Dancers said De Keersmaeker, a “godmother of contemporary dance,” ran her company in a tyrannical style that endangered staff members’ health.
New projects from the star choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker are always highly anticipated. But with her dance company touring Europe, a cloud has hung over her.
In June, more than 20 former dancers and staff members in her company, Rosas, said De Keersmaeker had bullied and body-shamed employees, and endangered their health by ignoring Covid-19 rules. Speaking anonymously to the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, they said that De Keersmaeker ruled the organization in an authoritarian way; that approach might have been commonplace in the dance world of the 1980s when De Keersmaeker came to prominence, they said, but it was no longer acceptable.
“She can really make you feel like you’re worthless,” a dancer said in De Standaard.
On Tuesday, during a lecture in Ghent, Belgium, she give her first public comments about the complaints.
“I embrace the idea that the leadership style that people expect today involves more open dialogue, and more awareness of — and respect for — everyone’s limits,” said De Keersmaeker, 64, according to a transcript published Thursday on her company’s website.
“I want to offer my apologies to all the people I have disappointed and hurt,” she said.
A spokeswoman for De Keersmaeker declined an interview request on Friday and said the company would not comment on specific accusations. After De Standaard published its investigation in June, Rosas issued a statement that said: “Healing conversations, which we are always willing to have, must take place in a safe and confidential environment where there is room for nuance and empathy.” The company was introducing a “well-being working group,” the statement added.
In recent years, a series of scandals have rocked the dance world in Europe and America, with stars and company leaders increasingly being called out on charges ranging from bullying to ineptitude to sexual harassment. Filip Tielens, the culture editor at De Standaard, said that the accusations against De Keersmaeker were part of a “new wave of accountability.”
Share
Print
