"In her lifetime Nijinska choreographed over seventy ballets, as well as dance sequences for numerous films, operas, and other stage productions." An annotated, chronological catalogue of her choreographies is presented by Nancy Van Norman Baer in her book on Nijinska. Her early experiences in choreographic arts involved the assistance given her brother Vaslav Nijinsky in his choreographic works for Ballets Russes. She had then tried out the initial stages of various steps created by him.
During war and revolution, 1914–1921 At the start of World War I, Nijinska and her husband and daughter, and her mother, were caught on the eastern side of the
Eastern Front. Her brother Vaslav was on its western side, eventually in Austria. The Russian art world in the early twentieth century was often innovative and experimental. "Russian art before the October Revolution had held aloof from revolutionary Marxism." Thus the composer
Igor Stravinsky distinguished clearly between the pre-war conservative fetters on art and the subsequent
straitjacket eventually imposed by the
Communist Party. For a few years following the war-born 1917 revolution, Russia was in chaos, and many artists managed to operate somewhat independently of Soviet politicians and their totalitarian ideals. in pre-war ballet costume
Petrograd, her first choreographies 1914–1915 At the start of World War I, Nijinska, her husband Aleksandr Kochtovsky ('Sasha', married in 1912), and their infant daughter Nina returned to Petrograd (then the Russian capital's new name). Nijinska had long considered the city her home; it was her last time living there. She found work teaching ballet to
Cecchetti's students. Newspaper accounts report that Bronislava and Aleksandr met their former colleagues from Ballets Russes, and danced alongside them. Included were
Michel Fokine and
Tamara Karsavina, and as well the Bolshoi's
Mikhail Mordkin. Both became leading dancers at the Petrograd
Private Opera Theatre. In 1915 Nijinska produced her first choreographies:
Le Poupée [The Doll] (or
La Tabatière), and
Autumn Song. These creations were for her solo performances at the Narodny Dom Theatre. She was twenty-five. The 1915 program described her as "the celebrated prima ballerina-artist of the State Ballet". The music for her dance creation
Autumn Song was by
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and for
The Doll by
Anatoly Liadov. On that program, performed at the Narodny Dom [People's House], were also ballets choreographed by Michel Fokine of Ballets Russes, to be danced by Nijinska and her husband. Her choreography for
Autumn Song, "the more important" of her two solos, "owed a debt to Fokine".
Kiev 1915–1921, her 'École de Mouvement' In August 1915, the family moved to
Kiev. Nijinska's husband 'Sasha' Kochtovsky became ballet master at the State Opera Theater. There they both worked on ballet scenes for the operas, and on staging dance divertissements and ballets. In 1917 Nijinska began teaching at several institutions: the State Conservatory of Music, the Central State Ballet Studio, the Yiddish Cultural Center Drama Studio, and the Ukrainian Drama School. In 1919, after their son Leon was born, after her School of Movement was opened, her husband Sasha left the family and traveled alone to
Odessa.
Treatise on choreography Nijinska's "theoretical speculations" about modern ballet apparently began to crystallize. During a short stay in Moscow after the 1917
October Revolution, Nijinska started her treatise:
The School of Movement (Theory of Choreography). It was published in 1920 but has become lost to posterity, like much of the dance materials she created in Kiev. The only remnant of it apparently is a 100-page 'manuscript' found "scrawled" in one of her exercise books. In a short essay published in 1930, however, she apparently recapitulated her key ideas: "On movement and the school of movement". Nijinska writes: N. V. N. Baer observes an imbedded
neoclassical implication within Nijinska's then radical theory of dance, 'the school of movement', i.e., not the overthrow of balletic tradition leading to
modern dance, but the incorporation nonetheless of entirely new modes of movement. "It is in this essay that she documents her search for a new means of expression based on the extension of the classical vocabulary of dance steps."
Collaboration with designer Exter 's 1921 curtain design, Moscow. In 1917 Nijinska met the visual artist
Alexandra Exter (1882-1949) in
Moskva. Exter's cutting-edge designs employed
constructivist ideas. The two traded their views on modern art and the theater. So began a long and fruitful collaboration on various dance projects, with Exter designing sets and costumes. The working relationship that formed endured into the 1920s, after each had independently left Russia, to move to Paris. Before the war Exter had lived in Western Europe, where she joined "
cubist and
futurist circles" that were generating popular innovations. Returning to Russia at war's start, Exter first settled in Moscow. With
Alexander Tairov at his Kamerny [Chamber] Theater, she had "aspired to create a dynamic fusion of drama, movement, and design known as 'synthetic theater'." In 1918, having relocated to Kiev, Exter opened an art studio, which doubled as a salon for many of Kiev's rising artists. Art discussions were also held evenings at Nijinska's dance school, where Exter joined in. Their ideas were compatible and mutually reinforcing.
