[中][Eng]一再重現的的祭典：慶祝《春之祭》從尼金斯基到現在的100年 Recurring Rites: Celebrating 100 Years of The Rite of Spring f
（原文刊於2012年的第十四冊第一期Originally published in dance journal/hk 14-1 in 2012. This is a translation of the Chinese article, not a transcript of the interview done in English)
本文根據Franck Boulègue和瑪麗莎．海斯（Marisa C. Hayes）的一場演講寫成。該演講於2011年10月24日在香港演藝學院（演藝）舉行，由演藝和香港舞蹈聯盟共同製作。
瓦斯拉夫．尼金斯基（Vaslav Nijinsky）於1913年創作的芭蕾舞《春之祭》不僅是舞蹈史上最重要的轉捩點之一，還是今天的當代製作中一股持久的國際性力量。這舞蹈號稱擁有長長一列著名的編舞家，包括舞蹈先驅瑪莎．葛蘭姆（Martha Graham）、莫里斯．貝嘉（Maurice Béjart）和翩娜．包殊（Pina Bausch）等。其情節中那永恆主題，和伊戈爾．斯特拉文斯基（Igor Stravinsky）的《春之祭》音樂，吸引了數以百計的舞蹈藝術家重新創作，並把自已的動作詞彙和文化背景賦予其中。近年的製作中，出現了舞踏（butoh）、hip hop和莎莎舞蹈（salsa）之類不同舞蹈形式，而在地點上，也有以美國西南部、原住民時期的澳洲和西非等地作為演出的背景。同樣獨特的新版本每年都繼續亮相。
這些作品在美學上和主題內容的處理上都千差萬別，但各個新版的《春之祭》都因為使用了斯特拉文斯基的樂曲和參考了芭蕾舞原作的總主題，而保持了一致性。因此，《春之祭》是當代舞蹈中的一種獨特現象，其形式聚焦於個人主義而不是共同的舞目。舉例說，芭蕾舞團往往主打經典的標準作品，經常把它們重演和重構。這些舞目的觀眾熟悉其音樂和主題內容，可是，在當代作品中找到如此廣泛應用的芭蕾舞卻很少見。有記錄的200多個《春之祭》當代舞蹈版本支持了這樣一個事實：當代編舞者從未試過以同樣的規模擁抱其他音樂作品或舞蹈情節。這種方式讓觀眾得到一次難得的機會，可以通過多種不同的呈現，與一個當代舞蹈作品的主題發展密切的關係。與《春之祭》中的生命週期關連的一些普世主題和不可少的問題，在整個20世紀都一直引起了藝術家和觀眾的共鳴，並且在芭蕾原作面世將近一百年後仍然持續。
《春之祭》最初是為謝爾蓋．達基列夫（Serge Diaghilev）的巡演舞團俄羅斯芭蕾舞團（Les Ballets Russes）而創作。該團一直被公認為20世紀最偉大的芭蕾舞團之一，並培育了不少有才華的藝術家，其中包括年輕時的喬治．巴蘭欽（George Balanchine）。在成立之初，該團由俄羅斯帝國芭蕾舞團（今天的馬林斯基劇院）的舞者組成，其中包括著名的塔瑪拉．卡爾薩維納（Tamara Karsavina），米歇爾．福金（Michel Fokine）和瓦斯拉夫．尼金斯基。在《春之祭》之前，達基列夫這個年輕的舞團已經表演了一些前衛新作，包括舞蹈史上的另一個試金石、1912年尼金斯基的第一支芭蕾舞創作《牧神的午後》。這些作品展示了新的動作、視覺藝術和音樂形式，為創新和跨界形式的演出創造了機會，對芭蕾舞和現代舞的發展都產生了巨大影響。 俄羅斯芭蕾舞團在巴黎和其他歐洲首都引起公眾轟動，也有個別的醜聞。達基列夫對此並不反感，並認為那對業務有利。在這些醜聞之中，最臭名昭著的是1913年5月29日，在巴黎香榭麗舍劇院《春之祭》開幕式上爆發的騷亂。
