October 30th and November 1st.

Al Sarab Dance School and Al Sarab Dance Company in collaboration with the Lebanese American University performed “The Rite of Spring” in LAU Byblos and Beirut (consecutively).

The piece was choreographed by Christel Farah and Sarah Fadel from Al Sarab Dance company. Music was composed by Igor Stravinsky and performed by Dr. Seba Ali and Kaiyin Huang.

The piece was performed by dancers from Al Sarab Dance School, Al Sarab Dance Company, and The Lebanese American University. A cast of 39 dancers with ages ranging from 5 to 40.

The plot was inspired by the original choreography by Stanislavski but with a twist. The choreographers decided to take a slightly different approach to how this story of rituals and female sacrifice should play out. In the original story, a pagan ritual in which a sacrificial virgin dances herself to death. While that still happened in this rendition of the Rite of Spring, both choreographers thought that the story should not end there. Spring never really comes, even after the “virgin woman” who was raised on this idea of she would have to be sacrificed at some point, that she should be honoured to sacrifice herself, gets sacrificed. Instead, spring is taken away for good. Thus the piece ends with a horrific sight of the men and women carrying the lifeless bodies of the youngest generation of boys and girls on to the stage and putting them down as the whole village mourns.

More Pictures will be added to our gallery very soon, stay posted!