Seeing the two Bausch pieces challenged me in every way possible. I was completely shocked at the performances. The movements and the characters caused me great confusion. The first performance Bluebeard, however, felt more ambiguous for I struggled to find the meaning of the play. The characters came in and out of sleep walking, expressing their innermost desires. It was not until the end, where I realized that the play was more about one’s dreams. On the other hand, the second performance Rite of Spring seemed more straight forward as well pessimistic. I could clearly see that there was some sort of ritual going on. There was a girl that was going to be offered up as a sacrifice. The story behind the play states that the girl needed to be offered in order to please the gods. The tempo Rite of Spring was more fast-paced compared to the more slow-paced dreamy tempo of Bluebeard. The two plays caused two different reactions from .I felt emotions of sadness and anxiety as I watched the girl being sacrificed. On the other hand, I was just baffled at Bluebeard. The entire play consisted of me trying to understand why the characters moved the way they did. Bluebeard also definitely challenged more than Rite of Spring. It gave unusual shock due to the fact that it was really something that I never would have expected out of a musical. Its form and content were slow yet mysterious. It seemed like a story without a rhythm or meaning was being displaced. Every single event seemed arbitrary, like it was there to just be there and keep the audience engaged. To contrast, Rite of Spring seemed like it had an actual story. The characters seemed to have a purpose to advance the story and sacrifice the girl. All of a sudden, you stopped being confused and you allowed yourself to be moved by the performance.
