EIF 2023 The Rite of Spring Common Ground(s) Playhouse Theatre 18th August Review
Photo Credit Maarten-Vanden-Abeele
The Rite of Spring/Common Ground(s) at the Playhouse Theatre tonight is a collaborative duo of works by Pina Bausch Foundation, Ecole des Sables and Sadler’s Wells that features one new work and a very unique interpretation of a now considered classic combination of dance and music.
When Igor Stravinsky was recruited by Diaghilev to create works for the Ballets Russes he was a then fairly unknown composer and this his third work for the company, Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) written for the Paris season in 1913 contained many new musical ideas and motifs. Here in this work Stravinsky is creating new sounds by use of tonality, rhythm, metre, dissonance and stress. As so often is the case with anything new, many members of the public hated both his music and the choreography of the ballet. Time of course is always the final judge of everything and today his music for the The Rite of Spring and the ballet itself are favourites across the world.
It is completely appropriate that another visionary pioneer, German choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009) should have turned her attention to this work and created something very individual whilst still retaining the music and the essence of the original source material.
This production takes Pina Bausch’s vision and choreography one stage further and for the first time The Rite of Spring is performed by dancers from 14 African countries. As this large company of 32 dancers on stage bring an ancient ritual of bidding goodbye to winter and celebrating the advent of spring on a carefully prepared earth covered stage, there is that feeling of timelessness somehow taking you back to something that is almost instinctive within us all, that wonder of nature and the seasons of the year. There is also of course that terror of what would happen if winter never gave way to spring. Here something very old, very primitive, is always in sharp contrast to the modernity (particularly in 1913) of Stravinsky’s music.
The choreography for this Rite of Spring, freed from its classical origins, allows the dancers to almost merge with this music and become one with a ritual that demands a price be paid for the safe delivery of everyone out of winter’s clutches, a young girl to be selected as a sacrifice who will literally dance herself to death. In this work, that terror of who might be selected to become the “Chosen One” is something that the movement of the dance conveys perfectly, and finally when the selection is made this young girl’s realisation that her young life will soon be over is a very emotional moment in this production.
The opening work, Common Ground(s) features two dancers who over their long careers have both left their very distinctive legacies to the world of dance, Germaine Acogny, the ‘mother of contemporary African dance’ and Malou Airaudo, a dancer who has performed many leading roles in Pina Bausch’s early works.
This work is the duo’s first collaboration and is a tender look at the many things that we do have in common with other people, often not even realising at the time, and as so often happens these unexpected connections can often lead to life-long friendships. This work at first glance appears to be doing very little, the sun rises in the morning, its red/pink hues giving way to the blue sky of the day and two people just go about their day.
This, however, is the power of this work for me, just letting the day go by and enjoying the company of people around you and discovering and sharing the many things that we have in common.
During their respective careers these two dancers have also realised that they too have had many “Common Ground(s)”, and were often unaware at the time of these connections.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
When Igor Stravinsky was recruited by Diaghilev to create works for the Ballets Russes he was a then fairly unknown composer and this his third work for the company, Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) written for the Paris season in 1913 contained many new musical ideas and motifs. Here in this work Stravinsky is creating new sounds by use of tonality, rhythm, metre, dissonance and stress. As so often is the case with anything new, many members of the public hated both his music and the choreography of the ballet. Time of course is always the final judge of everything and today his music for the The Rite of Spring and the ballet itself are favourites across the world.
It is completely appropriate that another visionary pioneer, German choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009) should have turned her attention to this work and created something very individual whilst still retaining the music and the essence of the original source material.
This production takes Pina Bausch’s vision and choreography one stage further and for the first time The Rite of Spring is performed by dancers from 14 African countries. As this large company of 32 dancers on stage bring an ancient ritual of bidding goodbye to winter and celebrating the advent of spring on a carefully prepared earth covered stage, there is that feeling of timelessness somehow taking you back to something that is almost instinctive within us all, that wonder of nature and the seasons of the year. There is also of course that terror of what would happen if winter never gave way to spring. Here something very old, very primitive, is always in sharp contrast to the modernity (particularly in 1913) of Stravinsky’s music.
The choreography for this Rite of Spring, freed from its classical origins, allows the dancers to almost merge with this music and become one with a ritual that demands a price be paid for the safe delivery of everyone out of winter’s clutches, a young girl to be selected as a sacrifice who will literally dance herself to death. In this work, that terror of who might be selected to become the “Chosen One” is something that the movement of the dance conveys perfectly, and finally when the selection is made this young girl’s realisation that her young life will soon be over is a very emotional moment in this production.
The opening work, Common Ground(s) features two dancers who over their long careers have both left their very distinctive legacies to the world of dance, Germaine Acogny, the ‘mother of contemporary African dance’ and Malou Airaudo, a dancer who has performed many leading roles in Pina Bausch’s early works.
This work is the duo’s first collaboration and is a tender look at the many things that we do have in common with other people, often not even realising at the time, and as so often happens these unexpected connections can often lead to life-long friendships. This work at first glance appears to be doing very little, the sun rises in the morning, its red/pink hues giving way to the blue sky of the day and two people just go about their day.
This, however, is the power of this work for me, just letting the day go by and enjoying the company of people around you and discovering and sharing the many things that we have in common.
During their respective careers these two dancers have also realised that they too have had many “Common Ground(s)”, and were often unaware at the time of these connections.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com