Press Release: Pina Bausch / Germaine Acogny & Malou Airaudo The Rite of Spring / common ground[s] at Sadler's Wells Tuesday 7 – Saturday 11 June 2022

[Jan McNulty]

Pina Bausch / Germaine Acogny & Malou Airaudo The Rite of Spring / common ground[s] Sadler’s Wells Theatre, EC1R 4TN Tuesday 7 – Saturday 11 June 2022      Tickets: £15 - £75   Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com   Sadler’s Wells is collaborating with the Pina Bausch Foundation (Germany) and the international centre for traditional and contemporary African dances École des Sables (Senegal) for the first time with electrifying performances of The Rite of Spring and common ground[s] in this extraordinary international co-production coming to Sadler’s Wells Tuesday 7 – Saturday 11 June.    The Rite of Spring is a powerful and visceral staging of Pina Bausch’s seminal 1975 work Le Sacre du printemps, danced by a specially assembled company of 36 dancers from 14 African countries. In this pioneering work, with music by Stravinsky, a chosen one is sacrificed, changing the season from winter to spring.      common ground[s] is a new work created, performed and inspired by the lives of two remarkable women; Germaine Acogny, "the mother of contemporary African dance” and founder of École des Sables, who has long felt a connection with Pina’s The Rite of Spring, recognising her own culture within it. Also Malou Airaudo, who performed leading roles in many of Bausch’s early works including The Rite of Spring. This poetic and tender piece, the duo’s first collaboration, examines their shared histories and emotional experiences.    The programme was originally due to premiere in March 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic. Its world premiere was in Madrid in September 2021. Since then, it has also performed in Copenhagen, St Polten and Luxembourg. It has just performed at The Adelaide Festival to glowing reviews and next returns to Copenhagen before coming to Sadler’s Wells in June. Touring this year also includes Ludwigsburg, Spoleto and more.   Sir Alistair Spalding CBE, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells, said:   “I remember having conversations with Pina about the series of productions she had been creating for her company, each inspired by a residency in a different world city, back in 2008. We spoke of the fact that Germaine Acogny’s École des Sables would be an ideal partner for a new work co-produced by Sadler’s Wells, which would have been the first created by Tanztheater Wuppertal in an African country. We arranged a trip to Senegal in the autumn of that year, but Pina’s health began to deteriorate, and the trip never happened.  Following her death, when Salomon Bausch came to me with the idea of co-producing this programme with École des Sables, he had no knowledge of the original 2008 discussion. This completed a beautiful circle of serendipitous events that is very much in harmony with the spirit of Pina. I am so excited by the opportunity to present such an amazingly unique collaboration to audiences across the world.”    Germaine Acogny, Founder of École des Sables, said: “For a long time, I have had a connection with Pina and her seminal work The Rite of Spring. When I first saw the piece danced by Paris Opera Ballet, I was highly impressed with the way the dancers performed the choreography so deeply rooted in the earth, despite their classical training. It was then that I thought such a dance would be very well received by an African audience due to the closeness of the theme and African spiritual beliefs. I recognised my own culture within it. Deeply inspired by the work, I have performed My Black Chosen One - Sacre #2 by Olivier Dubois since 2015. The new duet is a continuation of a conversation I had with Pina. I am very excited that École des Sables and I are a part of this special exchange.”      Salomon Bausch, Executive Director of the Pina Bausch Foundation, said: “This is the first time that Sacre is done not with an existing company, but with dancers who came together specifically for this piece. I’m very excited to see the impact of their personalities and their diverse dance backgrounds on the piece but also vice versa; how the piece influences the dancers, both as artists and as human beings. This project is very important to us; I expect it to open our eyes for a new way of thinking about the future of Pina Bausch’s work.    I feel a very strong energy between Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo, while these two dance legends explore their own histories and literally discover common grounds. Coming from very different dance traditions, they still share so much. The collaboration will also connect to both their schools, the École des Sables and Folkwang University, which will again open new doors.”  