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Katya Ev

Rite of Spring 

artistic research project

image Cha Gonzalez, série Abandon, BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, film, 2009 // 4:17 // 6:45

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Pina Bausch, Rite of Spring, premiere at Opernhaus Wuppertal, 1975

Maurice Béjart, « Le Sacre du printemps », premiere at Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, 1959 // 3:45

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Martha Graham, Rite of Spring, 1984

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Klaus Obermaier and Ars Electronica Futurelab, Le Sacre du Printemps, 2006

an interactive real-time generated stereoscopic dance and music project

Marie Wigman (1957, 2014),

Maurice Béjart (1959),

Kenneth Macmillan (1962),

Paul Taylor (1963, 1980),

John Neimeier (1972),

Hans von Manen (1974),

Pina Bausch (1975),

Martha Graham (1984),

Mats Ek (1984, 2022),

Jorge Lefebre (1988),

Min Tanaka (1990),

Javier de Frutos (Consecration, 1991, The Palace Does Not Forgive, 1994, Sacre, 2002, Milagros, 2003),

Michael Clark, (Mmm, 1992),

Marie Chouinard (1993),

Angelin Preljocaj (2001),

Régis Obadia (2003),

Uwe Scholz (2003),

Doug Varone (2003),

Emanuel Gat (2004),

Heddy Maalem (2004),

Glen Tetley (2005),

Klaus Obermaier (2006),

Xavier Le Roy ( Le Sacre, 2007),

Yvonne Rainer (Rite of Spring Indexical, 2007),

Marguerite Donlon (2008),

Ginette Laurin (2011),

Jean-Claude Gallotta (2011),

Izadora Weiss (2011),

David Wampach (2011),

Fejes Ádám (2012),

Dominique Brun (Sacre #197, 2012),

Sasha Waltz (2013),

Bill T. Jones (2013),

Yuri Possokhov (2013),

Romeo Castellucci (2014),

Martin Harriague (2021),

Dewey Dell (2023) etc.

"I saw in my imagination the spectacle of a great pagan sacred rite: the old wise men, seated in a circle, observing the dance at the death of a young girl, whom they sacrifice to make the god of spring favour them". 

 

 Igor Stravinsky, Chroniques de ma vie, éd. Denoël, 2000

“What belongs to you on this earth? Only death."

 Monique Wittig, Les Guérillères, Les éditions de minuit, 2007, p.116;

The Greek imagination is full of sacrifices of virgins playing the role of ritual scapegoats (pharmakos), notably Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis and the pharmakis women chosen as scapegoats during the ancient Greek festival Thargelia, during which they assume collective guilt for the benefit of the community.  This same narrative can also be found in the myths of the Scythians and the Aztecs

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Yuri Possokhov’s The Rite of Spring, San Francisco Ballet, 2013

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Sasha Waltz, Rite of Spring, 2013

The Rite of Spring: ballet in 2 acts

 

Act I: Adoration of the Earth

Introduction (Lento - Più mosso - Tempo I)

Spring Auguries - Dances of the Adolescents (Tempo giusto)

Game of abduction (presto)

Spring rounds (Tranquillo - Sostenuto e pesante - Vivo - Tempo I)

Game of rival cities (Molto allegro)

Procession of the Wise (Molto allegro)

Adoration of the Earth (The Wise Man) (Lento)

Dance of the Earth (Prestissimo)

 

 

Act II: The sacrifice

Introduction (Largo)

Mysterious circles of adolescent girls (Andante con moto - Più mosso - Tempo I)

Glorification of the chosen one (Vivo)

Evocation of the ancestors (Lento)

Ritual action of the ancestors (Lento)

Sacred dance (Allegro moderato, eighth note=126)The Greek imagination is full of sacrifices of virgins playing the role of ritual scapegoat (pharmakos), notably Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis and the pharmakis women chosen as scapegoats at the ancient Greek festival Thargelia, during which they assume the collective guilt for the benefit of the community.  This same narrative can also be found in the myths of the Scythians and the Aztecs

1-

 

How can the notion of sacrifice be transmuted in order to escape from such a heterosexist and violent logic?

