The Rite and its revolutions

From its own version of the Rite of Spring created in 2011, Jean-Claude Gallottapresents in March 2015, for the opening season of the Philharmonie de Paris, his choreography with the full Brussells Philharmonic orchestra conducted by Michel Tabachnik.

The Rite of Spring, a choreography which was first performed at the MC2 in 2011 and then presented at the Théâtre de Chaillot three years ago, is being taken to a whole new level this season. As part of the programme to mark the opening of the new Philharmonie de Paris venue in March 2015, it will be accompanied by the full Brussels Philharmonic orchestra conducted by Michel Tabachnik. Jean-Claude Gallotta will also be giving the first performances of two short pieces on the same programme, with Jonchaies by Iannis Xenakis and Homage to Angela Davis, set to Six Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6 by Anton Webern.
Jean-Claude Gallotta took the Rite of Spring project on in 2011 as the second part of the diptych upon which he had embarked with Gainsbourg and Bashung and l’Homme à Tête de Chou – the same dancers, the same lunar-like lighting and the same energy which comes straight from the music.
So this Rite is performed in a severe choreographic version, with no affectation, no decorative brilliance, making it more than ever what the composer himself called a “pagan ceremony”. There is no trivia, no plot, no “chosen one”, each of the performers on stage “can be chosen ” in turn, as though to allow them to reply to “the obscure discretionary power” of the gods and powers-that-be.