Alternate Title Helikopter and Rite of Spring
Premiere New York Premiere
Country of Origin France
Description Whether re-imagining signature works from Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes or creating new pieces for world-class companies and his own supremely versatile troupe, Angelin Preljocaj has asserted himself as a provocative, highly influential choreographer of technically rigorous, defiantly modern dances—qualities that place him at the vanguard of France’s contemporary artists.
In its second Next Wave appearance, Ballet Preljocaj presents a fiercely energized double-bill. The tough-minded Helikopter is a futuristic and kinetically fiendish work for six dancers set to Stockhausen’s dissonant Helikopter Quartett. It’s the French-Albanian choreographer at his most acerbic. Video projections of oscillating helicopter propellers and the insistent thrum of the machine’s engine add to the work’s sense of runaway mechanization. Preljocaj’s Rite of Spring is a dynamic response to Stravinsky’s erotically charged score. By turns tender and violent, the movement captures the score’s themes of sexual awakening, courtship, and dangerously accelerating passion, culminating in the dance of the Chosen One, a harrowing, startlingly powerful tour de force.
Identifier 2002f.01040