Curator/author Nancy Van Norman Baer writes that they became "close artistic associates" and "fast friends". In addition to Exter,
Les Kurbas (1887-1937) worked with Nijinska. As a
Ukrainian theater producer and
film director, Kurbas was a leading arts figure in Kyiv and a promoter of local performance. They entered into a "complementary and deep" collaboration, sharing studio space, movement classes, dancer-actors, and theatrical discussions.
Her ballet school and its productions In February 1919 in Kiev, she opened her dance school called L'Ecole de Mouvement [School of Movement]. This was shortly after giving birth to her son Léon. Her school's philosophy was to focus on preparing dancers to work with innovative choreographers. Among ideas she taught her students: flowing movement, free use of the torso, and a quickness in linking steps. As she stated in her Kiev-era treatise/essay "On Movement and the school of movement": "Today's ballet schools do not give the dancer the necessary training to work with choreographic innovators. Even the Ballet Russes ... did not create a school to parallel its innovations in the theater." [86/87] Yet historically, regarding Vigano, Noverre, Vestris, Didelot, Taglioni, Coralli, Petipa: "the ''danse d'ecole'' absorbed all the achievements of these choreographers. ... [They] did not destroy the school with their innovations, but only enriched it." [87] Under the aegis of this school she staged concerts with her own choreographed solo dances. Included were "her first plotless ballet compositions":
Mephisto Valse (1919), and
Twelfth Rhapsody (1920) music by Liszt, and
Nocturne (1919) and
Marche Funèbre (1920), music by Chopin. These solo dances may be "the first abstract ballets" of the 20th century. In many of her productions her students danced for the public, among whom
Serge Lifar was the most outstanding. Accordingly, she began to receive broad recognition as a choreographer. Then, invited by the Ministry of Arts, Nijinska mounted a full theatrical production of the
Tchaikovsky ballet
Swan Lake. She adapted the classic
Petipa and
Ivanov choreography of 1895. Her success involved trimming the ballet's difficulty to fit the level of her weaker students. The performance was held at Kiev's State Opera Theater.
Reasons for leaving Kiev House, early 1900s. It had been reported in the literature that Nijinska and family left Kiev in 1921 in order to visit her brother Vaslav Nijinsky in Vienna, after learning of his deteriorating health. Yet she learned about her brother in 1920, when the
Russian Civil War prevented travel. Based on recent research, Prof. Garafola describes a different and suppressed reason. The
Cheka, as the notorious Soviet security police was then called, in early 1921 stepped up its harassment of her and her students. Her artistic independence was confronted and by April ''L'École de Mouvement'' had been closed. The school "had given her a new life and an identity of her own as a modern artist. It was her child, the home of her imagination, a community of friends and devoted followers, the catalyst and expression of her creativity. In the weeks that followed [its closing] she quietly made plans to leave. With others, Nijinska entertained conflicting views, and mixed emotions, about the old Russia and its demise in the Revolution and horrific Civil War. The aristocratic art form, however, survived under the proletarian dictatorship, interpreted as a strange form of
socialist realism. She came of age as an artist of the imperial school, yet at first the Russian Revolution seemed to open doors, as if the
avant-garde of Art, before its officials closed her ballet school and company in Kiev. Yet Nijinska did not become anti-Soviet. She traveled under false pretenses west out of Kiew, assisted by other dancers. She'd taken her two children,
Irina aged seven and Leon aged two, and her mother of sixty-four years. After she bribed the Soviet border guards, they waded across the
Bug River into
Poland, arriving in early May, 1921. Several weeks later in Vienna the four travelers visited her brother
Vaslav, his wife
Romola and their children
Kyra and Tamara. His health, however, had deteriorated since 1914, their last meeting. Once widely-celebrated as the "god of dance" he had not performed since 1917. Despite such sadness, the family was reunited. Broni found income by working at a cabaret in Vienna. At this point Diaghilev sent her an invitation; he included train fare. Her two children she entrusted to her mother's care. Nijinska then departed for Paris to rejoin Ballets Russes.
Diaghilev's 'Ballets Russes' in Paris and Monte Carlo 1921–1925 The company staged ballets for twenty years, starting with its 1909 opening of
La Saison Russe in Paris, and ending in 1929 when its founder
Sergei Diaghilev died. He had directed the company's operations: both the business and the theatrical (music, choreography, dance, decor and costumes). He chiefly worked with five choreographers, more or less in sequence: Fokine (1909-1912, 1914), Nijinsky (1912-1913, 1917), Massine (1915–1920, 1925-1928), Nijinska (1921-1925, 1926), Balanchine (1925-1929). Diaghilev's "successive phases" are described as: "reform (Fokine), modernism (Nijinsky and Massine), and ... constructivism and neoclassicism (Nijinska and Balanchine)." The early twenties were Nijinska's time at the helm. Originally started in Russia by an arts
impresario to function as an "exporter of Imperial culture" (initially the ballet productions in Paris), it happened that the company never performed in Russia. By 1918 less than half its dancers were Russian, 18 out of 39. 12 were Polish. The rest were four Italians, two Spaniards, two English women, and a Belgian. The company's ambivalent and attenuated connection to Russia had not survived the 1914–1918 war, the 1917 revolutions, and the
Russian Civil War. In 1922 for financial reasons it relocated its base of operations from Paris to
Monte Carlo.
