Stream: The Rite of Spring

I eagerly awaited the YouTube screening of this interpretation. Stravinsky is my ultimate composer and I was quite content to listen to Scottish Ballet’s fine orchestra alone.  His eight note harmonies, bi-tonal chords and fanfares seem to get under the skin of old dancers like myself. But it was composed specifically for the Ballet Russe with choreography by Nijinsky. The opening night in 1913 caused a riot with people shouting and booing. They were expecting tutus, grand melodic music, and beautiful ballerinas. Instead they got ‘Knock-kneed Lolita’s’ (Stravinsky!) and peasants in ugly smocks. This was the beginning of modern ballet. I was familiar with the production from the Royal Ballet by Kenneth Macmillan, where Monica Mason was plucked from the corps to play the chosen one. Although revolutionary it still had a large cast and evoked Russian Circassian circles and primitive rituals. 

So, what to make of Christopher Hampson’s interpretation premiered in 2017? A cast of three and a simple white circular backdrop.  Two brothers performing daily rituals but with an implied tension. The arrival of a single woman in white – Faith. This is a violent relationship with one brother dominating the younger into submission. The dance of the adolescents. Then the transition into imprisonment, torture, and ritual sacrifice. The same woman arrives now in black – Death.  

Running just thirty-five minutes the stamina of the two male dancers is something to wonder at. You are repulsed by the treatment of the younger by the older as he throws him against the wall when he tries to escape, then places a black hood over him kicking the stool from under him. The choreography is visceral and exciting matching the physicality and interpretation of the two brothers.  

This is violence translated into the modern world. This is Fauda!

Available for free on YouTube until 30th of June.