‘How would you dance if you knew you were going to die?” was the question sparking Pina Bausch’s imagination when she created her shattering Rite of Spring in 1975. It grabs you by the throat from the first moment and never slackens.
This inspired staging was more than usually troubled. The Pina Bausch Foundation planned the piece with Senegal’s pioneering École des Sables, gathering 38 dancers from 14 different African countries, only for the pandemic to impose postponement. Now Covid reduces the cast and forces the cancellation of an accompanying duet, Common Ground[s], leaving us with a warmly received Q&A session to follow a Rite danced with such force you don’t feel short-changed.
