Saša Asentić may not be very old, yet the organisation he founded, Per.art, has been around for 25 years. It started in Novi Sad in the troubled post-war period, when everyone, disabled or not, was in need of comfort. His idea was to bring people together to create collectively. They studied iconic works, such as Mary Wigman’s Witch Dance and Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof, bringing to light what these pieces can tell us about stigmatisation, solitude and the feeling of being “out of tune”. Now they have created their own Rite of Spring through the same process. Focusing on the sacrifice of the chosen one, they denounce the exclusion of vulnerable people by those who take themselves to be the norm. This ballet’s incredible choreographer, Nijinski, was himself constantly reinventing his identity and also suffered the distress of being committed to an asylum. Once again, the group gets right to the heart of a masterwork.

Claire Verlet