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Days before a restaging of Pina Bausch’s #theriteofspring – a collab between @ecoledessables and @sadlers_wells – was due to premiere in #dakar, COVID closed the show. An ensemble comprising 38 #dancers from 14 African countries took to the beach at #toubabdialaw for one final rehearsal before flying home. Filmmaker Florian Heinzen-Ziob and crew were there to document preparations for the world tour and thankfully managed to preserve this captivating performance, which Sadlers Wells has made available to rent for £5 on #vimeoondemand. You can almost feel the gentle sea breeze tickle your skin as sand rustles beneath your feet. It’s the best value trip you till ever take. Whether viewing something like this in person or on screen, one can only marvel at the potential of the human body – its capacity for such graceful movement and portentous contortion – and the beauty of #blackskin in particular. Dusk on the beach is the perfect setting, both complementing and offsetting the varying shades and costume designer Rolf Borzik’s elegant choice of billowing beige slips for the women and loose black pants for the men. Not forgetting the piercing red chemise of the lady who dances herself to death in sacrifice of spring’s advent. Bausch had asked herself, “How would you dance if you knew you were going to die?” when trying to find the right vocabulary to evoke such primitive and unpredictable music (The Rite of Spring’s debut in Paris in 1913 caused a riot). Everything here is choreographed to draw maximum tension and oscillating emotion from Stravinsky’s composition. By transposing this performance to a beach in Senegal, the dramatic metamorphosis it evokes becomes even more arresting and sensational. Go to: tinyurl.com/ritevod #dancingatdusk

A post shared by Amar Patel (@amarofpatel) on Jul 9, 2020 at 5:50am PDT

Amar Patel