Ultima Vez was founded in 1986 as the company and organisation of choreographer, director and filmmaker Wim Vandekeybus. Since its foundation, Ultima Vez has intensively developed its activities as an international contemporary dance company with a strong base in Brussels and Flanders.

Currently the activities of Ultima Vez are focussed around:
- the creation, production, distribution and promotion of the artistic work of Wim Vandekeybus
- the organisation of educational activities for various target groups
- the support and counselling of choreographers through the European Network Jardin d'europe

What the Body Does Not Remember

The debut of Wim Vandekeybus and Ultima Vez in 1987 stunned the world of dance of the time. In New York Vandekeybus and composers Thierry de Mey and Peter Vermeersch received the prestigious Bessie Award for this ‘brutal confrontation of dance and music: the dangerous, combative landscape of What the Body Does Not Remember’. In 2013, 25 years later and with a new cast, the show once again goes on a world tour.

Vandekeybus’ first choreography balances on the razor edge of attraction and repulsion. Sometimes this results in a confrontation between two dancers, then between two groups, between dancers and music, and between dancers and a compelling set of lines. But throughout there is an explosion of aggression, fear and danger.

Wim Vandekeybus: “The intensity of moments when you don’t have a choice, when other things decide for you, like falling in love, or the second before the accident that has to happen; suddenly they appear, with no introduction, important for me because of their extremeness rather than for the significance to be given to them. The decision to use this as a basic material for a theatrical composition is at least a paradoxical challenge, considering a theatrical event as repeatable and controllable. Perhaps when all is said and done, the body doesn’t remember either and everything is a subtle illusion of lack which helps to define or exhaust the game.”