Dada Masilo's The Sacrifice at Birmingham Hippodrome

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Tue 28 Mar 2023 - Wed 29 Mar 2023

Dada Masilo returns to Birmingham Hippodrome with a new work inspired by Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The Sacrifice takes ideas from Stravinsky’s ballet and blends them with elements of Soweto-born Masilo’s South African heritage to create a dance exploring the dynamics of the individual against the group, the ritual of sacrifice and the terrible sadness of loss.

Masilo retains Stravinsky’s core narrative of a young woman who is sacrificed as part of a ritual to ensure the lives of those around her but she places it in another context. Where Stravinsky set his story very much in Russia, Masilo has turned to the traditions of Southern Africa to give texture to the work.

Although she has blended African and Western traditions in her productions in the past, this time Masilo studied Tswana dance, a form of dance performed in Botswana that itself can form part of traditional rituals.



The production also replaces Stravinsky’s iconic music with a new score again based on African rhythms but blended with classical elements. Composed by Ana Masina, Leroy Mapholo, Tlale Makhene and Nathi Shongwe, the music is an integral element of the production. Performed live on stage, the musicians are visible, and indeed, Masina also forms part of the story at both its beginning and its close.

There is interplay with the musicians, seen particularly when the dancers beg the musicians to slow down in what could be deemed an ironic hint of the Stravinsky original. In that piece the sacrifice is a young female virgin who dances herself to death, and here are Masilo and her fellow dancers urging the musicians to slow down, to ‘give them a breather’.



Alongside the humour there is also an element of pain as we see Masilo’s character experiencing the uncertainty and, indeed unwillingness, to face sacrifice. As those around her pinpoint her as the one to die she tries to turn away – but finally accepts that she must continue the ritual for the good of all.

Presented by Dance Consortium, The Sacrifice has a running time of 65 minutes with no interval and over that hour the pressure mounts as the music and the dance moves towards a final culmination. Masilo’s character is offered up by her fellow dancers who lift her, delivering her to her fate.

Only then is she offered consolation by the singer Masina who steps out of the band and onto the stage to hold Masilo and grieve over her sacrifice.

At Birmingham Hippodrome until 29 March, see [LINK https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com]

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