Touch Tour at 7pm.

Joyful, graceful and overwhelmingly beautiful, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rain is a powerfully emotional dance creation set to Steve Reich’s iconic minimalist masterpiece Music for 18 Musicians.

Ten dancers trace intricate spirals, circles and lines across a bare stage, their space defined only by a curtain of fine strings. Weaving together a complex tapestry of movements, their gestures shift, interlock and overlap, accompanied by the unstoppable momentum of Reich’s pulsations.

With her exceptional company Rosas, revered Belgian choreographer De Keersmaeker made her name with startling dance theatre works combining narrative, drama, text and music. But in Rain, she returns to the simple purity of dance as form and movement. First performed in 2001 to wild acclaim, Rain is now revived with fresh perspectives from an entirely new team of ten young dancers.

De Keersmaeker has long held a profound love for the music of Steve Reich, which she has choreographed in works including Pendulum Music and Drumming, seen at the 2008 International Festival. She finds a potent dance equivalent for Reich’s hypnotic repetitions in her elegant choreography, weaving together anarchy and tight control – and Rain’s huge emotional impact mirrors the arc of moods across Reich’s shimmering score.

Hugely popular with audiences, and equally adored by critics and academics, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is at once a dance pioneer and an entertainer, a major world figure whose shows can make you think and feel at the same time. Her iconic Rain is an unbridled expression of joy – in all its physical immediacy.