CrossOverBAM: Slam Symphony

Our »Slam Symphony« is now in its twelfth year, and this time the theme is Stravinsky’s »The Rite of Spring« – a vibrant work that caused quite a stir in 1913 when it was first performed as ballet music at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris: At the time, there was laughter, screaming, downright commotion and even fistfights. The piece deals with ritual incantations to reawaken nature. Ultimately, a girl is chosen to be sacrificed to the earth by dancing herself into a trance and ultimately to her death. The music composed for these scenes forms a wild orgy, whose pounding rhythm goes straight to the gut. But Stravinsky simply moved freely within the boundaries of classical music and had no use for dogmas. And so goes the course – or rather, the irony – of music history: Despite the initial commotion and veritable scandal, this composition, with its immense evocative power, has long been recognised as one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century. Its creation and premiere, the theme and the music itself are, at any rate, wonderful stepping stones for the very personal interpretations and creative ideas of our poetry slammers. With Meike Harms, Dalibor Marković and Jule Weber, three multi-award-winning voices from the German-speaking poetry slam scene take to the stage – winners at the German-speaking Poetry Slam Championships, among other accolades, and frequent performers on major slam stages – and we are eager to see which wordplay will move our audience the most, after all, as always, it’s the applause that determines the winner!