As one of the greatest ballet dancers
and choreographers in the 20th century, Nijinsky left
many classical works for people. I'm going to talk about several works of
Nijinsky.
The first one is Schéhérazade.Afterthe success of Cléopâtre,Nijinsky starred a dark and sumptuous drama, Schéhérazade.,
which was created by the team of Diaghilev. It’s a ballet based on the first
tale of the Thousand and One Nights, Queen Zobeïde bids farewell to her
husband, the Sultan. When he left the seraglio, the Queen brought the
male slaves to join her and the other women. While the Suletan returns, he
killed The Golden Slave, who is the Queen’s favorite. Schéhérazade was
so guilty and shamed that she took her own life. Schéhérazade ,
this murderous plot attracted a lot of audiences and become a hit and a staple
work, which was performed for twenty years, where The Golden Slade was also one
of Nijinsky's iconicroles.
Schéhérazade
The second one is L’Après-Midi d’un Faune, which
was the first choreography of Nijinsky. It was influenced by Fokine a lot, and
it made a change in choreographic aesthetic of the dance world. Nijinsky tried
the imitative realism of Fokine to create a more modern ballet, which was a new
art form that didn’t exist before.
The third one is Petrouchka, which tells a story of the love affair of a
puppet. The stage was set as the fair in St.
Petersburg
VideoPetrouchka
The fourth one is Till Eulenspiegel, which was produced in NYC in 1916. Nijinsky
played the title role and was the choreographer of it. The decorations and
costumes were designed by Robert Edmond Jones, who graduated from Harvard University Europe .
The fifth one is Le Sacre du Printemps, which was a revolutionary ballet first performed
in Paris
Le
Sacre de Printemps
The five pieces that you chose to highlight really showed the breadth of Nijinsky's work throughout his lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI have actually seen the Joffrey Ballet perform Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) and it was completely different from anything that was being choreographed in that time period. They gave this whole big presentation on how there were riots whenever it was being shown because everyone was so mad about what he had created. there was no technique, actually bad technique. They had sickled feet, and bend knees and absolutely no positions. It was interesting to watch because the rest of the show was very balletic. Probably my favorite part of the dance was the music that went with it. It was very dark and intense, and for me really changed a lot of the aspect of the show.
ReplyDeleteI really like his idea in his choreography of adding many different elements from other culture into ballet, instead of just beautiful elegant classic ballet.
ReplyDeleteit is really impressive to watch Nijingsky works, which give me a reason to respect him more.
ReplyDelete