Dada Masilo, "The Sacrifice", press conference of the 17 July 2022

With The Sacrifice, choreographer Dada Masilo explores the minimalism and animality of Tswana dance through the lens of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of spring. For the choreographer, who grew up in South Africa in a xhosa environment, the question wasn’t just to bring together different dances, as she usually does, but to explore her own origins and to work on markers of identity: collective chants, rites, and beyond that, the desire for sacrifice. “To ask something of the ancestors, you have to be able to give something in return.” If The Sacrifice is the reflection of her Motswana heritage, it is first and foremost an exploration of the pain and suffering humans can inflict on each other. It that really necessary for change? What must we sacrifice? How can we start again differently? On the stage, four musicians et ten dancers form a community whose humour and rites make cruelty just bearable.