What is Kontakthof Pina Bausch about?
Originally premiered in 1978 and now returning to Sadler’s Wells in its 44th anniversary year, Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof evokes longing and misguided desires. The piece is brought to life by a group of mature dancers, playing out first encounters, courtship and uncertain romance.
What does Kontakthof mean?
contact zone
Kontakthof is a combination of German words – kontakt (contact) and hof (courtyard) – meaning contact zone. They confront the audience as though there is a mirror in front of them, and check their teeth, show their hands, smooth their dresses and try to look as attractive as they can.
What is the rite of spring about Pina Bausch?
Bausch imagined The Rite of Spring as a sacrificial ritual, in which a group of young women and a group of young men collide, scatter, thump, roil and grab, until one girl is chosen to wear a red dress and dance herself to death.
How does The Rite of Spring make you feel?
The Rite of Spring may not be as shocking today as it was at that scandalous premiere in 1913, but more than 90 years later, it still has that edgy, intense, almost out-of-control feeling that makes it as exhilarating—and liberating—as music can be.
What is the meaning of The Rite of Spring?
Its French and Russian (Vesna svyashchennaya) titles translate literally as The Coronation Of Spring. Its English title, The Rite Of Spring, lends a suitably chilling dimension, for the scenario is a pagan ritual in which a sacrificial virgin dances herself to death. The work is subtitled Pictures From Pagan Russia.
What is the story behind The Rite of Spring?
The concept behind The Rite of Spring, developed by Roerich from Stravinsky’s outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, “Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts”; the scenario depicts various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances …
Why did Rite of Spring cause a riot?
The ballet was first performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Theatre du Champs-Élysées in Paris on 29 May 1913 and famously caused a riot. The audience were so outraged by Stravinsky’s avant-garde score, and Nijinsky’s choreography, that many people thought it seemed like the work of a madman.
Is Rite of Spring pagan?
Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” depicts pagan rituals that culminate in the sacrifice of a young woman, whose death is intended to appease or pacify the gods of spring.