11 April 2018 (Wed), 19:30 World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera - Mariinsky II (New Theatre) - Modern Ballet Evening of one-act ballets: Igor Stravinsky "Le Sacre du printemps" choreography by Sasha Waltz."Symphony in Three Movements" choreography by Radu Poklitaru
Running time: 2 hours (till 21:30)
Schedule for Evening of one-act ballets: Igor Stravinsky "Le Sacre du printemps" choreography by Sasha Waltz."Symphony in Three Movements" choreography by Radu Poklitaru 2022
Composer: Igor Stravinsky Musical Director: Maestro Valery Gergiev Choreography: Sasha Waltz Lighting Designer: Thilo Reuther Lighting Designer: Alexander Sivaev
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra Ballet company: Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet
an
evening of ballets to music by Igor Stravinsky
Symphony in Three
Movements
Music by Igor Stravinsky Choreography by
Radu Poklitaru Set and Costume Designer: Anna Matison Lighting Designer:
Alexander Sivaev Video Graphics Designer: Alexander Kravchenko Assistant
Choreographer: Sergei Kon
Premiere: 30 December 2015, Mariinsky Theatre
Sacre
Music by Igor Stravinsky Musical Director:
Valery Gergiev Choreographer: Sasha Waltz Costume Designer: Bernd
Skodzig Stage Designers: Pia Maier Schriever, Sasha Waltz Lighting
Designer: Thilo Reuther Assistant Choreographers: Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio
Esnaola, Luc Dunberry, Antonio Ruz and Yael Schnell
Co-production by Sasha Waltz & Guests GmbH and the Mariinsky
Theatre
Premiere of the ballet with choreography by Sasha Waltz: 13 May
2013, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Running time: 40 minutes
Basically I focus on ancient rituals and the wisdom and the
knowledge of wise men, as well as the history of the matriarch. I am also very
interested in society’s relationship with nature. I always take a long time with
any new production, the concept “hovers” around me but I never start to work
until I have a very clear idea. In this production I want to speak about the
relationship between society and the individual and how they interact in
specific situations – such as having one person forced to sacrifice herself so
that society can continue to exist. Rituals are also very cyclical – they
celebrate the return of the cycle of nature and the universe, the stars… This is
very important to me – you have, on one hand, the ritual, the cycle, nature, but
also the relationships within the group – the community or society – and the
individual. On the one hand I wanted to emphasise the music and, on the other, I
didn’t want to yield to it. The music itself is incredibly powerful, so I needed
to keep my “universe” independent so that it can stand alone. That’s how you get
a dialogue – not just following the music. In my productions everything is free
– both the dance and the music. They are two very independent art forms and they
should not be enslaved to each other.
Sasha Waltz
The century-long life of Stravinsky’s ballet has resulted in
the polyphonic quality of the ideas it contains. But the animalistic nature, the
frenzy and the passion which those who interpret Le Sacre du printemps have
generally been fed is not what attracts Waltz. She looks at Stravinsky’s score
with the interest and detachment of a professional biologist, and it is not just
the case that you have to look at her production – you want to look at it as
well, making sense of the constructions which are not always clear.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
Sasha Waltz’ production even amazes to start with because of
its asceticism. There is the black box of the stage without wings. In the middle
there is a great heap of cinders – the dancers run and jump through it and over
it, raising clouds of dust. The main conflict in Sasha Waltz’ Sacre is a group
of people against an individual. There is also, of course, the theme of nature
awakening – a nature that is evil and violent, aggressive and
defenceless.
