THE RITE OF SPRING as performed by She She Pop and their mothers. Roma, Short Theatre Festival 4 sept
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 Foto: Doro Tuch

Together with their own mothers, She She Pop are staging their version of The Rite Of Spring based on Igor Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps“. The performance focuses on the subject of female sacrifice in the family and in society. In the piece, She She Pop consciously superimpose the religious sphere of ritual human sacrifice from “Le Sacre du Printemps” with the ethical question of personal self-denial between women and men, as well as between mothers and daughters. This superimposition immediately generates reluctance: to sacrifice oneself as a woman for others is today no more than one item on an embarrassingly outdated normative agenda. The overriding importance of self-empowerment and personal freedom has placed an obscure light on all acts of sacrifice and devotion. The archaic rite of spring however stands for the certainty that every community demands sacrifices, is even only really created and confirmed by collective sacrifice.
By superimposing these two spheres, She She Pop touches on a subject that silently stands between the generations. As in Stravinsky’s original piece, The Rite Of Spring unfolds as a ritual: the encounter between She She Pop, their mothers and the audience will be staged in full ceremony. However, unlike the community assembled by Stravinsky to celebrate the spring sacrifice, She She Pop and the mothers are by no means agreed about the procedure, quite the contrary. Doubts began surfacing right at the start. But so did the resolution to attempt this together.

Credits

Concept: She She Pop.
By and with: Cornelia and Sebastian Bark, Heike and Johanna Freiburg, Fanni Halmburger, Lisa Lucassen, Mieke Matzke, Irene and Ilia Papatheodorou, Heidi and Berit Stumpf, Nina Tecklenburg.
Video: Benjamin Krieg & She She Pop.
Set: Sandra Fox & She She Pop.
Costumes: Lea Søvsø.
Musical Collaboration: Damian Rebgetz.
Choreographic Collaboration: Jill Emerson.
Assistant and Dramaturgical Collaboration: Veronika Steininger.
Light Design and Technical Direction: Sven Nichterlein.
Sound: Florian Fischer.
Video Assistant: Anna Zett.
Trainee: Mariana Senne dos Santos.
Production/PR: ehrliche arbeit- freies Kulturbüro.
Company Management: Elke Weber.

A She She Pop Production.

In Co-Production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer, FFT Düsseldorf, Mousonturm Frankfurt, Kaserne Basel, brut Vienna, German Language Theater Festival of Prague/Archa Theater Prag, Kyoto Experiment and Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d’Automne à Paris.

Residency funded by Art Center Kyoto, Kyoto Experiment and the Goethe Institute.

Funded by the City of Berlin  – Department for Cultural Affairs and the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin.

premiere, April 2014, HAU, Berlin

more dates:

  • April 2014, HAU, Berlin
  • April 2014, Mousonturm, Frankfurt on the Main
  • June 2014, HAU, Berlin
  • June 2014, Kaserne, Basel, Switzerland
  • September 2014, Théâtre Vidy, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • October 2014, Kyoto Experiment, Kyoto, Japan
  • October 2014, Théâtre de la Ville, Festival d’Automne, Paris, France
  • November 2014, Kammertheater, Stuttgart
  • November 2014, Archa Theater, Prague, Czech Republic
  • December 2014, brut, Vienna, Austria
  • January 2015, Kampnagel, Hamburg
  • March 2015, HAU 1, Berlin
  • April 2015, FFT, Düsseldorf
  • June 2015, The Israel Festival Kindly supported by Goethe-Institut, Israel., Jerusalem, Israel
  • June 2015, Festival delle Colline Torinesi Kindly supported by: Goethe-Institut Torino, The Federal Foreign Office (Germany)., Torino, Italy
  • September 2015, Festival Short Theatre Supported by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ Guest Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Departments of Culture and Arts of the German federal state., Rom

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