AVAILABLE EASTER SUNDAY ONLY!

Fr Dominic writes:

I’ve worked for some years with the young dancer choreographer Eliot Smith, and his company Eliot Smith Dance. In 2013 Eliot, a committed Catholic, had an idea of creating his own choreography for Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the ground-breaking and indeed earth-shaking new ballet Stravinsky created with Sergei Diaghilev exactly 100 years earlier, in 1913. The music still sounds modern, and inspired as it is by the pagan spring rituals of pre-Christian Russia, atavistic and brutal. But it has captivated choreographers overs the years – great names such as Pina Bausch and Michael Clarke. Eliot thought of creating his own Rite of Spring. But I gave him a challenge. Haven’t people done The Rite of Spring to death? Wouldn’t Stravinsky and Diaghilev want us to move on after 100 years? And in their work, a virgin dances herself to death. In Jesus Christ’s rite of spring, he dies, but then rises to new life. And raises us with him. How about it?

So Eliot, with the support of the Arts Council of Great Britain, created After the Rite, inspired by the great liturgies of Holy Week. In this dance, set to wonderful music by Sir James Macmillan and Carl Nielsen, Eliot dances the Cross and Resurrection together – as we are in this very different Easter. More from Eliot about his work here – and other works from his company Eliot Smith Dance.

Christ is Risen, alleluia!