Toward the end of Pina Bausch\u2019s \u201cRite of Spring,\u201d a woman in a wispy white shift walks up to a man and hands him a red dress, a look of terror in her eye. The woman has elected her destiny: To be the \u201cchosen one,\u201d the sacrificial victim who ensures the survival of the collective. But that doesn\u2019t make the outcome any less brutal.<\/p>\n
For the next five minutes, she convulses, flings her arms violently, pounds at her legs, and runs in circles, until, with the last note of Stravinsky\u2019s score, she falls, like a stone. It\u2019s harrowing to watch \u2014 and to dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t think of anything at that moment,\u201d the dancer Anique Ayiboe said in a video interview in French from Lom\u00e9, Togo, where she lives. \u201cYou\u2019re dancing against death. I think that Pina wanted to show the fragility of the human body. To show the body in its savage state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayiboe is one of three women dancing the role of the Chosen One in an ensemble drawn from 14 countries across Africa that has been touring with \u201cThe Rite of Spring\u201d since fall 2021. The production finally comes New York, Nov. 29-Dec. 14, performed at the Park Avenue Armory, a suitably epic space for this grand, apocalyptic work.<\/p>\n
As elsewhere on the worldwide tour \u201cRite\u201d will be paired with a new duet, \u201ccommon ground[s],\u201d for Malou Airaudo, a former Bausch dancer; and Germaine Acogny, the Senegalese dancer and choreographer. (The performances are part of the Dance Reflections festival, sponsored by the jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels.)<\/p>\n
The production is an extraordinary transnational collaboration among the Pina Bausch Foundation; Sadler\u2019s Wells in Britain; and the \u00c9cole des Sables, a dance school founded by Acogny in Toubab Dialao, a fishing village outside of Dakar, Senegal. It comes out of the foundation\u2019s efforts to keep Bausch\u2019s dances alive and bring them to an expanding circle of companies and audiences. Bausch died in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be active to preserve the work,\u201d Salomon Bausch, Pina\u2019s son and the leader of the foundation, said in an interview from Wuppertal, Germany. \u201cYou can\u2019t just put it on a shelf like a painting,\u201d adding that \u201cRite\u201d is \u201ca nice way to enter Pina\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Searching for partners, he and the foundation were impressed by the accounts of dancers returning from residencies at the \u00c9cole des Sables. Acogny\u2019s stature as an artist and cultural figure have turned the school into a force in the world of African dance. It attracts students from across the continent who are drawn to her and the technique she developed, which distills elements from different African dance styles. Acogny is often referred to as the \u201cmother of African contemporary dance.\u201d At the school, she is known as Maman Germaine.<\/p>\n
Before now, \u201cRite\u201d has been performed by only a few European ballet companies in addition to Bausch\u2019s Tanztheater Wuppertal, for which it was created in 1975. Salomon Bausch wondered what \u201cRite\u201d would look like performed by dancers with a variety of dance backgrounds, assembled specifically for that purpose.<\/p>\n
Intrigued by the reputation of the \u00c9cole, he contacted Acogny in 2018. The idea immediately resonated with her. \u201cStravinsky\u2019s \u2018Sacre\u2019 has been on my trail for a long time,\u201d she said in an interview in French from her home in Toubab Dialao.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always felt that this was an African dance,\u201d she added. \u201cThe rituals are the same. And that music has an extraordinary pagan, terrestrial power. I even wonder whether Stravinsky was possessed when he composed it.\u201d For African dancers to perform it, she said, \u201cfelt absolutely right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rehearsals confirmed her belief, she said. \u201cI could see that our traditional dances, the technique that I have developed, and urban dance, combined with patience and love, came together to create something extraordinary,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause emotion is in the heart, not in the coup de pied\u201d \u2014 that is, a particular spot on the ankle that is the focus of intense scrutiny in ballet technique.<\/p>\n
Two hundred dancers auditioned, a group that was eventually whittled down to 38. A surprise was the imbalance of genders among the applicants: There were many more men than women \u2014 the opposite of what would usually be true in Europe or the United States. \u201cIt\u2019s just a reality of our culture,\u201d Ayiboe said. \u201cIt\u2019s easier for men to make the decision to dance professionally. Women are supposed to get married and stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rehearsals, led by a small group of current and former dancers from Bausch\u2019s company, were held at the \u00c9cole des Sables in early 2020 before the pandemic. (Covid forced the tour to be postponed for a year and a half, to fall 2021, requiring a second rehearsal period.)<\/p>\n
