The anarchic energy and haunting melodies of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" have fascinated generations of dancers and choreographers since the ballet's première, for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, in 1913. That first version, by Vaslav Nijinsky, caused a riot. Decades later, in 1975, Pina Bausch took on the score, creating a work in which men and women tear at one another in a combination of terror and attraction, dancing on a floor of dirt that gradually sticks to their bodies. The climax is a punishing sacrificial dance by a woman in a red dress. In the vast space of the Park Avenue Armory, Bausch's "The Rite of Spring" (Nov. 29-Dec. 14) is performed by a company of dancers from across Africa, who rehearsed the work at École des Sables, in Senegal. It is paired with "common ground[s]," a duet for the École's co-founder Germaine Acogny-a towering figure in African dance and Malou Airaudo, one of Bausch's early collaborators.-Marina Harss
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This story is from the December 04, 2023 edition of The New Yorker.
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This story is from the December 04, 2023 edition of The New Yorker.
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