Rite of the Butcher
Part One of the Desert Trilogy
Created and Performed by Ben Spatz

A visceral fable about the power of fantasy, as told by the Butcher - refugee, criminal, shaman - through poetry, martial dance, and folk songs in an invented language. This interdisciplinary work opens new doors for solo performance by combining embodied abstraction with contemporary themes.

The Desert is a series of evocative meditations on deserts both real and imaginary, a solo work in progress integrating song, movement, and poetry through human action. It draws on a range of contemporary images and ideas to explore the power of fantasy.

This project proposes to integrate Ben Spatz's five-year research into song cycles with an approach to physical action learned through collaboration with Maximilian Balduzzi. The first part of the trilogy, Rite of the Butcher, is in development in 2010-2012.