The artist was inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, whose premiere in 1913 caused one of the greatest scandals in the music world, and Milicent Hodson’s reconstruction of the original choreography in 1987. Stravinsky’s ballet is based on ancient Slavic myths of the Chosen One, who must ‘dance herself to death’ in order to awaken nature and bring spring. Kozyra chose to recreate the dance meticulously in stop-motion animation. Nijinsky’s choreography was a challenge even for experienced dancers, and in this case elderly people were involved in the project. Their bodies (with reversed gender attributes) became, in line with the artist’s concept, a kind of marionette, giving the impression of a body floating in a void. All the dancers’ poses and gestures were arranged (in a lying position) and precisely reproduced, with the animation achieving the effect of dance. The production took over two years and resulted in a work of just under 14 minutes — looped so that the cycle of the Chosen One’s dance and death is repeated endlessly. Viewed from either side of the screens, the projections are arranged in two circles: three screens of the inner circle show soloists performing the role of the Chosen One, and four screens of the outer circle have elders surrounding the Chosen One.

The Rite of Spring is co-produced by Zachęta — National Gallery of Art and the Renaissance Society in Chicago, and the premiere of the finished work (with the fully animated dance of the Chosen One) took place in Zachęta in 2002.

Audio description: The soundtrack of the video installation is the climactic part of the ballet The Rite of Spring – The Sacrificial Dance of the Chosen One. The orchestral music, synchronised with the dancers' animation, is dynamic, intense and rhythmic, with a clear dramaturgy corresponding to the scene where the victim dances herself to death.