Students at PS 161

Though spring will soon turn to summer, this fall it returns for two groundbreaking nights. That’s when 120 New York City public school students will be onstage and dancing to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Taking place on November 17 and 18, the events—presented by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in partnership with the Philharmoniker’s education department—promise to be a spectacular high point in Carnegie Hall’s first-ever international festival, Berlin in Lights.

United Palace Theater

For eight weeks leading up to the performances, the 120 students from four Upper Manhattan public schools, ranging in age from seven to 17—some dancing for the first time—will be trained in a dance piece created by famed choreographer Royston Maldoom. An additional 80 high school students will collaborate with musicians of the Philharmoniker and members of its education department to create Songs: Ritual Rhythms, an original piece of music using elements from The Rite of Spring. This new work will open the events on the 17th and 18th, preceding the dance performances, at The United Palace Theater, a glorious 1930 movie house in Washington Heights that was later revitalized as a magnificent church and performance space.

PS 161, situated in Harlem just next to The City College of New York, is one of the schools involved in the dance project. The school's music teacher, Jan Rudd, reveals that just six years ago, when she first arrived there, it lacked an art room and even a field where the kids could play at recess.

Today, the school has undergone a remarkable renaissance, boasting a full-fledged art room and a soccer team whose members all participate in the school's poetry club. There are theater and dance programs for every grade. Yet even with the students’ exposure to the performing arts, Rudd admits that for her 25 fifth graders participating in The Rite of Spring Project, modern dance will be a brand-new experience. But they’re up for the challenge.

“The kids are just absolutely ecstatic,” she reports. “They want to be bigger inside. They want to be better.”

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, complete with dance, might be considered an unusual piece to be performed by students as young as 11 years old. It is thunderous music, embodying a pagan Russia of mystery and sacrificial rites. Though it came to Stravinsky in a dream, those at its infamous 1913 premiere saw it as more of a nightmare and roared in riot against the piece.

Rudd, however, sees it differently.

“It’s just gorgeous. It’s just such a beautiful piece with constant changes and wide dynamics,” she says.

What’s more, she hopes her students will find inspiration in the theme of sacrifice that can be found both in the piece itself and in their efforts to master something so demanding.

“I want them to take this once-in-a-lifetime experience and have it be a jumping-off point for other opportunities the rest of their lives,” she says. “This is dance, but this is life. I want them to say, ‘This is me seizing an opportunity and making something out of my life. This is me making choices right now.’”

During two days this fall, the seeds of their effort will spring into bloom in two magical performances the students, and their audience, are not likely to forget.

A program of The Weill Music Institute in partnership with Zukunft@BPhil, the Berliner Philharmoniker Education program.

The Rite of Spring Project is made possible, in part, by a generous gift from Martha and Bob Lipp.

Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.