The Rite of Spring/ Common Grounds

Event Details

The idea of ‘exchange’ is central in this two-part programme which marks the first collaboration between the Pina Bausch Foundation (Germany), École des Sables (Senegal) and Sadler’s Wells (UK).

Bausch’s (1975) The Rite of Spring is danced by a newly assembled company of dancers from African countries. In this pioneering work, with music by Stravinsky, a ‘chosen one’ is sacrificed changing the season from winter to spring.

Ccommon ground[s] is a new work created, performed and inspired by the lives of two remarkable women: Germaine Acogny, “the mother of contemporary African dance” and founder of École des Sables and Malou Airaudo who joined Bausch in the early days of Tanztheater Wuppertal and later was a professor and director at Folkwang University. This poetic and tender piece, the duo’s first collaboration, examines their shared histories and emotional experiences.

As the community of dancers build to a climax, a sense of foreboding in the air, the combination of grace and visceral fury in their movement is electrifying.
- The Times

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