153 / 365 - The Rite of Spring

I paid my first visit to The Royal Opera House tonight to see a revival of 'Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)' with my fellow dance friend Dani. It's such a beautiful theatre!

The role of the sacrifice is traditionally played as a female, however The Royal Ballet created a male sacrifice in this revival which is new. I'm studying Nijinsky's choreography of this ballet for my dance appreciation exam next week and I've become so used to seeing the female solo on DVD which is a lot more frantic yet restricted. The male solo just didn't really do it for me. I was left feeling a bit like.. oh he's dead now. Hmm....

On the other hand though, the ensemble choreography was incredible! It was so amazing, all the spatial patterns and anticlassical choreography worked so well with the music. Having the chance to hear Stravinsky's complex score live and loud in the theatre was stunningly beautiful! There was just so much going on with the ensemble, it was incredible! One of my favourites was when all dancers were laid down and spread out across the entire stage in a perfect formation moving and creating a scuffling sound to the beat in the music as the male soloist danced around the moving bodies on the floor. So mesmerising, and scary!

Two other ballet's were on beforehand - 'Scenes de ballet' and 'Voluntaries.' I didn't understand the first one so much... I understood that it was a celebration of conventional ballet movement though. I really enjoyed the second ballet too but The Rite of Spring was my favourite! Without my dance appreciation classes I would never have been able to spot things like Merce Cunningham influences on the choreography and movements! Dance has been the best subject for me these past 2 years and it's really made me appreciate and love new dance theatre and varied modern dance styles.

I really recommend you see 'The Rite of Spring!' It's such a different and unique piece of theatre.