American Repertory Ballet Discusses Stravinsky's RITE OF SPRING Today

This spring 2013 season, American Repertory Ballet will present the premiere of Douglas Martin's Rite of Spring, set to Stravinsky's infamous score. At "Behind the Music", an On Pointe Enrichment Series event, ARB Artistic Director Douglas Martin and guest lecturer Maestro Michael Pratt will discuss this ballet's music and history. "Behind the Music" will be held today, January 18, 2013 at 5:15pm at Princeton Ballet School (301 North Harrison Street, above McCaffrey's Supermarket).

ARB launched On Pointe in 2010 to help make ballet more accessible to the community by offering free lecture demonstrations, guest lectures, intimate company performance previews, and panel discussions.

Rite of Spring was first presented in 1913 in Paris by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. With a narration centered around pagan sacrifice and avant-garde music by Stravinsky and choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, the ballet's premiere was shrouded in controversy. It was performed only eight times in 1913, and was never performed again until 1987, when The Joffrey Ballet restaged it. Martin was an original cast member of this monumental resurrection. In his role as Director of the Program in Musical Performance at Princeton University, Maestro Pratt has led performances of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, giving him a unique knowledge of the work. Pratt is also Conductor of the ARB's Orchestra for Nutcracker at State Theatre and co-directs the Composers' Ensemble and the Richardson Chamber Players.