瓦斯拉夫．尼金斯基（左一）於1913年創作的芭蕾舞《春之祭》
Vaslav Nijinsky (first leftt) in the original The Rite of Spring in1913
當年，尼金斯基的非正統編舞和斯特拉文斯基的原始新音樂震驚了觀眾；現在，它們往往被視作為現代作風的誕生，開創了藝術創作的新時代。斯特拉文斯基和該芭蕾舞的設計師尼古拉斯．洛里奇（Nicholas Roerich）受到一些俄羅斯於基督教前的圖象所啟發，為《春之祭》建立了場景。他們的意念圍繞著一個異教徒儀式，並以一個年輕少女「被選者」（Chosen One）在獻給春天之神的祭祀中舞至身亡為終結。儘管尼金斯基本身是一位受古典訓練的舞者，但他為《春之祭》編舞時卻打破了傳統，並要求舞者雙腳內轉（女性不用足尖站立）、跌倒在地板上，並演出一些從來沒看過的動作，被大多數觀眾認為是對這藝術形式的橫蠻侮辱。在那災難性首映後不久，倫敦《每日郵報》援引了尼金斯基的話說：「我被控以違反優雅之罪……有些繪畫和雕塑的流派一直越來越文雅圓滑，直到全無達意能力而只剩下平庸；這時，總會有反抗的出現。也許類似的事情已在舞蹈中發生。」即使是演出者，也討厭尼金斯基的作品，並威脅要辭演。他們不僅對編舞感到不滿，也對複雜的音樂、幾乎所有小節都改變節拍的編排完全感到沮喪。
儘管觀眾可能很難在該芭蕾舞的首場演出中充分感受斯特拉文斯基《春之祭》那驚世的樂曲（目擊者回憶說劇院裡的噪音變得太大，令舞者聽不到樂隊的演奏，而尼金斯基則從台下瘋狂地大聲數著拍子），但它現已成為現代歷史上最知名、最具影響力的音樂之一。從猛烈的敲擊節奏到刺耳的和諧，《春之祭》憑著音域強烈而有氣勢的聲音，在首演後近一個世紀的今天，仍然歷久彌新。它經常被標籤為一個自我參照的作品，表示很難把這音樂放置於某一發展的時間軸上，這與大多數藝術品從一個歷史時期逐漸發展到下一個時期很不一樣。
儘管斯特拉文斯基那複雜樂譜的某些方面可以追溯到其他音樂傳統，但他那激進的不協和聲音是絕對獨特的，與之前或之後的任何事物都不相同。這讓《春之祭》的音樂具有一定的靈活性，因為它並非固有地與任何特定的時代或文化聯繫在一起，從而使具有不同背景的編舞者有機會在沒有預設脈絡的限制下自由地進行探索。除了音樂的普世性外，芭蕾原作的儀式主題－－大自然的循環、暴力和犧牲，過去、現在都是所有社會的特徵。這是一個理解《春之祭》能在各大洲都有廣泛吸引力的重要因素。
儀式，或帶有象徵性的一組行動，是法國編舞家莫里斯．貝嘉於1959年創作的《春之祭》所擁抱的主題。在他的版本中，生育儀式是演出的焦點，由分開的兩組男女舞者演出。儘管編舞家那踏實的動作讓人想起了芭蕾原作的原始本質，但整個演員陣容所穿的中性顏色緊身衣褲，使作品不受任何特定文化的時間或地點所影響。此外，貝嘉的復始儀式不是建基於歷史上的慶典，而是受到榮格的（Jungian）和東方思想中的原型所啟發。編舞將兩性分開來並不是要作為衝突，而是以其代表陰陽等二元力量；它們具有相等但互相獨立的能量，構成了一個更大整體的兩個部分。貝嘉的版本終結時，男女結合成對，從而得到復始。在很大程度上，這與尼金斯基的版本甚為相似。後者藉著「被選者」的死亡而恢復了秩序，亦即春天的持續生命力。
法國編舞家莫里斯．貝嘉於1959年創作的《春之祭》
The Rite of Spring (1959) by Maurice Béjart
