Dancers migrate across the stage from large circle walking patterns to sharp shifting diagonals to frenetic activity at various locations by subgroups of dancers. A formalist study in patterns of grouping and regrouping, pointillist dots in an impressionist painting. Flinging hair, a hand cupping a breast, pulling the shirt off the shoulder and then covering up again. Sexually frustrated schoolgirl inmates moving in unison and canon. Here, all women.
Movement occurs through various rooms of a huge abandoned warehouse.
You see the dancers inside, outside, through windows, and behind walls. What's interesting about de Keersmaeker's film work is that the repetitive, unison movements actually help focus the piece as a whole. What seems monotonous on stage helps ground her work in film, giving the viewer a fixed element in a volatile environment. In a quartet where the same 8-count phrase is repeated over and over again, the camera actually shifts locale, both panning the action and cropping it in quick takes. Sometimes the cut occurs as often as every two musical beats.