The Rite of Spring ¹⁵⁺

The puppet ballet was developed on the basis of the music written by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who composed one of the most controversial musical pieces in the history of musical art in the beginning of the 20th century. Today, it seems almost unbelievable that this highly popular and esteemed composition was considered as scandalous at its world premiere that the choreography, conceived by Vaclav Nijinsky, was regarded as a catastrophe, and that the music itself was misunderstood.

The basis of the story is the individual and his or her destiny, defined by society. The puppet ballet The Rite of Spring has elements of classical puppet animation, which are complemented by contemporary dance movements, animated objects and video projection that supports all the previous elements with its contents. In both movement and content it is about a ritual, a dedication to the classical techniques of an artwork, which are later sacrificed for creative freedom.

Nature demands sacrifice. The community organises a sacrifice. The victim is a naively clean and uncompromisingly committed individual who is ready to dance to death for the welfare of the community. Sacrifice is often associated with manipulation, just as the puppet too is often a metaphor for manipulation. Blending within this are the two fragments of reflection that lead to the staging of The Rite of Spring with the puppets. It is about the challenge of movement, including the understanding of movement as a metaphor for survival. This version of The Rite of Spring is about much more than just the manipulation. It is about the question of how much life we are able to breathe into something that we are soon going to sacrifice.