Last weekend, I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Joffrey Ballet's opening night of their 3 performance engagement at the LA Music Center as a member of the press. I covered the performance for DIY dancer - a blog written by dancers, for dancers and the dance community. The production was one of the best I've seen (and I see a lot of shows these days) and I can only hope that if you were in the LA area you too got a chance to appreciate this beautiful program.
The highlight of the production was the Joffrey's authentic reproduction of Nijinsky's Rite of Spring from 1913. This original ballet, set to Stravinsky's groundbreaking music, was actually so upsetting to the Victorian audience that an actual riot broke out and the ballet was virtually forgotten. Choreographer and Dance Historian Millicent Hodson and her husband Kenneth Archer painstakingly researched the ballet and reconstructed the production piece by piece over the course of 15 years. It first premiered in LA back in the 80's on the Joffrey ballet, and in honor of the centennial of the Rite of Spring, this weekend's performance served as the kick-off for a year long series at the Music Center celebrating Stravinsky's work.
Read my full review of the performance on DIY Dancer now and here's a peek at some of my snapshots from the symposium on the ballet and the Stravinsky exhibit also at the Music Center.
