The rite of spring
about
In Marie Chouinard's work, The Rite of Spring occupies a special position. In choosing to reexamine this powerful hymn to life, she has created her first choreography based on a musical score. Igor Stravinsky's. The Rite of Spring explores a New World and marks the entry of dance into modernity. In this avant-garde work, Marie Chuinard again finds an original pulsation that is essential to her movement. Far from contradicting the rhythm of her dance, the cadence and force of the music inspire, accompany and energize her, forming both the echo and the musical counterpoint of an organic, vigourous and vivid choreography.
For Marie Chouinard, all forms are the movement through space of a specific vital energy. Unlike previous choreographers working with Stravinsky's piece, she constructed her Rite around
solos, seeking to awaken in strong, clear movements the intimate mystery of each dancer.
" There is no story in my Rite", she explains, "no development, no cause and effect. Only synchronicity. It is as if I were dealing with the very moment after the instant life first appeared. The performance is the unfolding of that moment. I have the feeling that before that moment there was an extraordinary burst of light, a flash of lightning."
- Marie Chouinard
information
Ballet in one act
Length | 35 minutes
Created at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Canada, June 18, 1993*
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production, in coproduction with the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), the Festival international de nouvelle danse (Montreal) and the Kunstentrum Vooruit (Ghent, Belgium).
credits
Concept, Choreography and Artistic Direction | Marie Chouinard
Music | Signatures sonores, Rober Racine, 1992
The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky, 1993
Lighting | Marie Chouinard
Costumes | L Vandal
Props | Zaven Paré
Make-up | Jacques-Lee Pelletier
Hair Stylist | Daniel Éthier
*Dancers for the world premiere | Marie-Josée Paradis, Mathilde Monnard, Daniel Éthier, Dominique Porte, Pamela Newell, José Navas, Jeremy Weichsel
press excerpts
« Chouinard’s Rite : astonishing dance, astounding dancers. » - Michael Upchruch, Seattle Times, 28 janvier 2013
« The energy is explosive, instinctual. » - Sheila Farr, Seattle Met, 25 janvier 2013
« Her [Marie Chouinard] lighting for Rites is [...] imaginative. » - Philippa Kiraly, The SunBreak, 25 janvier 2013
« This is a performance well worth seeing if you can catch it before it leaves town. » - J. Autumn Needles, Edge Seattle, Washington, 26 janvier 2013
« Marie Chouinard's Rite of Spring is, in short, a masterpiece. » - Alice Kaderlan, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 1994
« Under startlingly effective lighting, ten dancers are driven relentlessly by the compulsion of the music into an almost orgiastic, trance-like state of exhaustion. It is powerful stuff, honouring the impetuousness of the music and exulting in a frenzy of life-affirming and arrestingly original dance. » - Geoffrey West, Scotland on Sunday, Edinburgh, 1994
« Chouinard’s Rite of Spring is 55 minutes of choreographic brilliance perfomed with blazing energy by an extraordinary cast of seven dancers. » - Michael Crabb, The Toronto Star, 1993