The Rite of Spring

In ancient Rome, in the periods of danger or deprivation, at the dawn of spring, human fetuses were devoted to the gods in order to propitiate them (ver sacrum).

The echo of cruel  sacrifices of people (women) by the ancient Slavs is todays “melting Marzanna” – which was once part of the pagan Rite of Jare. By this way it was supposed to be annihilated a female demon symbolizing the winter and death.

The famous ballet of Diaghilev and Stravinsky “The Rite of Spring”, a provocative masterpiece of the avant-garde, which the Paris premiere in 1913 is considered by many to be the beginning of the New Art era (and a perverse announcement of the apocalypse of both Great Wars), refers directly to Slavic sacrificial rituals. The community in an orgiastic madness sacrifices a young woman on the altar of change: regenerating after the winter “death” of nature.

The connection between the figure of the “scapegoat” and spring is the cornerstone of naive culture and almost all religions and myths, including Christian religion, which is drawing from repertory of the predecessors. The death of the mythical Jesus “for our sins” and his resurrection aimed at giving us a hope for “eternal life” (sic!) takes place in the spring, of course.

The “Rite of Spring” by the Teatr A Part has the most temporal, physical, corporal and human dimension. The spectacle combines personal themes that were at the base of work on the performance, with references and motifs of a universal character. It is a performance about overcoming grief after losing, after many  losses, about moments of solstice and passage, about anger, about the process of rebirth and gaining strength. About the cycle of nature and the nature of the cycle that each of us is or will be a part of. About winters and springs, which we experience in our lives only a few dozen, and which are the most obvious metaphor of human fate.