Salomon Bausch doesn’t remember the first time he saw his mother’s seminal 1975 work The Rite Of Spring. ‘I can’t answer this question, really,’ says the 42-year-old who established the Pina Bausch Foundation shortly after her death in 2009. ‘I was witnessing rehearsals and performances since I was very young; I continuously saw performances.’

It’s possible that The Rite Of Spring is Pina Bausch’s most famous work (although there are other contenders, such as Café Müller and Kontakthof). What is clear is that the Stravinsky piece, first performed by Ballets Russes in 1913, has its own special power and allure, which keeps drawing companies and audiences back to it time and again. ‘The music is very strong,’ says Jorge Puerta Armenta, one third of the artistic directing team who have restaged the Bausch choreography in a production that has toured Europe for the past two years, and hits Edinburgh mid-August (it will be performed alongside new duet common ground[s] by renowned Senegalese choreographer Germaine Acogny and former Bausch dancer Malou Airaudo). 
‘It’s dramatically impressive,’ Armenta continues, ‘and compiles a lot of human feelings. And of course there is this plot of ritual sacrifice, together with the discovery of sexuality and sensuality; plus this music which is so compelling.’ Armenta, who worked with Pina Bausch on the piece during his time as a dancer in her company, recounts an anecdote told to him by his co-director Josephine Ann Endicott, about Stravinsky’s music being the seed of Bausch’s creation. ‘One day Pina came into the studio in Wuppertal. She turned off the lights and played the music for the dancers; in the dark, no explanations. And then afterwards she just said that she would like to do the piece.’ 
This latest production is a collaboration between the Pina Bausch Foundation, Sadler’s Wells and Senegal’s École des Sables, and has been no small feat to put together. It was in development for several years while the cast was assembled from all over Africa. The team conducted auditions in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, and at École des Sables, whittling down an initial 250 applicants to a final cast of 34, drawn from 14 nationalities. ‘It’s a continent where people are hungry to dance and want to dance, and live their professions as dancers,’ says Armenta. ‘I think also their way to approach dance and performing matches the choreography in a way that is different.’

‘What I like about this project is that the dancers are from so many different backgrounds,’ continues Salomon. ‘Some have experience in different traditional African dances [of which there are huge numbers, he clarifies], others have urban dance, some have a ballet background. It’s very broad. This is different from other companies. If you go to a ballet company normally, everybody has more or less a similar background and experience. It’s very nice to have this broadness.’
When reviving choreography with a fresh team of dancers, Salomon says there is no contradiction between keeping the precision of the original movement and allowing dancers a freedom to make it alive and fresh. ‘I think the only way to be true to the piece is to really dive into it and dance it.’ Armenta, who worked so intensely on the work with Pina Bausch, sees his methods of ‘driving the dancers’ as having evolved naturally from his mentor. ‘It’s like when, as a kid, you learn to cook with your parents. You start out cooking the same kind of way, then little by little you put in your own extra things that you think it needs.’
The Rite Of Spring/common ground[s], Edinburgh Playhouse, 17–19 August, 7.30pm.