THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140605
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
WHEN THE MODERN BALLET ``The Rite of Spring'' was created in 1913 by choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky and composer Igor Stravinsky, both the tumultuous movement and music were so startlingly avant garde that a near-riot erupted at its Paris premiere.
The audience, accustomed to grand romantic ballets with conventionally beautiful scores, jeered, taunted and hissed at the dancers' primitive postures set to Stravinsky's stunningly elemental score.
Today, ``The Rite of Spring'' - a portrayal of ancient pagan rituals celebrating the cyclical death and renewal of the earth - is a repertoire staple of symphony orchestras and dance companies the world over. Saturday evening at Chrysler Hall, North Carolina Dance Theatre will present its pro duction of ``Rite of Spring,'' accompanied by the Virginia Symphony under the direction of Andrews Sill.
``It's very angular,'' Dance Theatre's acting artistic director Jerri Kumery described of the dancing, which was choreographed by Salvatore Aiello, the company's artistic director until his death last October. ``It is probably one of the most physical, passionate, powerful pieces that you'll ever see or hear.
``Sal's choreography is a perfect mix with the power of the music, so the combination of the two is so riveting. The physicality and the movement of it is just gorgeous, and very organic. It's become a tour de force signature piece of the company.''
In keeping with the distinctive look of the choreography, the set is also visually striking - a giant web of bamboo caging the stage.
``The structure is very simplistic,'' Kumery explained, ``but with the beautiful lighting and the web it's a wonderful environment. Very pagan.''
The 18-member troupe generally follows the traditional ``Rite of Spring'' storyline, with the dancers' frenetic tribal rituals - including the sacrifice of one of their own to ensure the earth's refertilization - revealing the intense, and often brutal, primordial forces of both man and nature.
The turbulent ballet is cathartic for the dancers and audience alike, Kumery notes.
``Everybody that sits in the audience and watches,'' she said, ``feels and sees the same things we're feeling onstage. The dancers get lost in the whole frenzy of it. It's a big release for them: they can go in, give 100 percent and enjoy taking the body to a point of pure exhaustion, mentally and physically.
``When you get human beings to do that as a group, and there's not one holding back, it is a most incredible thing to be a part of, to watch and to feel.''
Stravinsky initially conceived ``The Rite of Spring'' in 1910 while completing the score to his debut ballet, ``Firebird,'' another modern masterpiece. Inspired by nature's explosive rebirth at the Russian springtime, Stravinsky envisioned a pagan rite in which a young girl danced herself to death as wise elders looked on, a sacrifice to appease the god of spring.
The music he composed was groundbreaking, utilizing visceral rhythms, stark dissonance and evocative orchestral colors in a way that had never been heard before.
Pierre Monteux conducted the ballet's 1913 premiere. ``Such music would surely cause a scandal . . . and cause a scandal it certainly did,'' he remembered in the album notes to ``The Rite of Spring,'' performed by the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra under his direction. ``Neighbors began to hit each other over the head with fists, canes or whatever came to hand.
``Soon this anger was concentrated against the dancers, and then, more particularly, against the orchestra, the direct perpetrator of the musical crime. Everything available was tossed in our direction, but we continued to play on. The end of the performance was greeted by the arrival of gendarmes. Stravinsky had disappeared through a window backstage, to wander disconsolately along the streets of Paris.''
Now Stravinsky's expressive score is recognized as truly revolutionary - and extraordinarily beautiful.
``To most of us today who love this kind of music, `The Rite of Spring' is the most melodic, most gorgeous piece of music,'' Kumery enthused. ``It gets inside of you, the pulsation of it. It's just luscious. It's definitely a piece, choreographically and musically, that will get your blood going.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Mitchell Kearney
"The physicality and the movement of it is just very organic," says
artistic director Jerri Kumery.
by CNB