‘Grief is not always morbid,’ says Dada Masilo, the South African choreographer bringing a new take on death-and-rebirth tale The Rite Of Spring to Edinburgh. ‘Grief releases certain things so that something else can grow. That takes a long time to understand, but I’m understanding it now.’

^{Pictures: Tristram Kenton}

For Masilo, several things came together to make now the right time to tackle this dance classic, first created by Stravinsky and Ballets Russes in 1913 (Masilo has renamed her version The Sacrifice). Not least because there is the grief and suffering experienced during covid and our current climate crisis. But there are also smaller, personal experiences of mourning and rebirth. Masilo visited her grandmother’s grave and placed an orange lily on it, a flower traditionally associated with death. The symbolism of this gesture (a living flower on the grave of a beloved ancestor) had a huge impact on her. ‘I’m understanding the culture of how we celebrate things. That lily is always going to stay with me.’ 

The Rite Of Spring has never been an easy watch, telling the unsettling tale of a girl chosen to be sacrificed. In this new version, Masilo fuses her contemporary and classical background with Tswana, a traditional dance from Botswana, which she describes as ‘the most difficult dance to learn, because rhythmically it’s so complex’. It was important, however, that Tswana forms part of the language of this piece, for the connection it draws with her heritage and ancestors. A new score has also been created and will be performed live. 

While Masilo would not go so far as to describe The Sacrifice as uplifting, she believes its sentiment is relevant. ‘Mother Earth is going “OK, this is what needs to happen”. It’s not about having a choice, but about needing something more to come out of this, especially looking at the world as it is.’ 

Dada Masilo's The Sacrifice is on tour until Wednesday 12 April.