The challenge was to shape a group with different training, many of whom had never seen a work by Bausch, into a unified ensemble. In previous stagings, all the dancers came from the same discipline \u2014 ballet. Here, some were trained in traditional dance forms, others in urban dances like hip-hop; some had training in contemporary dance; a few had studied ballet. Several were former students of the \u00c9cole des Sables.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first it was a shock for me,\u201d Babacar Man\u00e9, from Senegal, who started out in hip-hop, said in an interview in French. \u201cUsing certain parts of your body that you\u2019re not used to using; responding to certain sounds in the music. It has taken years. Even now, I\u2019m learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to be very patient with each other, because they were touching for the very first time the vocabulary of Pina,\u201d said Cl\u00e9mentine Deluy, a former Bausch dancer who is a stager from the foundation. \u201cWe were starting from scratch, going bit by bit, step by step, adding a little bit more every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The instructors subdivided the dance into short phrases of movement, which they demonstrated, and the dancers imitated. When simple imitation fell short, the stagers went deeper, explaining the principles behind Bausch\u2019s movement style. \u201cYou can only copy to a certain point,\u201d said Jorge Puerta Armenta, a stager. \u201cAfter that, you need to understand where the movement is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
What made the process particularly exciting, Armenta said, was the dancers\u2019 hunger to master this choreography. Many learned not just one role, as is customary, but several. On any given night, a particular dancer may be performing one of a handful roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done all the male roles,\u201d Man\u00e9 said. \u201cIt gives you a different way of seeing things, and it really stretches your memory. You have to be ready for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acogny sees a deeper lesson as well: \u201cThey encourage each other. There\u2019s no competition. It\u2019s a great lesson in humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the dancers learned \u201cThe Rite of Spring,\u201d Acogny and Malou Airaudo were creating their duet, \u201ccommon ground[s],\u201d in another studio. Their partnership was born out of a desire that the collaboration between the \u00c9cole and the Bausch Foundation not be one-sided. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t be just the Europeans bringing something to us,\u201d Acogny said. \u201cThere had to be an exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airaudo, who joined Bausch\u2019s company in 1973 and who has danced the role of the \u201cChosen One\u201d many times, met Acogny in 2018 in Paris, then again in Wuppertal. Acogny is 79, Airaudo, 75; both have long histories in dance. Their conversations eventually led to a dance, created at \u00c9cole des Sables \u2014 in a studio without walls. Sometimes they would pause and sit, side by side, looking out into nature. \u201cWe sat there, with our back to the others, looking out at the baobab trees, the sky, the birds,\u201d Airaudo said in a phone interview from Berlin. This image is how the piece begins.<\/p>\n
On a walk together around the grounds of the \u00c9cole, both women fell. To ease their aching legs, Acogny suggested they soak them in a basin full of water infused with eucalyptus leaves. That, too, is in the piece. Over the course of the work the two women embrace, console each other and walk together, as if embarking on a long journey. \u201cWhen I walked toward her I had the feeling of going toward a far-off place, as if I were traversing the world,\u201d Airaudo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommon ground[s],\u201d a leisurely and tender piece that is a complete contrast to Bausch\u2019s \u201cRite of Spring,\u201d comes first on the program. \u201cI think it is a good preparation for the arrival of \u2018Rite,\u2019\u201d said Acogny, \u201cbecause it\u2019s like the passing of something from one generation to the next. And then the stage erupts like a pressure cooker.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the pause in between, the stage is covered in a thick layer of peat. In \u201cThe Rite of Spring,\u201d the dancers\u2019 feet move through it, and as the dance progresses, it begins to cling to their clothes and their skin.<\/p>\n
This earthy substance makes Bausch\u2019s \u201cRite\u201d feel less like a dance and more like a lived experience, visceral and raw.<\/p>\n
But for these dancers, the sensation of dancing on earth has other connotations as well. \u201cIn Africa, we often dance on sand,\u201d said Mal\u00e9. \u201cSo when I step on it, it brings be back to something I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is also part of the ritual built into the dance itself. \u201cWhen I feel that fresh earth on my feet,\u201d Ayiboe said, \u201cI know it has begun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A company of dancers from across Africa perform Bausch\u2019s canonical work around the world. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt that this was an African dance,\u201d said Germaine Acogny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":36636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,12],"tags":[7,30,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-36639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-entertainment","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\n