Svadebka

Photo: Jorge Fatauros
On this photo: Joke Zijlstra, Gerald Tibbs

Choreographer: Jiří Kylián

“'Svadebka' is the Russian word for wedding. In Igor Stravinsky's version it is the ritual of a marriage, which is traditionally arranged by the parents of the bride and groom.
The ballet, led by the music, is responsive to the various stages of the enactment of the ceremony. In these wedding rites, the bride and groom, still strangers, feel like two victims, about to be sacrificed. But as the celebrations proceed, the rites become wilder, more passionate, and the gap between man and woman becomes smaller and smaller, until their hands rest in each other in peace. With fear and doubt slowly resolving, they turn their backs to the past and walk ceremoniously towards the door, which is now open to their new life.”

– Christian Harvey