Rite of Spring

Rite of Spring costumes, 1913

May 29

Rite of Spring Day

Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day

Rite of Spring Day

Rite of Spring

Today's Musings, History & Folklore

“.... a laborious and puerile barbarity”

~ Henri Quittard, reviewing Stravinsky and Njinsky's "Rite of Spring" Ballets Russes opening night

Now that's a review! Today mark's the premier of Stravinsky's famous orchestral work and ballet, The Rite of Spring, which premiered on May 29, 1913, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

This work has gone down as one of the most notorious opening nights in music history.

But don't worry dancers, this 32 bar reel for 3 couples in a 4 couples set by Bob McMurtry is perfectly respectable, just as long as one keep's those puerile and barbaric tendencies in check!

Composed by Igor Stravinsky and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky for the Ballets Russes, the ballet shocked audiences with its pounding rhythms, dissonant harmonies, and deliberately primitive choreography depicting ancient pagan rituals and a sacrificial dance to welcome spring. According to many accounts, the audience reaction quickly descended into shouting, arguments, whistles, and near-rioting, with supporters and critics battling loudly enough that the dancers reportedly struggled to hear the orchestra. Although the scandal initially scandalized Paris society, The Rite of Spring would later come to be recognized as one of the most influential and revolutionary works of 20th-century music.

The choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky was especially startling. Classical ballet normally emphasized beauty, lightness, and turned-out feet. Nijinsky deliberately did the opposite, with movements which might also disturb Scottish Country Dancers:

* dancers stomped heavily
* feet were turned inward
* movements were angular and awkward
* groups moved in jerky, almost tribal patterns rather than elegant formations

The combination of the music, choreography, and subject matter created chaos in the theater. Audience members booed, shouted, argued, and mocked one another. Supporters shouted back at the critics. The noise became so loud that the dancers reportedly could not hear the orchestra properly.

Fortunately, responses to Scottish Country Dance demonstrates are usually a little more receptive! 🤪 🕺 💃 💗 💜 💚 🩰 🩰 🩰

Rite of Spring

When The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris in 1913, both Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky were trying to push ballet far beyond the graceful fairy-tale worlds audiences had come to expect. Their goal was not simply to entertain, but to create something primal, unsettling, and intensely modern. Inspired by imagined ancient pagan rituals of pre-Christian Russia, the ballet depicts a community welcoming spring through ceremonies that culminate in the sacrifice of a young maiden who dances herself to death for the renewal of the earth.Stravinsky’s motivation was deeply musical as well as dramatic.

He wanted to break away from the lush romanticism of 19th-century ballet music and create a sound that felt raw, elemental, and ancient. He later described having a vision of “a solemn pagan rite” in which elders watched a young girl dance herself to exhaustion as a sacrificial offering to spring. To evoke this world, he used pounding rhythms, harsh dissonances, unpredictable accents, and folk-inspired melodies layered in unusual ways. Rather than flowing melodies designed simply to accompany dance, the score itself became a driving force of tension and ritual. Stravinsky was fascinated by rhythm as a kind of physical energy, and in The Rite of Spring, music often feels almost percussive and violent, as though nature itself is surging awake.

Nijinsky’s choreography was equally revolutionary. Classical ballet audiences were accustomed to elegant lines, floating leaps, and refined movements. Nijinsky instead created dancing that deliberately looked awkward, heavy, and primitive. The dancers turned their feet inward, stomped, hunched their shoulders, and moved in angular groups rather than as ethereal individuals. He wanted the dancers to appear connected to the earth rather than lifted above it. Much of the choreography emphasized collective ritual over personal beauty, reinforcing the ballet’s themes of tribal ceremony and sacrifice. Nijinsky reportedly counted complex rhythms aloud during rehearsals because the music’s constantly shifting meters were so difficult for dancers to follow.

Together, Stravinsky and Nijinsky were part of a broader modernist movement that sought to challenge tradition and shock audiences into new ways of seeing and hearing art. Their collaboration reflected a growing early-20th-century fascination with primitivism, folklore, psychology, and raw emotional power. The infamous riot-like reaction at the premiere came partly because audiences were confronted with something that seemed to reject the elegance and order of conventional ballet altogether. Yet over time, The Rite of Spring came to be regarded as one of the most influential works in the history of music and dance, helping to redefine what ballet and orchestral music could express.

To get a sense of what audiences experienced in 1913, click the photograph of Njinksy, and see and listen for yourself!

Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!