這種二元性是存在於《春之祭》眾多版本中的一種共同趨勢，包括德國編舞家Raimund Hoghe的近期作品。在這個簡約的演出中，貫穿全舞是一雙雙對比鮮明的舞者，尤其重要是由成熟的編舞者和年輕得多的女舞者組成那青年和老年（出生和死亡）一對。娜泰莉．維亞（Natalie Weir）那受澳洲原住民影響的《春之祭》，最近被香港芭蕾舞團重排。編舞者對戀愛和配偶相關儀式的興趣，類似於貝嘉所自陳的慶祝「男女之間的差異」。Heddy Maalem的版本中，西非舞者與日出和日落的影像並置，利用一天來隱喻生命力（黎明）和致命暴力（夜幕降臨）兩個對作品有同等重要性的概念。卡洛塔．池田（Carlotta Ikeda）的全女性舞踏團Ariadone定期演出由舞團創辦人Ko Murobushi編排的《春之祭》。其配樂包括斯特拉文斯基原作音樂的選段，特別強調了最戲劇性的部分，再加上傳統的日本音樂和海浪聲，對前者帶來了一種令人平靜的對比。音樂中的這一選擇，反映了演出對在生死過渡的最後時刻中所出現的生、死二元力量的探索。與大多數作品相比，居於美國的華人編舞者沈偉創作了迄今最抽象的《春之祭》。雖然完全去除了情節，但通過幾何對比，在舞蹈編排上保持了微妙的二元性，例如，早段的面向內的圓形後來對映出面向外的圓形，這呼應了幾乎所有《春之祭》版本都探索的二元論和循環的大自然這兩個反覆出現的主題。
《春之祭》的音樂和情節中逐漸拉緊的張力非常適合暴力這個主題，其中包括多個層次的衝突：群體、個人，和社會政治。一些歷史學家甚至提出，1913年的原作預示了第一次世界大戰的爆發，捕捉到了歐洲即將面臨的潛在動盪感。最近在雲．溫達斯（Wim Wender）電影《翩娜》（Pina）中亮相、翩娜．包殊創作於1975年的著名《春之祭》版本，則毫不掩飾地處理兩性關係中的暴力，特別是對婦女的剝削。《春之祭》中的衝突主題常常與犧牲的主題交織在一起，在包殊這個版本中，這表現於一直是演出焦點的「被選者」所受到的疏離。需要注意的是，與芭蕾原作中屈從於命運的「被選者」相比，包殊舞中的犧牲者為自己的角色作出了抗爭。最後，她以一場持續的獨舞發出感人的吶喊，直到崩潰滅亡於鋪滿泥土的舞台上。她的舞蹈像徵著個人以至整個性別的喪失。
芬蘭編舞家特羅．薩里寧（Tero Saarinen）的作品《Hunt》是《春之祭》的獨舞版本，探討了同時身為獵人和被獵者的意義，是一次對個人層面的暴力、內部複雜性和老化的反思。薩里寧甚至將自己的表演比作舞者的生命週期；在這週期中，多數藝術家都作出了巨大的犧牲，包括自己的身體。這個類推也許是舞蹈藝術家對《春之祭》如此著迷的另一個原因。除了犧牲（自己）和儀式（跳舞）的概念之外，這作品還包含了他們對人體自然循環的深刻了解。
Hunt(2002), Tero Saarinen
無論是Hodson / Archer重構的尼金斯基《春之祭》原作，還是對這作品的多個全新詮釋，都繼續在全球各地對文化產生巨大影響，而且沒有減弱的跡象。像尼金斯基一樣，當代編舞家繼續在他們的藝術中尋找普世真理，在原始的層面上尋找真實而原創的表達方式的泉源，探索活著之意義，探索作為人類而同時亦是在更大的生命網絡中之一部份的意義。
This article is based on a lecture given at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) on October 24, 2011 by Franck Boulègue & Marisa C. Hayes, co-presented by the HKAPA and the Hong Kong Dance Alliance.
