Pina Bausch - Rite of Spring

 The practitioner I have taken inspiration from to help me with our choreography piece is Pina Bausch, an extract from her work: "Rite of Spring" in particular. Bausch took people's emotions as her starting point, looking at the various fears, wishes, needs and desires that people experience. As a result of this process she has produced multiple pieces of work that embody that of a dream-like feel, using poetry and the body to create choreography that audiences can relate to due to her blatant take on reality. (Servos, 2020)

Link to extract I'm reviewing : https://youtu.be/0VqaGkKQRCU

When trying to think about what the stimulus might be for this piece after watching the extract a few times I struggled as nothing came into my head straight away however after analysing things a little more I came to the conclusion that it may have something to do with natural emotions due to all of the brown dirt that covers the stage, and also the dancers movements which to me have a lot of emotion behind them. Moreover, the simplicity of Bausch's costume choice - nude coloured silky dresses, suggests to me that she wanted the audiences main focal point to be that of the movements of the human body.

With regards to the relationship between the music, movements and the meaning, the music at the beginning of the piece has very much so an eerie feel to it which is reflected in the dancers movements, which almost appear to be in slow motion perhaps portraying an emotion of agony of suffering. Bausch has the dancers move to fit the music, in moments where there are sharper dynamics and a quicker tempo, they move faster, where there are moments of stillness in the music the dancers react as appropriate.

From watching this piece of choreography, I picked up on multiple choreographic devices that we have discussed in class, along with some similarities between this piece and our group choreography, in terms of both meaning and movement. I noticed movements of split focus, where six dancers were laying on the ground creating slow, possibly distressed movements, whilst one danced around them at a quicker pace. Furthermore, Bausch also incorporated unison, along with repetition similarly to the way in which we do at the start of our choreography when we are mimicking the brain. There also is a section that looks as if it could be structured improvisation, which reminds me of the section of our piece where we are all portraying a different emotion through our movements, this moment looks like something similar however all of the emotions I picked up upon are all negative and sincere. Another potential similarity between this extract from Rite of Spring and our group choreography that I noticed was that all of the dancers seem to be expressing emotions of torment and anguish which links to the sense of suffering we are hoping to illustrate of someone with DID.

Upon researching some more about this piece and its meaning I discovered that the basis of the storyline consists of there being a young women who has been chosen as a sacrificial victim who has no other option than to dance herself to death. In addiction to this the piece also portrays a battle of the sexes, men and women assemble in bands conveying a variety of feelings such as a sense of antagonistic and tenderness until fate determines the one who is to be sacrificed (Manko, 2017).

Bibliography;

Servos, N., 2020. Biography | Pina Bausch Foundation. [online] Pinabausch.org. Available at: <https://www.pinabausch.org/en/pina/biography> [Accessed 15 November 2020].

2017. Pina Bausch - Extract From The Rite Of Spring. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqaGkKQRCU&list=LLOickXFvTj4qSAwBdB-iytg&index=382> [Accessed 16 November 2020].

eyeoo, V., 2018. The Rite Of Spring By Pina Bausch. [online] Dance History II Journal. Available at: <https://dancehistoryii.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/the-rite-of-spring-by-pina-bausch/> [Accessed 16 November 2020].

Manko, V., 2017. Pina Bausch’S The Rite Of Spring. [online] The Paris Review. Available at: <https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/10/11/pina-bauschs-rite-spring/> [Accessed 25 November 2020].

 

Bibliography:

Servos, N., 2020. Biography | Pina Bausch Foundation. [online] Pinabausch.org. Available at: <https://www.pinabausch.org/en/pina/biography> [Accessed 15 November 2020].

2017. Pina Bausch - Extract From The Rite Of Spring. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqaGkKQRCU&list=LLOickXFvTj4qSAwBdB-iytg&index=382> [Accessed 16 November 2020].