Her initial choreographic work, and derivations in 1887 In 1921 Diaghilev asked Nijinska to return to Ballets Russes, chiefly for her choreography. He had become aware of her recent work in
Kiev, especially that she had staged the
Petipa-
Ivanov classic
Swan Lake, to music by
Tchaikovsky. He had re-engaged her "because" of this demonstration of her abilities. As well as ballet mistress and a principal dancer, she was in line to be the Company's first and only female choreographer. Yet Diaghilev as ever was also cautious. Partly to test the quality of her work, and partly because of his company's financial condition, he first gave Nijinska major tasks in his on-going ballet productions.
The Sleeping Princess, originally La Belle au bois dormant (1921) by
Léon Bakst, who created 300 costume designs for
Diaghilev's lavish 1921 London production of
The Sleeping Beauty. . As theatrical events unfolded in late 1921, Ballets Russes was confronted with a severe financial crisis. The immediate cause was its lavish London production of the celebrated
classic The Sleeping Beauty originally staged in 1890 in Saint Petersburg. Its 1921 version had been renamed
The Sleeping Princess apparently because, as Diaghilev wryly observed, following the
war the role of titled princess had become a rarity. The ballet was "one of the great
Petipa classics from the old Imperial Russian repertory".
La Belle au bois dormant [The beauty in woods asleep] was taken from a French
fairy tale of that name by
Charles Perrault. Music was specially composed for it by
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Diaghilev extravagantly revived the entire production of Petipa's three-act ballet.
Léon Bakst designed the sets which "were of surpassing grandeur and magnificence and no expense was spared..." Although the main choreographic credit remained with Petipa, the "Additional choreography by Bronislava Nijinska" was recognized. Her most memorable contribution: to the grand
divertissement in Act III she added the rousing
hopak for the 'Three Ivans' (
Les trois Ivans); it "became one of the most popular numbers". Nijinska designed a half-dozen other, well-crafted choreographic pieces (e.g., "The Marquises", "Blue Beard", "Schéhérazade", "Variations of Prince Charming"). She made other alterations to the ballet, and led its rehearsals. As a principal dancer, she took roles as the Hummingbird Fairy, the Lilac Fairy, and Pierrette. She choreographed a new version of the so-called "finger" variation for herself as the Hummingbird Fairy. In 1921 in London the key for Diaghilev at Ballets Russes was her mastery of dance, staging and design.
The Sleeping Princess production "became a proving ground of Nijinska's choreographic talent. She acquitted herself admirably." Diaghilev's earlier had, post-war, committed the company to revive the 1890 Russian classic. It was a bold decision which incurred a large financial risk. He aimed for excellence, a show of the tradition's high production values whatever the expense. After viewing
The Sleeping Princess many theater critics were skeptical, disappointed by the apparent retreat from an experimental approach previously associated with Ballets Russes. Diaghilev's traditional classic, however, did prove very popular with London's growing audience for ballet, for whom it became an artistic learning experience that boded well for future London dance performances. Yet in late 1921 the London aficionados still small numbers meant that they could not purchase enough tickets to cover its great expense. After a run of several months, attendance began to fall. By early 1922 the truly brilliant production had become a colossal, money-losing disaster. Nijinska arrived in mid-1921 at the Ballets Russes company. She had come from the harsh realities and creative ferment of 'Russia in revolution'. Her own artistic tastes then clearly favored the experimental Ballets Russes of pre-war days, when Diaghilev was "searching for the creation of a new ballet..." Yet in 1921
The Sleeping Princess was the focus at Ballets Russes, and her first assignment. She wrote later that Diaghilev's extravagant revival then "seemed to me an absurdity, a dropping into the past". No doubt Nijinska felt the stress resulting from the cultural-artistic dissonance: "I started my first work full of protest against myself." Over the course of her career, however, Nijinska neither remained a radical champion of rebel experiments, nor did she ever accept as timeless perfection the inherited balletic tradition. While strongly favoring new ideas about the art of movement, eventually she chose to take a
middle path: traditional art reconciled with radical innovation, and vice versa.
