A riot sprang from The Rite of Spring

ONE hundred years ago this month Stravinsky debuted the The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Commissioned for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, with choreography by the legendary Nijinksy, its theme was pagan Russia and human sacrifice to the creative surge of spring.

Highly unconventional music, strange, unnatural movement, cacophony and seeming confusion were like a slap in the face to the fashionable audience in the expensive seats, and like a breath of fresh air to the student thinkers in the gallery. Within the first few minutes, shocked attendees booed the deliberate inharmony, and their booing became stronger with every oddly angled arm and leg, heavy leap and fall. This wasn’t Swan Lake, this wasn’t Sleeping Beauty. What was Ballets Russes thinking?