Dance performance

The art performance by the women’s punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February 2012 caused quite a stir. Almost 100 years earlier, the ballet »Le sacre du printemps« (»The Rite of Spring«) by Igor Stravinsky was premiered in Paris in 1913 and became a scandal because of its modernity. At the time of its premiere, choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, at 24, was of a similar age to the women in Moscow involved in the punk prayer who were tried and convicted.

»DeSacre!« is a dance performance with commentary, a kind of lecture with practical examples. Christine Gaigg deals with desecration, art and blasphemy. In doing so, she thematically links scenes from the Pussy Riot art action with excerpts from the original choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky. The clash of the two events sheds light on both the works and the socio-political contexts.

Christine Gaigg, born in Linz in 1960, studied dance and choreography in Amsterdam and philosophy and linguistics in Vienna. As a freelance choreographer and dancer, she often collaborates with composers of new music. In 2007 she staged the Swiss premiere of »Über Tiere« by Elfriede Jelinek at the Zurich Festival and opened the steirischer herbst festival with »Maschinenhalle#1« in Graz in 2010.