 

At what point does the ritual for the renewal of life degenerate into a "scene of total violence"?

 

 

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What is the point of no return in the scenario at which it needs to be given another twist, and what other ending is possible?

 

How can we construct new narratives in which the female body and women can appear as active subjects?

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Katya Ev

Rite of Spring 

projet de recherche FRArt

This research aims to transpose The Rite of Spring (1913) into the space of rave culture, drawing on the original synopsis, music and choreography.

 

It extrapolates the central idea of rituality, adopts the prism of institutional critique and a feminist stance, transcending the traditional boundaries between 'high' and 'low' culture.

image Cha Gonzalez, série Abandon, BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France

image Cha Gonzalez, série Abandon, BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France

“The ecstatic festivals of rave revived the use of time and land that the bourgeoisie had forbidden and sought to bury. Yet for all the reminders of these older rhythms, rave was clearly not an archaic revival. It was a spectre of post-capitalism rather than pre-capitalism.


 Mark Fisher, “Baroque Sunbursts”, in Nav Haq (ed.), Rave: Rave and its Influences on Art and Culture, MHKA & Black Dog Publishing, 2016, p. 45.

Jérôme Clément-Wilz, Quand tout le monde dort - Documentaire (2018)

Jérôme Clément-Wilz, Quand tout le monde dort - Documentaire (2018)

Jérôme Clément-Wilz, Quand tout le monde dort - Documentaire (2018)

"The sounds all come out of fucking with machines. You use the sounds of capitalism to destroy the economy of taste. It’s queer sonic materialism"

 McKenzie Wark, Raving, 2023;

 

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Katya Ev

Rite of Spring 

projet de recherche FRArt

Three lines of research

 

Deconstructing categories and hybridising the forms of ballet, rave and ritual, and rewriting the synopsis through a feminist prism.

 

Musical research: transposing Stravinsky's music from orchestra to machines, transcribing its frenetic energy with the instruments of contemporary electronic music.

 

Choreographic research inspired by social choreography and participatory art to create a ritual experience at a rave.

image Cha Gonzalez, série Abandon, BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France

3 - 

The Rite of Spring is one of the most performed works of the 20th century, and although it has been the subject of numerous choreographic revivals, the score has remained unaltered, even canonical: the Rite of Spring has not given rise to any musical reinterpretations to date.

 

How can we approach a musical revival of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring by extending and extrapolating his own subversive approach, which makes use of repetitive sonorities and modular rhythmic pulsations, in an approach that proposes to revisit a musical material?

 

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How can we bring a new political perspective to the Rite by moving from orchestra to machines?

 

How can we reinterpret the ritual and initiatory character of the Sacre using elements and textures of electronic music, including its participatory broadcast formats, in the context of a long-term rave?

 

 

 

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2- 

 

The Rite of 1913 draws on pre-modern folk rituals to stage a collective practice glorifying the earth, culminating in a violent sacrifice. This collective rite of passage evokes a dark crossing from night to dawn, but it is condensed on stage into just 34 minutes.

 

 

What form should the ballet take in order to substitute a lived ritual for the representation of a ritual?

 

How can this perspective connect with forms of participatory art, emerging as a project to rehumanise society?

 

What kind of ritual does the rave space offer, and what kind of sacredness?

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Fantasia, Disney, 1940

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image Cha Gonzalez, série Abandon, BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France

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3 -

 

What artistic forms can ballet take if it is debated critically, focusing on the power dynamics offstage, on the economy and politics of the social relations from which it emerges and which it generates?

 

How can some of its parameters be reversed in order to introduce disruptive mechanisms into its normative and hierarchical social organisation?

(c) katya ev rhyn (ekaterina vasilyeva), 2024

    all rights reserved

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