De Keersmaeker wins Austrian Cross of Honour

Contemporary dance legend Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is receiving the Cross of Honour for Science and Arts in Vienna today, which will be given to her by the Austrian minister for arts and culture, Josef Ostermayer.

De Keersmaeker (pictured) and the Rosas dance company have a long-running relationship with Austria, including 25 choreographies for ImPulsTanz, Vienna’s international dance festival. De Keersmaeker received the award of Golden Order of Merit from Vienna in 2011.

The award citation refers to the Belgian choreographer as “one of the most influential choreographers of our time,” renowned for her “exceptional sensitivity for the relationship between movement and music”.

De Keersmaeker, 54, launched Rosas in Brussels in 1983, shortly after her international breakthrough with the work Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich. She founded the dance school PARTS in 1994.

She has historically worked closely with Brussels’ Kaaitheater and was resident in opera house De Munt from 1992 to 2007. Among other awards during her illustrious career, she was named a Baroness by former king Albert II in 1996 and won the prize for overall cultural services from the Flemish government in 2012.

photo by Anne Van Aerschot