Petrushka

Choreography by Marco Goecke
Music by Igor Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring

Choreography by Pina Bausch
Music by Igor Stravinsky

»I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, or psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature, etc….Expression has never been an inherent property of music. That is by no means the purpose of its existence,« said the composer Igor Stravinsky, who not only revolutionised music at the beginning of the 20th century, but the world of dance as well.

Uncompromising in his convictions, he not only provoked his contemporaries with his views but with his compositions as well. The Ballet Russes premiered a whole series of his works: PETRUSHKA and the revolutionary THE RITE OF SPRING, which caused a stir under the French title LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS in Paris. The Staatsballett Berlin presents these two historic key works of dance and music theatre, staging two more recent choreographies.

Marco Goecke's interpretation of PETRUSHKA, which was created for the Zurich Ballet in 2016, is now part of the Berlin repertory. The renowned choreographer's angle was to focus on the characters' psychology: »For me, dance is a matter of the soul beyond pure movements,« says Goecke in regards to Petrushka. His sympathies lie with the outsider he discovers in the central character of the Russian Balagan.

The piece ist juxtaposed with Pina Bausch's THE RITE OF SPRING (1975), her last, in the narrower sense, fully choreographed work. She adheres closely to the libretto, however, bringing the heathen ritual to the here and now. Stage and costumes by Rolf Borzik are removed from time and place of the events and lend the piece a sensual presence. The peat-covered stage requires the dancers to go to their physical limits. They have to dance, as Pina Bausch conceived it, for their lives.

Co-produced by the Staatsballett Berlin and the Pina Bausch Foundation