''Aurora's Wedding, or Le Mariage de la Belle au bois dormant'' (1922) After a run of several months, mounting financial pressures had forced the closure of the lavish London production of
The Sleeping Princess. In an attempt to recoup his investment Diaghilev then asked Stravinsky and Nijinsky to collaborate in creating from its three acts a shorter version. Together they reworked the dance and music to salvage "a one-act ballet, which he called ''Aurora's Wedding''." It proved very popular and became an enduring commercial success, remaining in the repertory of Ballets Russes companies for decades. ''Aurora's Wedding'' premiered in Paris at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in May 1922. Since the costumes and decor for the London production had been impounded by creditors, those used were by Benoit from a 1909 production of another ballet, as well as new by Gontcharova. The principal dancers were
Vera Trefilova as Princess Aurora and
Pierre Vladimirov as Prince Charming. With Petipa Nijinska shared the choreographic credit.
La Fête Merveilleuse [The Marvelous Festival] (1923) Itself largely excerpted from her ''Aurora's Wedding
, the "gala benefit pageant" La Fête'' was performed by Ballets Russes in the
Hall of Mirrors at the
Palace of Versailles. The gala played to the post-war French taste for theatrical revivals from the 18th-century
Ancien régime. The well-heeled audience of aristocrats and art patrons came from all over Europe and from America. Staged by Nijinska, Tchaikovsky's music was reorchestrated by Stravinsky, and the costumes were by
Juan Gris.
Les Contes de Fées [Stories of the fairies] (1925) Les Contes de Fées was another spin-off from
The Sleeping Princess, drawn from fairy tales in ''Aurora's Wedding
(originally in Act III of La Belle au bois dormant''). It premiered at Monte Carlo in February 1925. That winter Diaghilev produced it and other ballets in "full dress" even though scenery was not used.
Her own ballet creations Nijinska earned her credits as the sole choreographer for nine works at Ballets Russes during the 1920s. All but one were set to modern musical compositions: three by Igor Stravinsky (two ballets,
Renard,
Noces, and an opera,
Mavra); three by contemporary French composers, Francis Poulenc (
Biches), Georges Auric (
Fâcheux), and Darius Milhaus (
Train Bleu); one by a contemporary English composer, Constant Lambert (from the Shakespeare play); and, one by Modest Mussorgsky (
Nuit, an opera). One work employed
baroque music (
Tentations).
Le Renard [The Fox] [Baika] (1922) . Nijinska's first ballet in her tentative new position as choreographer for Ballets Russes was
Le Renard, described as a "burlesque ballet with song".
Igor Stravinsky composed the music, which was for small orchestra and four singers. Stravinsky also wrote the libretto, i.e., the lyrics. Originally commissioned by a friend of Diaghilev in 1915, it was not publicly performed until 1922. The principal dancers were: Nijinska (as the Fox),
Stanislas Idzikowski (as the Cock), Jean Jazvinsky and Micel Federov (as the Cat, and the Goat). Costumes and sets by
Michel Larionov were in a type of radical, modernist style with a "primitive quality". The plot comes from "Russian preliterary theater" sourced in "a tradition of itinerant folk entertainers" impersonating buffoons and animals. Across Europe, late medieval tales of
Reynard the Fox were popular. Here, the Fox (a
con-artist) works to trick the Cock (a wealthy peasant) in order to literally eat him, but the Cock is saved by the Cat and Goat. "Disguised first as a nun, then as a beggar, the fox embodies criticism of both social and clerical orders."
Baika was the original Russian title of
Le Renard. Nijinska's choreography tended modern. She "juxtaposed movements of animal grace with odd gestures and grotesque postures." The ballet was narrated by singers off stage. Larionov's visual design included simple animal masks for the dancers; the name of each character, e.g., "Goat", was written in large letters on the dance costume. In her memoirs, Nijinska discusses
Fokine's innovative "Dance of the Fauns" (1905). There in the background the many "fauns looked like animals". The young boys who danced them once "tumbled head over heels" which was not in keeping with 'classical ballet' techniques. Yet Fokine claimed the result conformed to the "animal characteristics of the dance." Nijinska then comments: I, who always spoke against the use of acrobatics in the ballet, made use of somersaults in my very first ballet, Stravinsky's
Le Renard (1922). But there was no contradiction. I did not use those steps as a trick but to achieve an artistic aim. Although
Le Renard was ill-received and seldom performed, Stravinsky's harsh music and the childlike costumes were suspected. Yet the ballet had "impeccable avant-garde credentials." "Diaghilev was pleased with Nijinska's work and engaged her as the permanent choreographer for his company." Stravinsky, too, was pleased. He wrote in his 1936
Chronicles of my life: I still deeply regret that the production [Le Renard] which gave me the greatest satisfaction ... has never been revived. Nijinska had admirably seized the spirit of mountebank buffoonery. She displayed such a wealth of ingenuity, so many fine points, so much satirical verve, that the effect was irresistible. The premiere of this burlesque ballet also inspired an interesting social event. It was "a first night supper party for
Le Renard", planned by
Sydney Schiff as a kind of "modernist summit". Invited were "Proust and Joyce in literature, Stravinsky in music, Picasso in painting." Garafola comments that only in these years of Diaghilev "would ballet stand so close to the
avant-garde."