The creation of Vaslav Nijinsky's 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring is not only one of the most defining moments in the history of dance, it is also an enduring international force in contemporary production today. The ballet boasts a long line of celebrated choreographers including dance pioneers Martha Graham, Maurice Béjart, and Pina Bausch, to name a few. Attracted to the timeless themes found within the plot and Igor Stravinsky's musical score for The Rite of Spring, hundreds of dance artists have reinvented the production, infusing it with their own respective movement vocabularies and cultural backgrounds. Dance forms as diverse as butoh, hip hop, and salsa have appeared in recent productions, while locations, such as the American Southwest, Aboriginal Australia, and West Africa have all been featured settings for the performance. New and equally distinct versions continue to debut annually.
While these productions vary widely in their aesthetics and each choreographer's treatment of the thematic content, new versions of The Rite of Spring retain consistency through their use of Stravinsky's score and references to the original ballet's overarching motifs. For this reason, The Rite of Spring is a unique phenomenon within contemporary dance, a form known for its focus on individualism rather than a common repertoire. Ballet companies, for instance, often feature classic standards, which are frequently re-staged and re-imagined. Their audiences are familiar with the repertoire's music and subject matter, but it is much rarer to find the equivalent of such wide-reaching ballets in contemporary dance. Over two hundred contemporary dance versions of The Rite of Spring have been documented, underlining the fact that contemporary dance choreographers have never embraced another musical composition or plot with quite the same magnitude. In doing so, audiences have been given the rare opportunity to develop an intimate relationship with a contemporary dance piece's themes and score via multiple presentations. The universal subjects and essential questions linked to life cycles in The Rite of Spring resonated with artists and audiences throughout the course of the 20th century and continue to do so nearly one hundred years after the ballet's inception.
The Rite of Spring was originally created for Serge Diaghilev's itinerant company Les Ballets Russes, which would go on to be recognized as one of the greatest ballet companies of the 20th century and foster talents such as the young George Balanchine. In its earliest years, the company was composed of dancers from the Imperial Russian Ballet (today's Mariinsky Theatre), including celebrated figures Tamara Karsavina, Michel Fokine, and Vaslav Nijinsky, among others. Prior to The Rite of Spring, Diaghilev's young company had already performed a handful of new avant-garde productions, including, in 1912, Nijinsky's first ballet The Afternoon of a Faun, another touchstone in the history of dance. These productions showcased new forms of movement, visual art, and music, creating opportunities for innovative and interdisciplinary forms of performance that had a tremendous impact on the development of both ballet and modern dance. Les Ballets Russes caused a public sensation in Paris and other European capitals, as well as the occasional scandal, to which Diaghilev was not averse and considered good for business. Of such scandals, the riot that erupted during the opening performance of The Rite of Spring on 29 May, 1913 at Paris' Theatre des Champs Elysees is the most infamous.
Serge Diaghilev (left) and Igor Stravinsky (right), black and white photograph, Spain, 1921.
© Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Audiences were shocked by Nijinsky's unorthodox choreography and Stravinsky's primal new music, both of which are often cited as the birth of modernity, ushering in a new era of artistic creation. Stravinsky and Nicholas Roerich, the ballet's designer, developed the scenario for The Rite of Spring inspired by images of a pre-Christian Russia. Their idea centered around a Pagan ritual that ended with a young maiden, the "Chosen One", dancing herself to death in a sacrifice to the god of Spring. Although he was a classically trained dancer himself, with his choreography for The Rite of Spring, Nijinsky broke with tradition and called for dancers to turn their feet inward, (off pointe for women), fall to the floor, and perform other movements that had never been seen before, which struck most viewers as a savage affront to the art form. Quoted in London's Daily Mail newspaper shortly after the disastrous premiere, Nijinsky said, "I am accused of crimes against grace... There have been schools of painting and sculpture that went on getting suaver and suaver until there was no expression but only banality left; then there has always come a revolt. Perhaps something like this has happened in dancing". Even the performers loathed Nijinsky's work and threatened to quit. Not only did they resent the choreography, they were utterly frustrated with the complicated music, a composition that changes meter with almost every measure.
