Michiel Vandevelde

         Spring is approaching. Nature awakens from its winter sleep. People gather and perform a sacrificial ritual in honour of the earth. In the end, a chosen one dances herself to death. That - in a nutshell — is the plot of "Le Sacre du Printemps", which premiered in 1913.

The composer Igor Stravinsky and the choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky were once fascinated by pre-modern human-nature relationships and created their ground breaking work. A century later, interest turns into necessity. The need to rethink the relationship to the earth. Who is actually sacrificing whom here? And if, in the end, humanity sacrifices itself, what might a new beginning look like?

Belgian choreographer Michiel Vandevelde takes on "Le Sacre du Printemps" and gives the sacrificial ritual a concise update. Vandevelde reduces the piece, written for a large dance ensemble, to a duet and follows Stravinsky's composition with a contemporary one by Fallon Mayanja. The evening's choreography emerges from hand signals and gestures - one of the earliest forms of interpersonal communication. When Stravinsky's last note fades away, pulsating beats announce part two. The beginning of a fascinatingly tender attempt to give form to a life in coexistence.



Presentations:

— Regularly performed at Theater Neumarkt, Zurich (CH), check here for dates.

— ZURICH PREMIERE: 9 March 2023, Theater Neumarkt, Zurich (CH)