Igor Strawinsky's famous ballet music "Le Sacre du Printemps" (1913) is one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. Fragmented melodies stringed together, sudden breaks, the overlapping of different keys and tricky rhythms; Stravinsky created a dynamic thunderstorm of sounds that also turned out to be - together with Nijinsky's choreography - one of the most scandalous premieres in music history. The performance describes a pagan fertility rite, in which the chosen victim has to dance until he dies of exhaustion, as a means of pacifying the gods....
French choreographer Heddy Maalem, who enjoyed international success with his production of "Sacre du Printemps" with African Dancers, met the Sichuan Modern Dance Company after travelling around China only a few months after the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008. Only one year later he restaged the ballet, together with the Dance Ensemble. The choreography focuses on the key moments of the original version - the rebirth of nature, violence and human destiny, which underlies cosmic forces - and links them to the devastating consequences of the earthquake. Based on documentary material from the region where the catastrophe took place in Sichuan, performance video images of the artist Chen Qiulin are projected onto the stage.