Although it may have been difficult for audiences to fully experience Stravinsky's striking score for The Rite of Spring during the ballet's first performance (witnesses recall that noise in the theater became so overpowering, the dancers were unable to hear the orchestra and Nijinsky frantically shouted musical counts from offstage), it has gone on to become one of the most recognizable and influential pieces of music in modern history. With a strong range of commanding sounds, from its driving percussive rhythms to its dissonant harmonies, The Rite of Spring continues to sound fresh today, nearly a century after its debut. It is often labeled a self-referential composition, indicating that the music is difficult to place within a developmental timeline, unlike most works of art that evolve gradually from one historic period to the next.
Although it is possible to trace certain aspects of Stravinsky's complex score to other musical traditions, his radical cacophony of sound is overwhelmingly unique and unlike anything that preceded or followed it. This lends the music of The Rite of Spring a certain elasticity in that it is not inherently tied to any specific era or culture, allowing choreographers of diverse backgrounds the opportunity to explore it freely outside the confines of a pre-existing context. In addition to the universality of the music, the original ballet's central themes of ritual. natural cycles. violence and sacrifice are features of all societies past and present. an important factor in understanding the wide appeal that The Rite of Spring has acquired across continents.
Ritual, or a symbolic set of actions. was a theme embraced by French choreographer Maurice Béjart for his creation of The Rite of Spring in 1959. In his version, a fertility rite is the focus of the performance. danced by two divided groups of male and female performers. Although the choreographer's earthy movements recall the primal nature of the original ballet, the entire cast's neutral-colored body suits allow the work to remain free of any culturally-specific time or place. Furthermore, Béjart's ritual of renewal is not based on an historic ceremony, but rather inspired by archetypes found in Jungian and Eastern thought. The choreographer did not segregate the genders as an act of conflict, but rather as the representation of dual forces like Yin and Yang, with equal but separate powers that form two parts of a greater whole. Béjart's version ends with the joining of the male and female pair. through which renewal is achieved. in much the same way that the death of Nijinsky's Chosen One results in a return to order, the continued life force of Spring.
This sense of duality is a common current found in many versions of The Rite of Spring, including a recent production by German choreographer Raimund Hoghe. In his minimalist performance. contrasting pairs are illustrated throughout, particularly that of youth and old age (birth and death), via the mature choreographer's presence alongside a much younger dancer. Natalie Weir, whose Aboriginal-influenced version of The Rite of Spring was recently reprised by The Hong Kong Ballet, was interested in rituals linked to love and mating, similar to Béjart in her self-proclaimed celebration of "the differences between the male and female". Heddy Maalem's West African cast juxtaposes the image of sunrise and sunset within a version that utilizes the metaphor of a single day to capture both the life force (dawn) and deathly violence (nightfall), equally essential to the piece. Company Ariadone, Carlotta Ikeda's all female butoh ensemble, regularly performs a version of The Rite of Spring choreographed by the company's founder Ko Murobushi. Its soundtrack includes excerpts of Stravinsky's original score, with a particular emphasis placed on the most dramatic portions, paired with traditional Japanese music and the sound of ocean waves, both of which offer a calming contrast to Stravinsky. This choice in music reflects the performance's exploration of the dual forces of life and death found within the final moments of transition between the two. In contrast to most productions, Shen Wei, an American-based Chinese choreographer, has created the most abstract version of The Rite of Spring to date, eliminating its plot entirely. A subtle sense of duality is maintained in the choreography, however, through geometric contrasts, such as an early inward-facing circle later mirrored by an outward-facing circle, echoing the recurring themes of dualism and cyclical nature explored in nearly all versions of The Rite of Spring.
