Drumming

This book documents more than 20 years of performances of Drumming, a world-renowned dance piece on music by Steve Reich, through beautiful photography.​

Drumming is a widely admired dance piece choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (b. 1960), set to music by the minimalist composer Steve Reich and featuring costumes by Dries Van Noten, that has been performed continuously around the world since its debut in 1998.  It is celebrated for its synthesis of an exceptionally refined structure with an expression of the sheer joy of dancing.  Over the 22 years that this piece has been performed, photographers Herman Sorgeloos and Anne Van Aerschot have documented it.  This book showcases their outstanding photographic archive, offering a unique view into the aesthetics of this piece. Mathematically precise movement, sustained repetition, geometric use of performance space, and continuous variation are qualities—epitomized in Drumming—that have all become hallmarks of De Keersmaeker’s celebrated oeuvre.


Distributed for Mercatorfonds