The Rite of Spring/common ground[s] | Adelaide Festival 2022 review

In this coming of Spring there are no nymphs and shepherds, rather a violent, pagan ceremony. It’s stunning.

Dancers from 14 African countries in Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring. Picture: Andrew Beveridge, supplied

The Rite of Spring / common ground[s]

Dance | Germany, Senegal & UK

Rating:

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

Her Majesty’s Theatre

Until March 6

Senegalese dancer and choreographer Germaine Acogny has been called the grande dame – and by many, the founder – of contemporary African dance.

Her technique stands alongside that of many other 20th century greats, and adds to them by having a very particular focus on the spine.

As she says, that’s “the place where movement starts”.

When Acogny heard Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, she instantly thought of African rites, and in partnership with the Pina Bausch Foundation, has recreated Bausch’s celebrated, seminal choreography of 1975.

Adelaide Festival 2022. Dancers from 14 African countries in Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring. Picture: Andrew Beveridge, supplied

The result is simply extraordinary, and it was no surprise that the audience shot to its feet at the tumultuous, thundering final chord.

In this celebration of the coming of Spring there are no nymphs and shepherds, rather a violent, pagan ceremony in which a young woman – a girl, in fact – is chosen as a sacrificial victim and is literally danced to death.

The brutality of the rite is ever-present, and often makes for uncomfortable viewing at a time in history when misogyny and objectification are rightly front and centre.

It needs to be remembered that in Rite, the woman is the subject, not the object, the experience is of her feelings, and the sacrifice is her loss, not another’s victory.

To describe the work in detail is superfluous. It’s stunning. The near 40-strong company is extraordinary accomplished and the frenetic, fateful solo, from dancer Luciény Kaabral, is unforgettable.

Adelaide Festival 2022. Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo in common ground[s]. Picture: Andrew Beveridge, supplied

Before this came a work of great contrast, common ground[s], a duet by Acogny and Malou Airaudo, both in their 70s, and both radiant.

Airaudo danced with Bausch and was among the originals in Rite, making for an intimate connection.

It is a work of much beauty, beginning with a gorgeous sunrise, and is a life’s journey in miniature, the two women reconnecting and diverging along life’s path.

Even when they stand on opposite sides of the stage, theirs is a relationship that transcends time and place. It’s a magical, dreamlike work – the calm before the storm.