Het Nationale Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet company, will debut this evening at the Muziektheater a new performance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (‘The Rite of Spring‘). This new version of Stravinsky’s ballet – in the centenary year of its notorious premiere in Paris in 1913; and showing as part of the Holland Festival – has been choreographed by the Chinese-born choreographer Shen Wei.
Shen Wei received the Nijinsky Award for Emerging Choreographer in 2004, and his choreography has been commissioned by ballet companies, museums, arts venues and events worldwide. He choreographed the ‘Scroll’ segment of the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His collaboration with Het Nationale Ballet marks his second interpretation of Le Sacre du printemps, having first choreographed the ballet in 2003. Shen Wei’s art is characterised by his interdisciplinary, multimedia-based approach to performance, and his drawing upon elements of Western and Asiatic culture. He has been described as ‘combining Chinese calligraphy with the language of modern dance’; while Shen Wei himself stresses the primacy of the human body in his work.
I wrote recently a piece on Le Sacre du printemps, considering the long history of Russian culture throughout the 19th Century, its particular engagements with Asiatic art and concepts of the East, and how these influenced the development of the ballet through Stravinsky, the Ballets Russes, and the artist Nicholas Roerich. The piece is entitled ‘The Scythians and The Rite of Spring‘ and is here.
Het Nationale Ballet will perform six times over the next week at the Muziektheater. More information and tickets are at: http://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/program/2013/sacre-du-printemps-overture/
amsterdamarm 