The Rite of Spring (MacMillan) and 2008) Mara Galeazzi (2005), Zenaida Yanowsky (2005), Steven McRae (2011) and Edward Watson (2011). MacMillan had been invited to create a new production of "The Rite of Spring" for the Royal Ballet in 1959, but had declined. The company had little history of presenting Stravinsky ballets, with the exceptions of Ashton's "Le baiser de la fée" (1935) and "Scènes de ballet" (1948), and MacMillan's "Dances concertantes" (1955), "Agon" (1958) and "Le baiser de la fée" (1961). MacMillan took "The Rite" up in 1962, creating a work conspicuously removed from the Royal Ballet's classical tradition. His conception of the piece,
The Rite of Spring murder and gangster film images. In February 1984 Martha Graham, in her 90th year, resumed her association with "The Rite" by choreographing a new production at New York's State Theater. "The New York Times" critic declared the performance "a triumph ... totally elemental, as primal in expression of basic emotion as any tribal ceremony, as hauntingly staged in its deliberate bleakness as it is rich in implication". On 30 September 1987, the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles performed "The Rite" based on a reconstruction of Nijinsky's 1913 choreography, until then thought lost beyond recall. The performance resulted from years of