Joffrey Ballet 1987 Rite of Spring (3 of 3)

Part 3 of 3 : She dances herself to death. (Part 1 is and Part 2 is ) THIS is Stravinsky’s extreme pitch and the darkest of everything Sacre was supposed to be. Here we see a divining for the sacrifice, ritualizing her and finally forcing her to kill herself in what is surely the most avoided solo by those who have skated past such monstrous moments: the Danse Sacrale which is over 145 leaps in under 5 minutes. The “Chosen One“ is danced for the first time since the tragic debut of Nijinsky’s genius in 1913 which was killed after nine performances (in a jealous fit!) and lost for 70 years. The Chosen One is Beatriz Rodriguez who pulls on her own internal fear to present this to us. This dancer was experiencing her own rawness as there was NO VIDEO OR TEMPLATE that she could mimic. SHE would become the template. MINUTE 3:23 is Stravinsky’s finest explosion of ACT 2. This Sun God Jarillo for whom alll this is done an