Both The Rite of Spring and Cafe Muller are emotionally strenuous. Although I did not completely understand what I was watching sometimes, the intensity and passion of the performances was almost palpable. In Cafe Muller, Pina Bausch incorporated unpredictable movements that were also repetitive. Each dancer had completely different roles, and in some cases, they hardly interacted with each other. The stage was a slew of movements that were vaguely connected. While this piece was largely abstract, the choreography almost seemed to be stringing the audience’s emotions along. For example, the scene where two dancers were hugging and a third dancer kept trying to “fix” their positions. At first, the movements seemed comical and many people in the audience were laughing. However, as the dancers’ movements became more frantic and their breathing became haggard, the mood of the whole auditorium shifted. While Cafe Muller was hard to analyze and made me very confused, in that scene, I could feel the increase in anxiety and tension.
The Rite of Spring was just as, if not more, emotionally exerting as Cafe Muller. This dance piece was a lot more conventional and organized than the earlier performance. Men and women kept traditional roles, where the women had more delicate movements and men were more aggressive. In addition, the choreography maintained a clear connection between the dancers. Even when they were dancing individually, the dancers would have similar motions that would just be timed differently or scattered throughout the stage. The Rite of Spring is also very abstract but it was a lot easier to interpret compared to Cafe Muller. The overall tone of the piece was ominous. Even though I was enraptured by the movements of each dancer, the performance made me feel like I had heartburn. I was anxious and terrified without clearly knowing why.
I really enjoyed how you described the shifting of emotions in the auditorium when the intensity of the embracing couple increased. I think you did a great job of noticing the emotions within yourself and the emotions around you. By being observant in that way, I feel that you perceived how interactive and almost personable Bausch’s work truly is. By you pointing this out, I can see that her works are able to resonate with us in some way regardless of whether or not we truly understand their meanings. There is something engrossing and palpable about the complexity of the human experience in work that we can innately understand.
I also viewed it as “emotionally strenuous” as you said. As students, we were naturally inclined to try deeper meaning it everything and it was a challenge to do so for this piece due to how confusing and unorthodox it was. You also took the other audience members reactions and emotion into consideration. Also, these works were really passionate and I can tell that you understood that while simultaneously taking note of the audiences general feelings about certain parts of the performance. I also liked how you noticed the chemistry between the dancers. The audience and dancers seemed generally in sync respectively through dance and reactions.