Mavra (1922) An "
opéra bouffe" with music by Stravinsky, it was first performed at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in Paris, June 1922. The lyric book by Boris Kochno followed a poem by
Pushkin, 'A small house in Kolomna'. "The one-act opera did not require any dances, but Diaghilev asked Nijinska to stage the movement of the four singers." in Russian
Svadebka]) from the music and libretto by
Igor Stravinsky, music commissioned ten years earlier by Diaghilev. In four tableaux, the 24-minute ballet depicts in abstract fashion events surrounding a peasant marriage: the blessing of the Bride, the blessing of the Groom, the Bride's departure from her parental home, and the wedding celebration. Dancers first learning the steps often met some difficulty with the intense group movements of the choreography. "When you are truly moving together your individuality is really evident." Abandoned was the light-hearted sense of folk dance. A realism drawn from her experience of the hard edge of revolution, and tradition, has seasoned Nijinska. She presented her sober observations on folk society, yet also there lurked a vital vision. The heavy, collective mood of predestination is countered by hints of a peasant's wit and ability to survive. After first seeing it,
H. G. Wells wrote: in Paris, by
Picasso, 1920. The ballet
Les noces is "a rendering in sound and vision of the peasant soul, in its gravity, in its deliberate and simple-minded intricacy, in its subtly varied rhythms, in its deep undercurrents of excitement..." Stravinsky's idea for the score evolved during war, revolution, and exile. His libretto conveys ancient and set patterns, yet his music uses staccato rhythms and a vocal overlay of upheaval. Left little expressed is the wedding as a reassuring ritual of joy. The tone of the work is darker, more anxious, conjuring a "deeply moving evocation" of the ceremony. Nijinska translated it to dance, embodying in the ballet a tragic sense, the fate of both tradition and revolution. The lyrics were taken from a collection of Russian folk songs (the
Sobranniye Piesni of Kireievsky), although Stravinsky's libretto is arranged in an unorthodox manner. The phrases were selected for their "typicality" or commonality. The voices of the singers seem disconnected from the characters they represent. "Stravinsky's composition, while fluid and layered, at times becomes overtly jarring." In form a
cantata, the "music accompanying his choral and solo singers came from an orchestra of percussion, dominated by four pianos." Dance writer Robert Johnson claimed that Stravinsky's text for
Les noces manifests his interest in psychology and a collective unconscious of the type posited by
Carl Jung. Accordingly, the contrast between a
musical "cell" and its elaboration in the score for
Les noces represents a dialog between profane time (chronos) and sacred time (
kairos), as defined by
Mircea Eliade. Nevertheless, Stravinsky described his conception of the ballet's
mise-en-scène as a "masquerade" or "divertissement.," whose effect would be comic. Nijinska rejected this concept, and it is her somber vision of the ballet that ultimately prevailed. Yet "the fanciful, colorful costumes she first proposed struck Nijinska as wrong". Then Goncharova modified her designs to resemble the style of clothes worn by dancers to rehearsals.
Balanchine's practical dance clothes for performances "can trace precedents back to
Noces." In the end, Goncharova's sparse sets and costume design are now "inseparable from the ballet's musical and movement elements." When Nijinska worked on
Les noces: initially proposed a bright, richly colored decor in the old Ballets Russes manner. Nijinska, however, would have none of it." After war and revolution, she saw in "a Russian peasant wedding: not a joyous occasion but a foreboding social ritual in which feelings were strictly contained and limited by ceremonial forms." The ballet must tell this truth and invoke such a "timeless peasant world." Goncharova "immediately took the cue and responded with earthy brown and white costumes cut to simple peasant lines, severe in their simplicity and lack of color. The sets were equally stark." Stravinsky and Diaghilev agreed. I was still breathing the air of Russia, a Russia throbbing with excitement and intense feeling. All the vivid images of the harsh realities of the Revolution were still part of me and filled my whole being. Nijinska researched ethnological studies of peasant customs in Russia. Yet in boldly translating to the ballet stage, she seems mostly to follow Stravinsky's modern score. She directed the women to dance
en pointe, in order to elongate their silhouettes and resemble
Russian icons. The beating sounds of the pointes jabbing the board demonstrates strength (not the ethereal effect previously associated with
en pointe). Nijinska's groupings of women move largely in unison. The corps often faces square to the audience, a departure from the "epaulement" found in classical works, which softens the look by angling the shoulders. Toward the end of scene one, the women handle extremely long braids of the bride's hair, greatly exaggerated in thickness, as if the women were "sailors taking up the mooring lines of a boat." The whole piece, tethered to an ancient folk tradition, has an overwhelming sense of a controlled conformity. Her choreography reflected Nijinska's interest in modernist abstraction. An iconic pose from
Les noces has the heads of the women dancers, i.e., the bridesmaids, as if stacked up. Author Jennifer Homans, in defining the ballet's
