Bayerisches Staatsballett

The mood is good. You're squatting on the floor in the large rehearsal studio of the Bayerisches Staatsballett—and it's vibrating quite a bit. You're mentally counting along while Azusa Seyama-Prioville & colleagues from the Tanztheater Wuppertal rehearse Pina Bausch's 50-year-old and still breathtaking version of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps with the Munich dancers for just three performances. After the bassoon's minor key introduction, as soon as the rhythm kicks in, you stop counting pretty quickly. And a little later, you feel vindicated in your decision, having learned from the performances of the truly funny ballet conductor Andrew Litton, an American with a British sense of humor, what you should definitely not do as a conductor of Le Sacre: count. Litton has conducted this ...