Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Radouan Mriziga / Rosas, A7LA5: Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Radouan Mriziga bring Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione to the Walker Art Center on April 16 and 17, 2027. Both nights start at 7:30 PM in the McGuire Theater. It's a contemporary dance piece that takes Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and turns it into something else entirely.

De Keersmaeker is a Belgian formalist and one of the most celebrated contemporary choreographers working today. For this one, she's teamed up with Radouan Mriziga, a rising Moroccan-Belgian star. They've worked together before—on 3ird5 @ W9rk back in 2020—and they share a fascination with nature, geometry, and embodied abstraction, as well as our changing relationship with the natural environment. That's the ground they're standing on here.

The piece starts with a recording by violinist Amandine Beyer and her ensemble Gli Incogniti, long-time collaborators of De Keersmaeker's company, Rosas. The choreography follows the structure of Vivaldi's composition but runs as a counterpoint to it, rather than just dancing along. Four male dancers carry the work—Boštjan Antončič, Nassim Baddag, Lav Crnčević, and José Paulo dos Santos—and the whole thing leans into the associations and emotions the masterpiece has spent centuries evoking. L'Echo described it as "Vivaldi like you've never seen before."

Along with the music, the performance incorporates poems by Asmaa Jama, titled We, the salvage. The showing is copresented with Northrop as part of the Walker's 2026-27 Performing Arts Season. A heads-up: flashing lights occur during the show. Tickets start at $25.