tragedy, comments: In one of the ballet's most poignant and telling images, the women dutifully pile their faces like bricks on top of one another, forming an abstract, pyramid structure ... The bride sets her face on the top and rests her head despondently in her hands. We see both the individuals (those faces) and their submission to authority and the group ... Dance critic Janice Berman writes that Nijinska viewed the wedding celebration from her perspective as a woman: "Nijinska was obviously a feminist; the solemnity of the nuptials derives not only from the sanctity of married love, but from its downside---a loss of freedom, particularly for the bride. She loses not only her long, long braids, but also her privacy, her right to dream. The bride's last reverie, after all, comes before the ceremony; she leans her head on her hands, atop a table formed by eight of her friends. After the nuptials, another dreamer takes the bride's place." Also, the critic Johnson points out that
Les noces is filled with images of dreamers. here "a reenactment of a Russian peasant wedding." The ballet movement of the ceremony reflected "not a joyous occasion but a foreboding social ritual." Dance critic
André Levinson in his harsh 1923 review called her choreography "Marxist" in which the individual was swallowed up by the masses. Nijinska, however, escaped from her brother's nihilism by following Stravinsky's lead "through the formal beauty and discipline of the
Orthodox liturgy." Nonetheless the ballet remained "a modern tragedy, a complicated and very Russian drama that celebrated authority" yet showed its "brutal effect on the lives of individuals." Dance academic and critic Lynn Garafola, in discussing the ballet scene in the early 1920s, identifies a major competitor to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She characterizes
Ballets suédois (Swedish ballet) led by
Rolf de Maré as a company that had "largely succeeded in edging Diaghilev to the sidelines of
avant-garde Paris." Yet Garafola mentions her admiration for the 1922 ballet
Le Renard (see above) created by Nijinska for Ballets Russes. She continues: [I]t was only in 1923 that Diaghilev staged a modernist masterpiece that transcended the best of his rival's offerings.
Les noces, probably the greatest dance work of the decade, teamed three of his closest Russian collaborators: Stravinsky, his 'first son', as composer; Natalia Goncharova, as designer; and Bronislava Nijinska, as choreographer. "Bronislava Nijinska's
Les noces [grew] out of boldness of conception without regard for precedent or consequences," wrote
John Martin, dance critic for
The New York Times. Nijinska herself wrote about
Noces: "I was informed as a choreographer [by my brother's ballets]
Jeux and
The Rite of Spring. The unconscious art of those ballets inspired my initial work."
Les Tentations de la Bergère [Temptations of the shepherdess] (1924) This one-act ballet featured
baroque music composed by
Michel de Montéclair (1667–1737), which was recently orchestrated by
Henri Casadesus. The sets, costumes, and curtain were by
Juan Gris. An alternative title is ''L'Amour Vainqueur'' [Love Victorious]. It opened in Monte Carlo. In the mid-1920s "a significant part of the Ballet Russes repertory turned away from modernism and themes of contemporary life." This included
Les Tentations de la Bergère and the ballet
Les Fâcheux, also choreographed by Nijinska. These were "two works produced by the Ballets Russes during the 1920s that focused on themes related to eighteenth-century France. These productions were rooted in France's post-World War I fascination with bygone monarchies and court life."
Les Biches [The Does (or 'the girls')] (1924), also called The House Party A one-act ballet
Les Biches ['Les Demoiselles' was once a proposed alternate title] depicts a contemporary house party for singles, with music to 'entertain' by
Francis Poulenc. 'Fashionable' scenery and costumes were by cubist painter
Marie Laurencin, also French. Poulenc's commissioned music for ballet, which originally included sung lyrics, was a "wonderful chameleon of a score", that was "mischievous, mysterious, now sentimental, now jazzy, now
Mozartian..." Dance writer Robert Johnson comments that beneath this ballet's sun-washed, Riviera setting lie "shadowy scenes painted by Watteau: the
Parc des Biches where Louis XIV trysted, and the forest where voluptuous courtiers rediscovered Cythera, the isle of love... . From the opening notes of Poulenc's overture, significantly scored for flutes and woodwinds, we find ourselves in this
bois of ancient gallantry." Poulence described the section titled "Jeux" as, "a kind of hunting game, very
Louis Quatorze." Its January 1924 opening at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo featured "La Nijinska herself" in the cast and, among others, a minor role for
Ninette de Valois (she later became director at
Sadler's Wells). The French title
Les Biches signifies "the girls" or female deer (the plural of doe), which was "1920s terminology for young women; [it] celebrates ballet women as chic young ladies." Several English-speaking ballet companies changed the title, e.g.,
The House Party or
The Gazelles. "Although Diaghilev to Poulenc praised Nijinska to the heavens ... [he] feared she might be unresponsive to the Latin charm of the Poulenc score." Her first three choreographies for Ballet Russe had been composed by Stravinsky (Renard, Mavra, Noces). Yet "Poulenc and Nijinska had taken to each other enormously..." During rehearsals, Poulenc remarked that "Nijinska is really a genius" and her choreography's "pas de deux is so beautiful that all the dancers insist on watching it. I am enchanted." Diaghilev concluded: Poulenc is enthusiastic about Bronya's (Nijinska's) choreography, and they get along excellently together. The choreography has delighted and astonished me. But then, this good woman, intemperate and antisocial as she is, does belong to the Nijinsky family. The ballet's plot is unspecified. According to Poulenc, an atmosphere of "wantoness" prevails. Apropos of the ballet's ambiguity, Richard Buckle asks, "Have the three athletes who enter this whispering world of women just dropped in from the beach, or are they customers?...It is so delightful not to know."
