Pace University to Welcome Ultima Vez, Performing WHAT THE BODY DOES NOT REMEMBER, 3/22-23

Pace Presents announces the arrival of the Ultima Vez, a Belgium-based dance company currently embarking on a US Tour to the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts for a two-evening engagement, Friday March 22 & Saturday March 23 at 7:30pm. The company will perform What the Body Does Not Remember which Artistic Director Wim Vandekeybus debuted with Ultima Vez in 1987, stunning the dance world at the time winning a Bessie for this "brutal confrontation of dance and music." In 2013, 25 years later and with a new cast, the show once again is on a world tour.

Vandekeybus describes What the Body Does Not Remember as "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 is about 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."

What the Body Does Not Remember balances on the razor edge of attraction and repulsion. Sometimes this results in 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.

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

Wim Vandekeybus is director, choreographer, actor and photographer. After having worked for two years with Jan Fabre, he created his own working structure Ultima Vez in 1986. His first performance What the Body Does Not Remember (1987) was soon being presented on international stages. In 1988, Wim Vandekeybus received the Bessie Award in New York for this production, which was credited "a brutal confrontation of dance and music".

Vandekeybus then created Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles (1989), The Weight of a Hand (1990) and Immer das Selbe gelogen (1991). Her Body Doesn't Fit her Soul followed in 1993. For this production Wim Vandekeybus collaborated with non-seeing dancers for the first time.

From this moment onwards film became a constant value in Vandekeybus' work. A film and short stories by Paul Bowles and Milorad Pavic, constituted the theme for Mountains Made of Barking (1994). Wim Vandekeybus later created, among others, Bereft of a Blissful Union (1996), 7 for a Secret never to be told (1997), In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (1999) and "Inasmuch as Life is borrowed..." (2000)

For Scratching the Inner Fields (2001) Vandekeybus collaborated with the Flemish author Peter Verhelst, a collaboration that was continued for Blush (2002) and Sonic Boom (2003).

PUUR (2005) was presented in open-air at several occasions amongst which in the beautiful setting of de Quarry of Boulbon during the Festival d'Avignon.

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his company Ultima Vez, Wim Vandekeybus created Spiegel (2006), a composed evening with remarkable scenes from the work of the company. That same year premièred Nightshade an was Quiebro created. Menske, with original music by the Belgian pop-/rock artist Daan, followed in 2007.

After the about-turn he did in nieuwZwart (2009), in his latest creation, the movie performance Monkey Sandwich (2010), Wim Vandekeybus is again taking a new direction. His work has always been a fusion of music, dance, theatre and film, and in 2010 the focus was definitely on the last.

Besides the short films and film & video fragments that are part of his performances, Vandekeybus has also directed several video adaptations of his dance productions: Roseland (1990), La Mentira (1992), In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (2002), Blush (2005) and Here After (2007). His short films as well as these dance films are also much acclaimed in the art and short film circuit. At the moment he his working on his first feature film wich will be shot in South-Africa in 2012.

Ticket prices for Ultima Vez at The Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University range from $30 to $55. Student rush tickets available day of performance with valid student ID. The performances will take place on Friday March 22 and Saturday March 23 at 7:30pm.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://schimmel.pace.edu or call toll-free (866) 811-4111. Pace Presents performances take place at The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts located at 3 Spruce Street between Park Row and Gold Street in downtown Manhattan.

Located one block east of City Hall and immediately adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge, The Schimmel Center's 670-seat theatre regularly hosts academic and community events in addition to its yearly schedule of the world's finest music, theatre and dance. Over the past twelve years, The Schimmel Center has served as a founding venue for The River-to-River Festival (2002), hosted both The Tribeca Film Festival and The Tribeca Theatre Festival (2001), provided a headquarters for The National Actors Theatre (2002 to 2004), presented the only Democratic Presidential Debate to present all ten candidates for the 2004 election, and actively hosts James Lipton's award-winning Bravo series Inside The Actors Studio, taped on the Schimmel Theatre's stage since 2005.

For more than 100 years, Pace University has helped prepare students to become leaders in their fields by providing an education that combines exceptional academics with professional experience. Pace has three campuses in New York City, Westchester and White Plains. A private metropolitan university, Pace enrolls approximately 13,500 students in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, via its rapidly growing Performing Arts Department, Lienhard School of Nursing, Lubin School of Business, School of Education, Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems and School of Law.