The Score | Charlotte Moves

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring shocked the world in 1913 when it premiered in Paris. This spring, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Ballet, and nearly 60 young dancers brought fresh energy to the work with a newly choreographed version that incorporated themes of migration, fleeing war, and the search for a homeland. The new Rite came into being after Charlotte Symphony Music Director Christopher Warren-Green contacted Hope Muir, artistic director of the Charlotte Ballet, two years ago about doing a collaboration. Apart from annual performances of The Nutcracker, the orchestra and Charlotte Ballet had not worked together on a project this large since a 1990s collaboration on Orff’s Carmina Burana. Choreographer for the new Rite was Peter Chu, who heads a Las Vegas contemporary-dance company known as chuthis and has choreographed the TV series So You Think You Can Dance? Chu worked with the Charlotte Ballet and young dancers from its Reach scholarship program to create the modern take on Stravinsky’s work. It’s all part of what the orchestra has described as an increased focus on “the notion of the arts as a change agent.” For Muir, in her first season as the Charlotte Ballet’s artistic director, the collaboration “was a wonderful beginning to what I hope is a continued partnership with Charlotte arts organizations.”