THE RITE OF SPRING
POLISH NATIONAL BALLET (2011)
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the Polish National Ballet organised a whole program focusing on Igor Stravinsky’s masterpiece THE RITE OF SPRING. Combining three distinct adaptations of the same piece – Millicent Hodson’s reconstruction of Nijinsky’s original choreography from 1913, Maurice Béjarts iconic version from 1959 and Emanuel Gat’s celebrated interpretation from 2004 – in one evening, director Krzysztof Pastor presented an homage both challenging and powerful.
Photos of THE RITE OF SPRING by Ewa Krasucka
It’s a kind of stunt, hearing in the ritual sacrifice of Stravinsky’s score the ritual of a crowded dance floor in which three women and two men engage in the Möbius-strip partnering of salsa and swing dancing. This reading of the score, if perverse and diminishing, is almost entirely persuasive — as it was when Mr. Gat’s company first brought the work to New York in 2006.