The Rite of Spring
and common ground[s]
Pina Bausch + Ecole des Sables + Sadler’s Wells
Pina Bausch's iconic version of Le Sacre du Printemps with music by Stravinsky is performed in a new version with dancers from 14 African countries. Along with Le Sacre du Printemps, Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo will perform their creation common ground[s] in the spirit of Pina Bausch.
"How would you dance, if you knew you were going to die?" asked the choreographer Pina Bausch her dancers in 1975, when she created her version of The Rite of Spring in 1975, where a young woman is sacrificed so spring can arrive.
Pina Bausch is considered one of the most important choreographers of the 20th century. During her lifetime, she obtained cult status when she, with great success, created a new genre in the field between dance and theater at Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany. The Rite of Spring, with its iconic choreography and Igor Stravinsky’s music, is among her best pieces.
Østre Gasværk Teater
29. september – 3. oktober 2021
DURATION: 90 min.
including one intermission
The Rite of Spring
This two-part programme marks the first collaboration between the contemporary dance company École des Sables, Pina Bausch Foundation and Sadler's Wells. For the first time Pina Bausch's The Rite of Springis performed by African dancers. "When I first heard the Stravinsky music, I felt it was an African rite", says the co-founder of École des Sables, Germaine Acogny. During København Danser, the company’s version of the famous sacrificial ritual unfolds dramatically, when dancers from fourteen African countries welcome spring on a stage covered in soil.
common ground[s]
Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo have created the piece common ground[s].
Germaine Acogny is the leader of École des Sables, while Malou Airaudo was among the original dancers from Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal. Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo are over 70 years old today but the two legendary women are both performing on stage in common ground[s]. In the piece, they mirror themselves in each other despite their diverse experiences in life. In the encounter between Europe and Africa, Pina Bausch and African dance, the women's stories are united based on their common experiences as choreographers, dancers and mothers.
Credits
The Rite of Spring
Pina Bausch
The Rite of Spring
Choreography: Pina Bausch
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Set design and costumes: Rolf Borzik
Collaboration: Hans Pop
World premiere: 3. December 1975, Wuppertal
2020-restaging
Artistic Directors: Josephine Ann Endicott, Jorge Puerta Armenta
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Rehearsal Directors: Clémentine Deluy, Çağdaş Ermiş, Ditta Miranda Jasjfi, Barbara Kaufmann, Julie Shanahan, Kenji Takagi
common ground[s]
Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo
common ground[s]
Choreography: Germaine Acogny, Malou Airaudo
Composer: Fabrice Bouillon LaForest
Costume Designer: Petra Leidner
Lighting Designer: Zeynep Kepekli
Dramaturg: Sophiatou Kossoko
A Pina Bausch Foundation, École des Sables & Sadler’s Wells production, co-produced with Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Holland Festival, Amsterdam; Festspielhaus, St Pölten; Ludwigsburg Festival; Teatros del Canal de la Comunidad de Madrid, Adelaide Festival and Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi. The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the International Coproduction Fund of the Goethe-Institut, and kindly supported by the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