Kommersant
The history behind Le Sacre du printemps is the
story of a challenge. Stravinsky’s music, which totally transformed views of
composition technique and proved to be a breakthrough to new possibilities in
music, was a challenge to the entire world’s professional experience. Nijinsky’s
choreography with its approach to movement, its lack of correlation about the
traditional ballet image of what is expressed and depicted heralded a new stage
in the development of dance. The choreographer was drawn by the nature of
ritual, the force of feeling the coming of spring and the terror of the
insoluble and secret universe – the comprehension of the not so much externally
formal components as the energetic message of the event. The rejection of the
typical beauty of ballet was a challenge to refined audiences and the
aestheticism of the World of Art. Since the premiere on 30 May 1913, when the
audience was not ready for such a huge leap forwards, this challenge has
remained an integral part of people’s ideas about Le Sacre du printemps. Each
subsequent dance version of the score has been connected with the expectation of
radical innovation. And the most significant of some two hundred dance versions
of Le Sacrehave provided revelations. Le Sacre du printemps proved to be a
driving force in dance in the 20th century. For any choreographer of the
21st century creating their own Sacre, the importance of the great productions
of their predecessors and their significance on the world scale makes citations
all but inevitable. Sasha Waltz’s production also includes numerous references
to masterpieces of the past. In creating her own version in the year of the
work’s centenary, Waltz did not abandon the recognisable steps and leaps of the
characters in Nijinsky’s ritualistic plot, seemingly so ridiculous to audiences
in the early 20th century. In her Sacre one can also see recollections of Pina
Bausch’s cult production – earth scattered on the stage and the striking dress
in which the victim is “marked out”. Sasha Waltz, in using brief reminiscent
symbols that remind us of themes touched on in earlier productions, has created
her own story within the context of the ideas of those who came before her.
Her story is about human society. From the initial and serene harmony of
Adam and Eve it comes to chaos and the necessity of a victim. And the mound of
earth in the centre of the stage in the first scene is a kind of embodiment of
nature, inherent harmony which will be trampled upon. On the other hand, this
mound of earth is a reminder of the inevitability of sacrifice and death, as the
sacrificial stake or the sword is slowly lowered over them during the
performance – a sacrificial emblem. Waltz does not separate any of society’s
worries or aggressions. The performers in her production depict various social
groups: couples, families, mankind in general. But that doesn’t bring harmony,
it doesn’t stop the cruelty. The women who carry the thread of life, as if
sensing the power that nature has given them, come together – here we see the
motif of the battle of the sexes. Whatever society anyone may belong to
resistance is inherent in human society’s forms, and independent of how society
is structured there are inevitable and powerful shocks that Sasha Waltz
expresses in movement: an organised mass that repeats one and the same movement
in monotones, “expresses” and disperses in the chaos of individuals’ movements.
The cataclysms that are experienced bring suffering to all – including children
(Waltz includes some children in her narrative). In order to save and cure
society a sacrifice must be made. Waltz heard anxiety in Stravinsky’s rhythm
and in her reading of the score of Le Sacre, following the cyclical nature of
the music, she supercharges this anxiety with the composition and graphic
position of the ensemble (the crowd is the main character in her production),
the kaleidoscopic changes of distinct geometric structures against the
background of the confusing chaos of worry, there is anxiety and there are
nervous “sparks” in the movements. Just like Pina Bausch, the German Sasha Waltz
depicts numerous accidental victims of aggression. She does not justify society.
Yet her production of Le Sacre, as with Stravinsky and as Nijinsky
conceived, remains a spring of hope for revival. This is not the optimism of
Béjart’s Sacre with its hymn of love and belief in the power of unity. There is
a victim who dies in the finale of Waltz’ version. She is not a chance victim of
nature – she is sought out and pitied. She is one of that society and turns out
to be resistant to it – she is the individual facing the masses. Her final
monologue is a powerful energetic explosion which brings hope with the sheer
power of its temper. All of the incandescent energy built up throughout the plot
bursts out in this “final word”, and its power is bewitching, bringing us – if
not to catharsis – to amazement at the power Sasha Waltz has managed to recreate
on the stage. Olga Makarova
Schedule for Evening of one-act ballets: Igor Stravinsky "Le Sacre du printemps" choreography by Sasha Waltz."Symphony in Three Movements" choreography by Radu Poklitaru 2022
Extract from the ballet "Le Sacre du printemps" |
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About This Video 08:19 Extract from the ballet "Le Sacre du printemps"
New Mariinsky theatre,St. Petersburg, Russia
Conductor - Valery Gergiev
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