Credit: Shoccara Marcus

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

It’s an example of the way Schreier’s “The Rite of Spring” is pushing dancers to reach new levels of expressiveness and power on stage.

The world premiere production runs Feb. 7-14 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Guest conductor John McPhee, who notably arranged composer Igor Stravinsky’s original score for a smaller ensemble, will conduct the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra. Helgi Tomasson’s “7 for Eight,” to music by J.S. Bach, will open the program.

The birth of modernism in ballet was a violent one as “The Rite of Spring’s” debut illustrated.

Historian Lynn Garafola wrote that Stravinsky’s inspiration for the ballet came when he dreamed of a pagan ritual in which a sacrificial virgin danced herself to death. The composer drew from Slavic songs with ancient roots and abstracted them beyond recognition into what would become an iconic masterwork.

The score’s dissonant chords, illogical accents and melodies pushing into extreme registers inspired Nijinsky to create movements of deliberately turned-in positions; tight, angular gestures; and earthbound jumps — the antithesis of classical ballet.

During the production’s 1913 Paris premiere, audience members erupted in protest as Nijinsky shouted counts to the dancers from where he stood on a chair offstage.

Rather than incite a riot as the original production did, Atlanta Ballet Artistic Director Gennadi Nedvigin hopes that Schreier’s new creation ― paired with Tomasson’s clean, neoclassical “7 for Eight” ― will demonstrate the company’s ability to “motivate and inspire” audiences and “create a deep emotional response.”

Credit: Atlanta Ballet

Credit: Atlanta Ballet

When Nedvigin floated the idea with Schreier, she was excited at the chance to delve into Stravinsky’s powerful orchestral score. Daunting, though, was the fact that numerous choreographers before her had done the same, among them giants like Maurice Béjart, Pina Bausch and Martha Graham.

Local precedents include Atlanta Ballet’s 2011 commission by Christopher Hampson. Atlanta-based choreographers George Staib and Lauri Stallings have interpreted arrangements for chamber ensembles. And Stallings debuts a version in Texas Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in collaboration with Robert Spano and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Schreier has aimed neither to replicate nor match what previous dance-makers have achieved with “The Rite of Spring,” believing there’s much more to unearth in Stravinsky’s score. But it is a challenge, not only for its shifting meters but also for its “multiple tempos within the same measure,” she said.

“Sometimes, you have competing instruments,” said Schreier, noting that Stravinsky’s intent was to reflect fighting tribes. “It is a literal war taking place within each measure.”

Baked into the score, said Schreier, is “the fight of humanity against nature, the fight of men against women. It’s reflected in the dissonance, the atonality, the raging tempos, these beautiful quiet moments.”

While Schreier has referenced motifs from some earlier versions, she developed her own interpretation, which she said speaks to the inevitability that “no matter how much humanity attempts to build itself up and remove itself from the cycle of nature, we all come back to the same place in the end.”

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

Credit: Shoccara Marcus

To convey that, Schreier “leaned into a lot of sharp, grounded kind of aggressive movement” that progresses over the course of the piece.

The ballet starts with a celebration heralding spring. “When certain impulses start to overtake,” said Schreier, “everything gets closer to the earth and heavier.”

But then, the verdant realm on stage becomes dry and desiccated as its inhabitants descend into madness ― a “bestial, brutal place,” she says.

As in Nijinsky’s version, a female sacrifice is needed to restore the community’s balance with nature. “Even though we draw down into this deep, dark, horrible place,” said Schreier, “it is to bring us to the beginning again, in a way.”

Schreier sensed fear, lust and anger in Stravinsky’s music and responded with movement that was more forceful and aggressive than anything she has done before with Atlanta Ballet’s refined classical dancers during her five years as choreographer-in-residence.

Because the piece requires dancers to leave their classical ballet technique and cultivated decorum behind, “it’s amazing to see what they’ll do to drive themselves into the ground, literally, in service to the piece,” Schreier said.

For Santos, the final solo is unlike anything she’s done in her seven years with Atlanta Ballet.

“I’m constantly seeking my own version of these crazy, primal, visceral earthy movements,” she said. “It’s a totally different side of myself that I’d never imagined I’d do.”

As she worked on the character, Santos asked herself, “How would I dance if I knew that it would be my last breath?” The feeling of letting go while having no choice but to dance herself to death led Santos to a new level in her dancing, and a state of vulnerability and surrender.

“If I were to dance forever,” said Santos, “I think, this is how it’s going to be.”

Schreier said she hopes audiences will come away from her interpretation of “The Rite of Spring” understanding why the original production caused a riot in 1913 and how its themes remain painfully relevant.

“Between the global warming and the natural disasters,” said Schreier, “you have humans who are fighting against the elements of nature and losing,” she said, referring to recent fires in Southern California.

“You have the brutality against women, which we’re experiencing daily with the attack on abortion rights. It’s all there,” said Schreier. “For as antique of a work as it is, it’s not antiquated.”

DANCE PREVIEW

“The Rite of Spring.” Performed by the Atlanta Ballet. Feb. 7-14. $28-$150. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 404-892-3303, atlantaballet.com