How Choreographer Ted Thomas is Reimagining Rite of Spring
Before this interview, you told us that this work was still crystallizing in your brain. Could you bring us up to date?
Yes, it’s a major task to choreograph Rite of Spring. What to do? Go back to Nijinsky’s original 1913 choreography? Or use someone else’s more contemporary version? I decided that for a work as complex as this, one that offers so many artistic opportunities, the best choice is to create something new. Go back and study the music, its shifting tones and tempos, and see what dances come to mind. It’s become an interesting, intricate, and challenging project. It may still be “a work in progress” by the time we first perform it with the Symphony on September 24th, but we will have at least one or two layers of the total concept in place, a new work that can stand up to Stravinsky’s fantastic score. I know I am setting the bar high, but I want to have an original Rite of Spring that’s part of the Thomas/Ortiz Dance company repertoire.
Can you give us a few clues about your thoughts so far?
Well, Rite of Spring has always been controversial. It’s violent, dissonant, pagan, and erotic, and it breaks every rule of classical ballet. (See Spectacular Scandals in NSO notes). I remember the Paul Taylor version, in which I danced when I was with his company. He devised a comedic piece about kidnapping a baby (really a cloth bundle). It ended up with an outrageous parody of Martha Graham’s interpretation. You can say that the Taylor version itself was controversial. It certainly was iconoclastic, working in some ways against the original concept.
What I’m looking for is something closer to the original, but way more universal. That’s not to say I’m trying to soften the message. But I want to go beyond the shock value. I feel that a lot of my experience has given me the tools to do this. These days, choreographers use many different dance forms — classical, hip hop, West African, Capoeria (martial arts/dance mix from Brazil). The results can be interesting, intersecting, culturally diverse, and importantly, appealing to the eye.
I started with several conversations with my brother Patrick Destra. “What is Rite of Spring about?” What does it boil down to?” Getting back to the original Nijinsky ballet, it is about the rituals and practices of a small tribal community in ancient Russia. Spring arrives and the elders look to insure fertility and a bountiful harvest. Ultimately a young maiden becomes the sacrifice.
Then we started to think about the music itself. It follows along the same general storyline. It’s about a necessary sacrifice for a greater good (or, at worst, just for survival). Yes, this concept itself is disturbing, but it appears in almost every culture, in mythology, even in Scripture. In the Nijinsky version, a virgin is sacrificed so that the tribe can survive. I don't yet know what or who that sacrifice (or martyrdom) will be, but the message will be that if society evolves the way it has, there will need to be a sacrifice. Someone is going to get hurt.
This is pretty strong stuff for any audience.
Yes, I discussed this with my wife and fellow director (Frances Ortiz). So many people in Norwalk and New Canaan only know us through our ballet school (New England Academy of Dance, NEAD) and our annual productions of Nutcracker. One of the big reasons why we work with Jonathan Yates and the Norwalk Symphony is that we want to reach out and communicate with the local arts-loving community. Yes, a lot of classical ballet is about princesses and cavaliers, “flowy and chiffony.” (Remember the song in Chorus Line, “Everything was beautiful at the ballet.”) And yes, even when we did Swan Lake at the Palace in Stamford, we changed it to a happy ending. This time, we’re breaking away from “family friendly” a bit. Not something that has to be shocking, but something with some hard thinking behind it.
Rite of Spring is nearly 40-minutes in length. Do you plan to choreograph the whole work or just some parts? And how do you plan to work on this? Will you be linear, starting at the beginning, or will you start with certain parts?
In answer to your first question, I'm planning to choreograph the entire work. Perhaps I won't have everything in place by September 24th, but I will have laid out the broad canvas. And in answer to your second question, the way I usually work is linear. I start at the beginning, and work towards the end. The cast will consist of six women and three men. So far, it’s female dominated. But when the men come in, it’s very forceful and manipulative.
One last thought, Rite of Spring is almost always performed on a stage with lighting and a backdrop. For this production, the orchestra will be the backdrop. That can work for us in the sense that we use the musical cues to different sections in a visual way as part of the choreography.
Ted, thank you so much. We look forward to experiencing this.
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