Pina Bausch Rite of Spring, performed by the English National Ballet

Pina Bausch has done famous performance intitled, the RITE OF SPRINNG, 1975. Bausch imagined the Rite of Spring as a sacrificial ritual, in which a group of young women and a group of young men collide, scatter, thump, roil and grab until one girl is chosen to wear a red dress and dance herself to death. We don’t know why she must die, but she does. On a stage of soil, 13 male and 13 female artists dance the selection and sacrifice of a terrified victim as a rite to mark the arrival of spring.

When I saw this performance what inspired me was how the dirt made the performance so raw, it removed any location and drew u into the performance. The women all began in cream dresses however the performance continues they began to become brown and splattered with soil, their crevasses on their feet became filled with soil and simultaneously their movement became more intense. They were possessed by these ritualistic characters and the commitment was so empowering, each night one would be chosen to dance to their death. The night in which I watched it the girl who was chosen was so committed to the performance she was doing that both of her breasts fell out her dress, yet she did not stop, even when she was half naked in front of an audience the commitment and passion caused her to continue in such a powerful and beautiful way.

This aligned with the way we were working, we placed these pure and untouched figures into a messy, visceral and expressive environment. Their positions got manipulated by the background and they began to tell a story.

design for theatre, screen and performance

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