American Repertory Ballet to Bring FIREBIRD to McCarter Theatre, 3/12

On March 12, 2014, at 7:30pm, American Repertory Ballet will present Firebird at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. This program will feature the world premiere of Douglas Martin's Firebird, set to Stravinsky's score; Martin's Rite of Spring, also set to music by Stravinsky; and the company premiere of Kirk Peterson's Afternoon of a Faun, set to Debussy's score. These ballets are inspired by the 20th-century works created for Sergei Diaghilev's revolutionary Ballets Russes: L'Oiseau de feu, Le Sacre du printemps, and L'Après-midi d'un faune. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

"I am committed to keeping great 20th century work alive by both continuing to perform those great works and by creating new versions with my personal takes on those themes, " Douglas Martin explains. "These Diaghilev-era ballets opened the West to Eastern pageantry and lore. They introduced Western audiences to the artist that would go on to define art in the 20th century. Exploring that history and expounding upon it is essential to the identity and personality of my work."

Tony Angarano, dance critic for The Courant who reviewed Hartford Ballet's premiere of Peterson's Afternoon of a Faun, said the work "retains its setting of a Grecian idyll, but the characters, a faun that is half-human/half-beast and a flirtatious nymph, interact with more tender innocence than Nijinsky's originals, which caused a scandal at the 1912 premiere in Paris with their eroticism." He goes on to say, "Peterson's movements seem like the natural expression of Debussy's heated music....a re-interpretation [with] stunning impact."

Martin's Rite of Spring transports the original libretto of Nijinsky's Le Sacre du printemps - a story based on pagan ritual and sacrifice - to a competitive 1960s office environment. In response to its spring 2013 premiere, Robert Johnson described the work as "part sentimental tribute and part screwball comedy" that "avoids primitivist clichés and, in gender parity...manages to find a concept still radical enough to make audiences squirm." As Hochman says of Martin's Rite, "Mr. Martin's choreography fills the stage." He goes on to explain that the steps in the group sections appeared to him "an indescribable potpourri that work together because they fit both Mr. Martin's concept and the Stravinsky score...a tribute to Mr. Martin's choreographic ability."

Just as Martin infused Rite of Spring with a feminist statement, he layers a gender twist onto the classic Firebird tale. In his version of this classic Russian folk tale, the namesake character will be portrayed by a male dancer rather than a female dancer. Using a male dancer to perform the part of the Firebird allows Martin to emphasize and express different aspects of this mythical creature's character through the different range and qualities of movement available in the male ballet vocabulary. Also in Martin's Firebird, the male role of the King is replaced by a female Sorceress. Part of Martin's vision for Firebird is set design that references the Cubist art movement - an avant-garde movement pioneered by European visual artists at the same time as the Ballets Russes premiered The Firebird. Martin has enlisted the talented scenic artist, Elizabeth Nelson to create cubist inspired scenic designs, which will be projected onto the backdrop.

"The recent 100th anniversaries of Stravinsky's The Firebird and The Rite of Spring were the catalyst for my desire to take on the challenge of creating new versions of these works," Martin says. "Having performed so many of the great Diaghilev-era ballets in the Joffrey Ballet, I felt like I had an intimate relationship with the original versions of these ballets, and I was eager to explore the music and come up with my own take on them. Getting the style right and polishing it to perfection is definitely the challenge. The Firebird role is artistically demanding and deeply layered. I have been really pleased watching ARB's dancers tackle their roles with artistry and daring physicality."