A Love Supreme

When I learned that Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's choreography to A Love Supreme was touring, I tried to get tickets to the performances at New York Live Arts. Unfortunately, the tickets were already sold out. I was able to get tickets to a matinee on September 24 at Fringe Arts in Philadelphia. On Coltrane's birthday (Sept 23), I took a red eye with my son and we arrived just before the performance began.

The piece is danced by four males, each representing one of the musicians in the John Coltrane quartet. First, in silence, the four dancers push, pull, lift, and hold each other. This choreography is reprised during the final movement of the music. Before the music starts, the dancer representing Coltrane performs a silent solo, standing still in various locations, as if contemplating the creation of the music to come.

When the music begins, every sound and solo is mirrored in the movement. After Elvin's solo that sets up "Pursuance," the audience erupted into applause.