Dance Artists Explore Minimalism in Movement

Choreographers Nacera Belaza, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Noé Soulier strip down dance at the Dance Reflections festival

Published on Mar. 9, 2026

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At the Dance Reflections festival, three choreographers - Nacera Belaza, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Noé Soulier - attempted to go back to the basics of dance by paring down their movement vocabularies. The results varied, with Belaza's "La Nuée" emerging as the strongest work through its focused, ritualistic exploration of spinning and circling motifs, while De Keersmaeker's "Exit Above" and Soulier's "The Waves" struggled to find cohesion in their more fragmented approaches.

Why it matters

The festival showcased different choreographers' attempts to strip dance down to its essential elements, highlighting the challenges and rewards of this minimalist approach. The varying degrees of success illuminate the fine line between purity and stagnation when reducing movement to its most fundamental components.

The details

Nacera Belaza's "La Nuée" was the standout, with dancers revolving around an empty center in a whirlpool-like motion, sometimes spinning dervish-style. The piece used theatrical lighting and sound design to focus attention. In contrast, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's "Exit Above" started with simple walking before descending into "spastic activity and selfie-style mugging," while Noé Soulier's "The Waves" presented an incomplete, interrupted exploration of gesture that failed to find a consistent rhythmic continuity.

  • The Dance Reflections festival took place last week.

The players

Nacera Belaza

A choreographer whose work "La Nuée" was a standout at the festival, using focused, ritualistic spinning and circling motifs.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

A prominent choreographer whose work "Exit Above" started with simple walking but descended into fragmented, unfocused movement.

Noé Soulier

A choreographer whose work "The Waves" presented an incomplete, interrupted exploration of gesture that failed to find a consistent rhythmic continuity.

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What they’re saying

“Let's go for a walk,”

— Meskerem Mees, Flemish singer-songwriter (New York Times)

The takeaway

The Dance Reflections festival highlighted the challenges and rewards of the minimalist approach to dance, with Nacera Belaza's "La Nuée" emerging as a successful translation of ritual into a focused, cohesive black-box experience, while the works of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Noé Soulier struggled to find the right balance between purity and engagement.