A Pina Bausch Foundation, École des Sables and Sadler’s Wells Production  NOTES TO EDITORS Listings Information Pina Bausch / Germaine Acogny & Malou Airaudo The Rite of Spring / common ground[s] Sadler’s Wells Theatre, EC1R 4TN Performances: Tuesday 7 – Saturday 11 June 2022      Tickets: £15 - £75 Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com About Sadler’s Wells Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance organisation. We strive to make and share dance that inspires us all. Our acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. We commission, produce and present more dance than any other organisation in the world. Since 2005, we have helped to bring close to 200 new dance works to the stage, embracing both the popular and the unknown.   Each year, over half a million people visit our three London theatres - Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Lilian Baylis Studio and Peacock Theatre. Millions more attend our touring productions nationally and internationally or explore our digital platforms, including Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage. In 2023 we’re opening a fourth London venue in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Sadler’s Wells East will house a 550-seat mid-scale theatre, as well as facilities for the Choreographic School and Hip Hop Theatre Academy.    Supporting artists is at the heart of our work. We have associate artists and companies, which nurture some of the most exciting talent working in dance today. We host the National Youth Dance Company, which draws together some of the brightest young dancers from across the country. Sadler’s Wells Breakin' Convention runs professional development programmes to champion and develop the world’s best hip hop artists, as well as producing, programming and touring groundbreaking hip hop performances.    Around 30,000 people take part in our learning and engagement programmes every year. We support schools local to our theatres in Islington and Stratford, designing experiences for children and young people to watch, explore and critically engage with the arts. We also run Company of Elders, a resident performance company of dancers aged over 60 who rehearse with renowned artists to make new work for public performances locally, nationally and internationally.   Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.    www.sadlerswells.com Stay up to date with everything Sadler’s Wells on social media Facebook: @SadlersWells Twitter: @Sadlers_Wells Instagram: @sadlers_wells YouTube: Sadler’s Wells Theatre About the Pina Bausch Foundation https://www.pinabausch.org/ The Pina Bausch Foundation carries the artistic legacy of dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch into the future. Her son Salomon Bausch founded the non-profit foundation shortly after her death in 2009 to make her work accessible and tangible for dancers worldwide, diverse audiences, and new generations. The focus is on rehearsing and performing Pina Bausch's pieces and physically getting to know her work in workshop formats. For this purpose, the Foundation passes on Pina Bausch's choreographies to dancers and companies worldwide and collaborates with universities. It also develops a training process for rehearsal directors and artistic strategies to safeguard the unique knowledge of the choreographies and their rehearsal process for the future. One of the Foundation's fundamental tasks is to make the extensive materials of Pina Bausch's artistic legacy accessible through digital archives. The Pina Bausch Archives, which include photographs and video recordings as well as written materials on the creation of the pieces, serve as a knowledge resource that is used again and again during rehearsals and restagings. Since November 2021, first materials are publicly accessible worldwide in the online archives at pinabausch.org. The online archives are constantly being expanded with new materials and pieces.   About École Des Sables, Senegal https://ecoledessables.org/ École des Sables is an international centre for traditional and contemporary African dances, a school for theoretical and practical teaching, a laboratory for research, and a space for meetings and exchanges, conferences and artistic residences. The school is dedicated to professional training for dancers from all over Africa in traditional and contemporary African dances. Its objectives are to professionalise African dancers, allowing them to be able to live from their art, and to encourage communication and collaboration between dancers, choreographers and companies from Africa and with the rest of the world; in short, to develop and promote contemporary African dance. Since 1998, the school has regularly organised professional training workshops gathering dancers and choreographers from Africa, the African diaspora and all over the world. École des Sables was created in 1998 by Germaine Acogny, considered as “the mother of contemporary African Dance”, and her husband Helmut Vogt. Germaine Acogny is the former director of Mudra Afrique (1977-1982), a pan-African school founded by Leopold Sedar Senghor and Maurice Bejart, which had the objective of giving a professional education to African dancers and citizens to make them become responsible and autonomous through the art.  Image Credits: Image 1: The Rite of Spring – Image Credit: Maarten Vanden Abeele © Pina Bausch Foundation Image 2: common ground[s] – Image Credit: Maarten-Vanden-Abeele