for Rite promises elaborate headdresses and a
shaggy-masked shaman, thousands of bricks in
the shape of Chinese characters and a glowing,
golden Tibetan bowl floating at the back of
the stage.
“The stage set also selects elements from
Buddhist philosophy,” Yang explains. “It
incorporates the entire universe on stage. It’s like
the intersection between Yin and Yang, between
heaven and hell. The main character in the piece
is sent to test people on earth, to see if they are
ready to reach the next level. They have to pray
and sacrifice themselves to reach the ideal state,
represented by the golden bowl.”
“When Yang starts telling a story, she always has
a lot of ideas she wants to put on stage,” says
Nathan Wang, Executive Director of Yang’s
company. “The body language, the visual and
musical language—every element is important
to her. She wants every moment to have an
impact.” This mission includes trying to reach
as many people as possible. Contemporary
dance in China has only a relatively small
following, Wang explains, while large–scale
productions often promote pro-government
messages. “Younger people especially want to
see something emotional, pure art productions
that are not politically driven. We’re planning
at least 100 performances of The Rite in China.
Everybody can connect to it.” He continues, “it’s
challenging, when there are already dozens
of productions of The Rite of Spring. But we
wanted to bring a truly Chinese version to
international audiences.”
— David Jays
David Jays writes for the Sunday Times and The Guardian,
and is editor of Dance Gazette @mrdavidjays
So what does Yang hope the audience will take
away from her Rite? “For any artist, the ultimate
goal is that the work will communicate her own
culture, through a universal language accessible
to anyone in the world. The work itself is not the
most important thing—rather, it is for audiences
to understand how people in another part of the
world live their lives and strive for happiness.”