Celebrating 100th years of The Rite of Spring (2013), The Hong Kong Ballet
The rising tensions found in The Rite of Spring score and plot are well suited to the theme of violence, including conflict on multiple levels: group, individual, and socio-political. Some historians even suggest that the original 1913 production foreshadowed the outbreak of World War I, capturing an underlying sense of upheaval that Europe would soon face. Pina Bausch's celebrated version, which premiered in 1975 and was recently featured in Wim Wender's film Pina, openly addresses the violence in gender relations, chiefly the exploitation of women. The theme of conflict within The Rite of Spring is often intertwined with that of sacrifice, as Bausch demonstrates through the alienation of her Chosen One, who remains the focal point of the performance. In contrast to the original version of the ballet in which the Chosen One surrenders to her fate, it is important to note that Bausch's sacrificial victim contests her role. The duration of the Chosen One's final solo is a moving outcry until her eventual collapse and demise on the earth-covered stage. Her dance symbolizes both the loss of an individual and in turn, an entire gender.
The Rite of Spring (1978) by Pina Bausch
Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen's production entitled Hunt, is a solo version of The Rite of Spring that explores what it means to be both the hunter and the hunted, a rumination on violence at the individual level, interior complexity and aging. Saarinen has even likened his performance to the life cycle of a dancer, one in which most artists offer great sacrifices, including that of their own body. Perhaps this analogy is yet another reason dance artists feel so drawn to The Rite of Spring; the piece encapsulates their own deep knowledge of the human body's natural cycles, in addition to the concepts of sacrifice (themselves) and ritual (the act of dance).
Both the Hodson/Archer reconstruction of Nijinsky's original The Rite of Spring and multiple new interpretations of the production continue to have an enormous cultural impact across the globe and show no signs of waning. Like Nijinsky, contemporary choreographers continue to search for universal truths in their art, to find the source of an authentic and original mode of expression on a primal level, exploring what it means to be alive, to be both human and part of a broader web of life.
編輯手記 Editor's Note
《春之祭》的首演正正發生在一戰前夕的1913年。百多年後的今日，不只成為於課本中讀到的歷史，更是鬼魅般不斷被重演、改編及以不同版本及形式重現舞台。去年香港就已經有三個本地同名作品上演，國際的呼聲也從不間斷。當年在巴黎香榭麗舍劇院上演的《春之祭》挑戰古典芭蕾傳統，顛覆美學，更引發軒然大波的漫罵和討論。文中分享了數個改編版本，對其檢討的主題作出分析，更論此劇為「現代作風的誕生，開創了藝術創作的新時代」。今天再為讀者從新刊登一次，希望在這混亂的時代，乘著歷史後浪而一往無前。
The Rite of Spring premiered in 1913 on the eve of the First World War. Today, more than a hundred years later, it is not only a page in history that we read about in textbooks, but an ageless, living work which is constantly being re-staged, adapted, and re-created in different versions and forms. Last year, three local versions were staged in Hong Kong, and internationally, its appeal has never subsided. The historic first performance of The Rite of Spring at the Théatre des Champs Elysées in Paris challenged the traditions of classical ballet, subverted the prevailing aesthetics, and caused uproar and heated discussion. Describing the piece as "often cited as the birth of modernity, ushering in a new era of artistic creation,” this article introduces readers to several adaptations of the work and analyzes their respective themes. As we republish it again today, it is our hope that we too can ride the waves of history and move forward without hesitation in this chaotic era.
客席編輯Guest Editor: 劉秀群Cathy Lau Sau Kwan ｜ 翻譯Translation：施德安 Cecil Sze