Les Biches was intended to be a modern "fête galante," and in some ways a commentary on Michel Fokine's ballet
Les Sylphides. Nijinska "was 'powerful' and 'strange,' a dancer 'intoxicated with rhythm, ... racing against the most breathless 'prestos' of the orchestra." In this role of the yellow-clad hostess, Nijinska flew round the stage, performing amazing contortions of her body, beating her feet, sliding backwards and forwards, screwing her face into an abandoned attitude on the sofa. She danced as the mood took her and was brilliant. (1912) Dance writer Richard Shead appraised
Les Biches as "a perfect synthesis of music, dance, and design..." He situated it in the aftermath of the radical experimentalism of her brother
Vaslav Nijinsky, whose innovations had challenged the classical ballet canons: The great strength of Nijinska's choreography was its inventiveness, together with the fact that it remained essentially
classical. It is easier to see now than it can have been in the 1920s that the future of choreography lay in classicism but in a classicism which was capable of being extended, varied, distorted even, without departing in any fundamental sense from the mainstream vocabulary of classical dance. Nijinska achieved this in
Les Biches;
Balanchine was to do so latter ... Following World War I, Diaghilev found it advisable to produce a French-themed work neo-classical in style. Yet the Nijinska's dance vocabulary of
Les Biches is not entirely academic; it blends virtuosic classroom steps, exposed lines and pointe work with body building poses, sporting images and references to popular dance forms. In this regard,
Les Biches is "the fountainhead of neoclassicism in dance." According to Robert Johnson, "loves of various kinds are portrayed and accepted here seeingly without prejudice." Nijinska has turned the tables, making the ballet's three male athletes the object of a libidinous female gaze. "Nijinska has seized the power to frame the discussion about sex." Marie Laurencin's decor, according to Garafola, had "the same ambiguous blend of innocence and corruption" as the ballet. It opens in a flood of pink light that is "voluptuously feminine". A host of taboos are explored: "narcissism, voyeurism, female sexual power, castration, sapphism". Garafola a few pages earlier mentions the career importance of her years in Kiev "fired by the Revolution's brave new art". On one level
Les Biches appears to creatively conflate the sexual experimentation of post-war Paris and Kiev. Yet Nijinska herself apparently remained somewhat of a skeptic. Garafola comments that Diaghilev disapproved of the ballet's pessimism, its sour look at gender relations. Portrayed was a femininity "only skin-deep, a subterfuge applied like make-up, a construction elaborated over time by men, not an innate female property." The customary "male bravura dance" is here exposed as pretentious. The ballet "divorces the appearance of love from its reality."
Les Biches, surmises Garafola, may be interpreted as disclosing Nijinska's "unease with traditional representations of femininity."
Balanchine, Nijinska's successor as choreographer at Ballets Russes, complimented her for
Les Biches describing it as a "popular ballet of the Diaghilev era". It was revived several times, he continued, and met with "critical and popular approval". "Monte Carlo and Paris audiences ... loved it." "
Les Biches was very much liked." "[W]e all knew long before the curtin went down on the first night that
Les Biches was a smash hit."
Les Fâcheux [The Mad, or The Bores] (1924) (ca. 1658).
:fr:Les Fâcheux was originally a three-act ballet comedy, written by the French
playwright,
librettist, and actor, known by his stage name
Molière (1622–1673). It opened in 1661, with baroque music by
Pierre Beauchamp and
Jean-Baptiste Lully. Without a plot, characters appear, do a monologue, then exit never to return. "Molière's hero Éraste [is] continually hindered by well-meaning bores while on his way to visit his lady love." Adopted for Ballets Russes, the music was by Georges Auric, with scenery designed by
Georges Braque, libretto by
Jean Cocteau after Molière, choreography by Nijinska. Nijinska danced the male role of Lysandre, wearing a wig and clothes of the seventeenth-century.
Anton Dolin as L'Elégant danced on point to approximate the baroque era and his performance created a sensation. "Her choreography incorporates mannerisms and poses from the period that she modernized by stylization." Braque's costumes were 'Louis XIV'. The original music, however, had been lost, so that Auric was free to evoke the past with a modern composition.
