left and right sides of the stage) fire chords at each other at full speed, like ping pong balls. The two groups do not play a single note simultaneously. The listener's brain reconstructs rhythmic patterns.

GALLERY

HOKETUS [dance version + concert version] — photo 1
HOKETUS [dance version + concert version] — photo 2

CAST & CREDITS

WORKS

Manama students
& musicians from Index Ensemble

Flutes and panflutes
Anna Svetlakova
Ali Choopaninejad
Isabelle Meraner

Clarinets
Julen Latorre Urbaneta
Ghazal Faghihi
Xiaocheng Wang

Saxophones
Chi Pok Lee
Joan German Olivé
Alberto Cavallaro

Viola
Joseph Hiu Fung Chan
Brina Podgajski Kampuš

Double Bass
Isa Opstaele
Zoe Markle

Keyboards
Leander Vertriest
Rodrigo Evangelista
Jacopo Petrucci

Percussion
Nolan Ehlers
Liese-Lotte Bekaert
Rik Baeyens
Edoardo Parente

Synchro Team
Sarah Grace Graves
Tom De Cock
Boštjan Antončič
Johanne Saunier

Musical coaching
Tom De Cock
Jean-Luc Plouvier

by permission of
Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.

Music
Louis Andriessen: Hoketus (1976)

Choreographed by
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Created with
José Paulo dos Santos, Lav Crnčević, Boštjan Antončič, Johanne Saunier

Danced by
José Paulo dos Santos, Lav Crnčević

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HOKETUS [dance version + concert version] — Ictus