Sacre!

So, who should be sacrificed? And more importantly: who shouldn’t? Theater HORA, which focuses on working with actors with cognitive disabilities, interprets one of the most famous and scandalous works in ballet history, The Rite of Spring. The original piece, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, premiered in Paris in 1913. In this new version—directed by Teresa Vittucci and Annina Machaz—the original story is reimagined with a touch of humor. The tale of a young woman who dances herself to death is somewhat shaken: Robot or Spring Goddess? Peer pressure or ritual? And when does a finger become a deadly claw? Audiences are invited to join this whirlwind journey and surrender to ecstasy. In handmade costumes, the performers transform into ecstatic caterpillars. As the seasons shift before our eyes, we witness their surprising metamorphoses. The race against time has begun. And spring will return once again.

Teresa Vittucci, born in Vienna, has been based in Zurich since 2015. Her practice emerges from contemporary dance performance and investigates feminist and queer perspectives on pop culture, history, and religion, with subversive humor always playing a central role. In addition to her extensive solo work, she collaborates with other artists such as Colin Self, Marilú Mapengo Namoda, Annina Machaz, Simone Aughterlony, Nils A. Lange, Michael Turinsky, Claire V. Sobottke, Melanie Jame Wolf, and Theater HORA. In 2018, Teresa received a Zurich Recognition Award for outstanding artistic work and in 2019, the Swiss Dance Prize for the first part of her trilogy HATE ME, TENDER. In 2022, she created the performance RIDE at the invitation of the Centre Pompidou and Leopoldine Turbat, as a response to the seminal feminist work of avant-garde artist and filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger. SACRE! also premiered in that same year. In autumn 2023, Teresa was invited to Deutsches Theater Berlin to revisit her solo work; the resulting HATE ME, TENDER_revisited is now part of the repertoire and is regularly performed in Berlin.

Annina Machaz is a Swiss actress and creator of contemporary, performative art, known for her distinctive poetic-absurd style. She was born and raised in Zurich. She completed her secondary education at the arts-focused Gymnasium Unterstrass, and later earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Acting and Performing Arts from the Bern University of the Arts. During her studies, she received the prestigious Migros Kulturprozent scholarship and won the “Best Actors Award” for her role as Ophelia at the international ACT Festival in Bilbao. In 2014, together with Mira Kandathil and Nils Amadee Lange, she created the performance Follow Us, for which they received the Swiss New Talent Award, PREMIO. She continued to collaborate with Mira Kandathil on performances such as Ask the Oracle and Nora oder ein Altenheim, which were invited to numerous European festivals. In addition to her own creative work, she collaborates with prominent artists such as Ivo Dimchev (in FEST as “Girl from the audience”), Ann Liv Young (as “Captain Hook” in Peter Pan), and Helena Florentina Holzinger (for example, as “Calamity Jane” in Apollon, as the witch in TANZ, and as “Dante” in A Divine Comedy).

Theater HORA from Zurich is one of the most well-known independent theater, dance, and performance ensembles in Switzerland. The theater was founded in 1993 by director and theater educator Michael Elber. The core of the ensemble’s work is actors with cognitive disabilities of level IV. Theater HORA regularly collaborates with prominent artists and collectives from Switzerland and abroad and performs on local, national, and international stages. Since 2003, Theater HORA has also operated as a cultural workshop for people with learning disabilities. As such, it is part of the Züriwerk Foundation, which supports individuals with primarily cognitive impairments. In addition to its two theater departments—HORA-Labor and HORA-Produktion—there has been a separate artistic project, HORA’BAND, since 2005. It operates independently from the theater ensemble and performs on concert stages and at music festivals. Theater HORA has received several prestigious theater awards and honors for its work.

Duration: 60 min
No language barrier
Nudity, ages 16 and up

Conception: Teresa Vittucci, Annina Machaz
Choreography: Teresa Vittucci, Annina Machaz und HORA Ensemble
By and with: Andy Böni, Matthias Brücker, Cécile Creuzburg, Frank Häusermann, Annina Machaz, Lucas Maurer, Tiziana Pagliaro, Teresa Vittucci
Theater education: Svenja Koch und Anna Fierz
Sounddesign: Samuel Savenberg
Stage: Michela Flück
Costumes: Sophie Reble und HORA Ensemble
Assistant director: Emma Bertuchoz
Assistant stage: Flora Bühlmann
Assistant costumes: Liv Senn und Andi Böni
Dramaturgical consultation: Benjamin Egger
Oeil extérieur: Yanna Rüger
Technical director and light: Robert Meyer / Micha Bietenhader
Production management: Jörg Schwahlen
Artistic director HORA: Yanna Rüger
Production: Theater HORA in co-production with Tanzhaus Zürich
Sponsored by: Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Stadt Zürich Kultur, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Förderverein, Theater HORA, Stiftung Züriwerk, Pro Helvetia