Revisiting the Rite: The Rite of Spring Centenary Conference

The premiere at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris on 29 May 1913 of The Rite of Spring Scenes from Pagan Russia was a quintessential ‘total work of art’. An interdisciplinary, international one-day conference was organized by Dr Claire O’Mahony (University of Oxford) in May 2013 which examined the cross-fertilizations between ballet and design in the creation of the original production as well its critical reception and global legacies up to the 2013 centenary productions. Fifteen scholars from universities around the globe investigated both the continuity and ruptures with the traditions of choreographic, visual, musical and literary cultures it provoked. Most of them agreed to have podcasts recorded which form this series.

Episodes

Mapping Nijinsky’s Cross - Cultural Legacy: Min Tanaka’ s Le Sacré du Printemps (1987)

December 5, 2014 • 39 mins

Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps is arguably the most influential score composed for dance in the last century. Premiered to an unsuspecting Parisian audience in 1913, this Modernist ballet was subtitled ‘Scenes of Pagan Russia,’ a moniker that evoked the rituals of pre-Christian society. Vaslav Nijinsky’s groundbreaking choreography shocked audiences with its visceral embodiment of primeval spirituality, and Sacre has subs...

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The Chosen One: Massine’s Choreographic Rite of Passage

December 5, 2014 • 25 mins

Seven years after the succès de scandale of the Stravinsky-Nijinsky-Roerich ballet Le Sacre du printemps, Serge Diaghilev decided to revive the ballet with new choreography by his young protégé, Léonide Massine. The collaboration with Stravinsky and the process of rechoreographing Sacre gave Massine new directions for defining his choreographic voice through developing his own movement vocabulary. In working with Stravinsky, ...

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The Spanish Reception of The Rite of Spring : Ballet, Music, Fine Arts (1913-33)

December 5, 2014 • 52 mins

This study analyses the reception of The Rite of Spring in the Spanish cultural networks. Although the ballet was only performed in 1913, three years before the first visit of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes to Spain, its influence became notorious among some Spanish choreographers, composers, painters and intellectuals. In 1916, during the first of the several tours with the company, Stravinsky played a piano transcription of the scor...

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D H Lawrence’s Rite

December 5, 2014 • 20 mins

In a notable scene from Women in Love (1920), D. H. Lawrence draws attention to the popularity of Diaghilev’s enterprise as representative of the avant garde in the arts in contemporary Britain. He describes how, following Hermione’s dinner party, guests perform a dance in the style of the sophisticated Ballets Russes. Elsewhere, Lawrence’s sympathies lay rather with the individualism of free dance that would have been closer to t...

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A Bardic Rite? Designing the Savoy Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

December 5, 2014 • 22 mins

For a few nights in March 1914 if contemplating buying a theatre ticket in London, there was a brief chance when one could have seen Nijinsky dance at the Palace Theatre one night and the next the new Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Savoy Theatre. Had one had the rare chance to view the 1913 London performance of the Sacre and then the Savoy Dream eight months later, one might well have been struck by the mutuality o...

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Divining the 1920s: Precious Body Image in Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 Ballets

December 5, 2014 • 20 mins

This paper examines the ways in which dancers’ body image in Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 ballets The Rite of Spring and Jeux looked forward to 1920s developments in ballet and fashion. Using the psychoanalyst Paul Schilder’s definition of body image as the appearance and experience of embodiment, the paper will explore how aspects of the 1913 ballets’ new corporeal modes (including an emphasis on the body’s weight and gravity in The Ri...

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Disruption in Continuity: The Use of Ornament in The Rite of Spring

December 5, 2014 • 21 mins

Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography for the Rite of Spring was structured by movement patterns based on simple geometrical forms – such as circles, triangles, lines and angles – which his dancers incorporated with their bodies and limbs. Repeated over and over again, the patterns were gradually transformed or harshly interrupted by other choreographic figures, thus reflecting the repetitive character of Igor Stravins...

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A Century of Rites : The Making of an Avant - Garde Tradition

December 5, 2014 • 67 mins

A historiography of a century of productions of the Rite of Spring.

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Prehistoric Ballets: L’Après Midi d’un Faune as precursor of The Rite of Spring

December 5, 2014 • 25 mins

On the 29th of May 1912, exactly a year earlier than the premiere of The Rite of Spring, Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes had scandalized Parisian audiences with the first performance of another famous ballet choreographed by Nijinsky – L’Après-midi d’un Faune. This ballet represents a precursor for The Rite of Spring not only for this chronological correspondence, success, notoriety, and choreography by Nijinsky: both works also...

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Revisiting the Rite: The Rite of Spring Centenary Conference

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Mapping Nijinsky’s Cross - Cultural Legacy: Min Tanaka’ s Le Sacré du Printemps (1987)

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}The Chosen One: Massine’s Choreographic Rite of Passage

The Spanish Reception of The Rite of Spring : Ballet, Music, Fine Arts (1913-33)

D H Lawrence’s Rite

A Bardic Rite? Designing the Savoy Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Divining the 1920s: Precious Body Image in Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 Ballets

Disruption in Continuity: The Use of Ornament in The Rite of Spring

A Century of Rites : The Making of an Avant - Garde Tradition

Prehistoric Ballets: L’Après Midi d’un Faune as precursor of The Rite of Spring

Popular Podcasts

Mapping Nijinsky’s Cross - Cultural Legacy: Min Tanaka’ s Le Sacré du Printemps (1987)

The Chosen One: Massine’s Choreographic Rite of Passage