THE RITE OF SPRING

Year & Context

1999 / 2000

Original Production

About the Production

“The butcher does not follow the economy of killing. He wants to feel what he does. — The meaning of excess is the act itself, the blood feast.”

— Wolfgang Sofsky, Die Zeit, 1998

In 1913, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps provoked a riot at its Paris premiere – the audience whistled, shouted, brawled. One year later, the First World War began. What had seemed an artistic affront proved a portent. With The Rite of Spring, Theater der Klänge confronted VIOLENCE as the defining theme of the closing twentieth century – against the backdrop of Kosovo and the daily news of collective killing. The TdK did not stage the original, but created a new work: portions of the Stravinsky score – both the four-hand piano version and orchestral recordings – were combined with two new compositions by J.U. Lensing into an evening that brought together actionist theatre, dance, and music to form a single image of violence.

Joachim Schlömer – a founding member of TdK in 1987 and by 1999 director of Tanztheater Basel – returned for The Rite of Spring. His solo choreography for the Dance of the Maiden was the dramaturgical centrepiece; a project he had carried with him since the founding years of TdK. The remaining choreographies were developed by Kerstin Hörner and J.U. Lensing in close collaboration with the full ensemble of eleven performers.

The premiere took place on 2 December 1999 at Forum Freies Theater (Juta) in Düsseldorf. The production then toured Germany: Stadttheater Landsberg, ZAKK Düsseldorf, Theaterhaus Köln. In 2000 the work was revived, with guest performances at Bauhaus Dessau and return appearances at FFT-Juta.

Supported by: State of North Rhine-Westphalia · Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf · Stiftung van Meeteren