About the work
Pina Bausch's „Le Sacre du printemps" was premiered by the Wuppertaler Tanztheater in 1975 — Stravinsky's 1913 score in one of the most radical and dark choreographies of the twentieth century. The stage is covered with real earth; the dancers struggle, sweat, fall in the dirt — an archaic ritual without romantic stylisation.
Plot
The work broadly follows Stravinsky's original programme: a primitive tribe gathers for the spring ceremony, in which a young woman is chosen as the sacrifice and must dance herself to death so that spring may come. Bausch separates strictly by gender — women in red dresses, men bare-chested. First half: communal, archaic movements, stamping, falling, rising. Middle: a red dress is spread on the earth — the men choose a victim by bringing the dress to a woman. Second half: the chosen girl dances alone, ever faster, ever more desperate, while the community watches motionless. She dances herself to death. At the premiere Marlis Alt danced the victim; the final solo scene is considered one of the most shattering moments of modern dance.
Cultural significance
Bausch's „Sacre" is the most admired Stravinsky choreography of the twentieth century, alongside Nijinsky's original (1913). The radical gender separation, the real earth as stage design and the ritual exhaustion of the dancers set new standards. The work is danced worldwide today; a famous 2008 recording with the Wuppertal company documents the choreography. Bausch's legacy project „Common Ground[s]" with the École des Sables in Senegal (2021) has re-read the work in an African context.