Seeta Patel Dance's Rite of Spring Features in the Observer

Seeta Patel was recently interviewed by Sarah Crompton of the Observer for a feature on the enduring legacy of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

The article featured discussion of Seeta Patel Dance's new interpretation of the classic work, marrying it with the Indian dance style bharatanatyam.

"Patel’s version, in which the chosen one becomes a divinity, places the sacrifice as part of a cyclical process of birth, death and renewal – and in her view takes it back to the pagan ideas that influenced Roerich. “Christianity and Abrahamic religions are very terminal,” she says. “You die and you go to paradise. Whereas deeply rooted within paganism is the idea of birth, life and destruction to create rebirth. It really does lend itself to a non-western philosophy.”

Read the full article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/feb/12/enduring-power-dance-class...