For dancer Anique Ayiboe, entering the world of “The Rite of Spring” was a journey of discovery.
The Togolese dancer, who has been touring and performing Pina Bausch’s famous 1975 piece from autumn 2021, says it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Honoring Bausch, the pioneering German choreographer who died aged 68 in 2009, the touring production has now appeared in Germany, Spain, France, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Ayiboe’s native Togo, as well as recently in New York and Los Angeles. .
Presented by the Pina Bausch Foundation in Germany, École des Sables, a dance center in Senegal, and Sadler’s Wells Theater in London, the production comes to Berkeley under the auspices of Cal Performances for three performances on February 16-18.
Featuring more than 30 dancers from 14 African countries, the performance includes “The Rite of Spring” as well as a “common ground” performance co-created by Germaine Acogny, known as “the mother of African contemporary dance,” and Malou Airaudo , a longtime dancer with Bausch’s company, Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Ayiboe has been a part of the “Rite of Spring” tour since the beginning. In a recent phone call from a tour stop in Los Angeles, she said she was studying African dance when she auditioned for the Bausch company in 2019. She returned to Togo and then returned to join the “Rite of Spring” tour.
She is one of three dancers in the central role of the Chosen One—a character who stands apart from the group to make the ultimate sacrifice.
It is a daunting task, requiring tremendous strength, power and endurance. At first, she said, she found the role (played by Bausch herself) extremely difficult. “I saw my name on the list, but I was scared. It was very, very difficult,” he recalls. Since then, he’s performed the role for four years and 300 performances—and, he says, he’s learned a lot.
“It’s very physical,” he said. “I don’t know how Pina did that solo, but it’s more than a dance. It’s not just the movement — it’s about you, what are you experiencing right now? What’s your story?’
Now, he says, it’s like a trance: “You have to be in another place, in your mind and body.”
Igor Stravinsky’s avant-garde score propels the work, he adds: “In four years of making this piece, we can’t understand how Pina could see it: movement and music together.”
Still, he says, Bausch’s choreography merges with the score in surprising ways. “You don’t just dance to the beat. You dance to all the music.”
Choreographers have staged “The Rite of Spring” in many different ways over the years. The American choreographer Mark Morris, for example, made his “Spring, Spring, Spring” a kind of ecstatic crack in nature.
Bausch’s vision, by contrast, is stark, elemental. Natural language is often tense. The choreographer specified that it would be performed on a dirt road, which many dancers would find intimidating. Cal Performances is customizing Zellerbach Hall to their specifications. Ayiboe said it feels familiar.
“In Africa, we used to dance on the ground,” he said. “We are more connected that way in our traditional dance.
“But with this part, you’re off balance. I don’t know how Pina thought of it, bringing the earth to the stage. But it gives us strength to go, to go.
“Even if you’re off balance, you’re trained to go, to dance. I feel that in this part I am off balance, but I find the strength to be grounded.”
“The Rite of Spring” is the first Bausch work performed by Ayiboe, aside from pieces learned in her training. Dancing the role of the Chosen One, he said, is both an honor and a monumental challenge.
“This piece is about a ritual,” he said. “You have to sacrifice something. It is our normal life — we sacrifice something to have something good. It’s life. So for me, that role has meaning—giving yourself, good or bad. It makes me grow—physically, mentally, spiritually.
“For me as an African, it’s a great opportunity to do this piece, to go around the world, to keep Pina’s work alive. To show people that Africans can do this. I’m proud of us, and for me, I gain a lot of strength, a lot of knowledge, in this part. It makes me push my limits.”
Cal Performances presents Pina Bausch’s “The Rite of Spring” and “common ground[s]» by Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo at 8 p.m. Feb. 16-17 and 3 p.m. February 18 at Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley. Tickets are $38–$86 at (510) 642-9988 or calperformances.org.