Georges Auric was associated with fellow French composers
Francis Poulenc,
Darius Milhaud, and
Arthur Honegger, part of a group called
Les Six. French writer Jean Cocteau courted the group as representing a new approach to the arts, including poetry and painting.
Ballets suédois in the early 1920s commissioned members of Les Six to compose music for its dance productions. Ballets Russes followed suit. Some 1920s music critics dismissed Les Six compositions as
musiquette. But current critic
Lynn Garafola sees in ballet revivals like
Les Fâcheux that employ their music a "gaiety and freshness" in their "unpretentious tunes and depiction of everyday life". Garafola appreciates "the independence of the music in relation to the choreography." Ballets Russes dancer
Lydia Lopokova, however, about Nijinska's ballet
Les Fâcheux and similar works, commented that it was smooth and professional, but nothing or no one moved her. She longed for very old-fashioned ballets without abstract ideas, with simplicity and poetry. "
Massine and Nijinska choreography clever as it is have too much intellect," she felt.
La Nuit sur le Mont chauve [Night on Bald Mountain] (1924) The ballet premiered in April, 1924, in Monte Carlo, with principal dancers
Lydia Sokolova and Michel Fedorov. Nijinska's choreography was set to the music of
Modest Mussorgsky. Some designs for ballet then experimented "with costumes that 'reconstructed' the body, transforming its natural shape." For
Night on Bald Mountain, Nijinska's sketches "show elongated, arc-like forms." The costumes designed by
Alexandra Exter "played with shape" and "played with gender". Nijinska emphasized the ensemble rather than the individual dancer. Here it was "her inventive use of the corps de ballet as the central figure" rather than a soloist as was the norm. The total effect allowed the "movement of the dancers to blend ... they became a sculpted entity capable of expressing the whole ballet action." Exter also "depersonalized the dancers, clothing them in identical gray costumes." Yet it was "the architectural poses of Nijinska's choreography that gave the costumes their distinctive shape". For his 1867 'symphonic poem'
La Nuit sur le Mont chauve Mussorgsky was inspired by the witches sabbath as told by
Nikolai Gogol in his
St. John's Eve story. The composer, however, repeatedly revised and eventually incorporated the music into Act III of his unfinished opera,
Sorochintsy yarmarka [The Fair at Sorochintsy]. He labored on it for years prior to his death in 1881. Mussorgsky himself wrote the opera's libretto, based on a Gogol story of the
same name. Its ballet scenes thus expressed the 'night on bald mountain'. The music was re-orchestrated by
Rimsky-Korsakov.
Le Train Bleu [The Blue Train] (1924) The ballet
Le train blue has been called a 'danced operetta'.
Darius Milhaud composed the music, with the ballet libretto by
Jean Cocteau, poet and filmmaker. The dancers' wardrobe were designed by
'Coco' Chanel; it included "bathing costumes of the period". The scenery was by sculptor
Henri Laurens. The cast of players: a handsome kid (
Anton Dolin), a bathing belle (
Lydia Sokolova), a golfer (Leon Wójcikowski), and a tennis player (Nijinska). The Cocteau libretto has a thin plot. Its title refers to the actual
Train Bleu, whose destination was
Côte d'Azur, a fashionable resort area, specifically
Monte Carlo. "The Blue Train used to bring the
beau monde down to the south from Paris..." Diaghilev remarked, "The first point about
Le train bleu is that there is no Blue Train in it." The scenario "took place on a beach, where pleasure-seekers disported themselves." Inspired in part by youth "showing off" with "acrobatic stunts", the ballet "was a smart piece about a fashionable
plage" [beach]. Nijinska created a special ambiance through the language of dance, she introduced angular and geometrical movements and organized dancers on stage as interactive groups, that alluded to images of sports activities, such as golf, tennis and recreational games on a beach. . Popular passion for sport caused Cocteau to first conceive of a 'beach ballet'. The work also provided a prize role for the athletic Anton Dolin, whose "acrobatics astonished and delighted the audience." When he left the company, however, no one as capable could be found for the role, causing the ballet to be dropped. Probably the ballet suffered when collaboration between Nijinska and librettist Cocteau collapsed. Garafola writes that contested issues included: (a) gender, Cocteau was said to entertain a "dim view of women"
versus Nijinska's unease with traditional femininity; (b) Cocteau's story and gesture approach
verses 'abstract ballet' (Cocteau favored substituting out dance for
pantomime, but Nijinska was satisfied with a plotless
ballet); and, (c) the changing aesthetics of dance (Cocteau's wholesale preference for acrobatics over dance, but which for Nijinska constituted a series of delicate judgments). Last minute changes were made. Nijinska's choreography managed to present for the audience a sophisticated view of the beach ballet. Garafola suggests that here "Only Nijinska had the technical wherewithal ... to wrest irony from the language and traditions of [classical dance]."
Le train bleu anticipated the 1933 ballet
Beach. "
Massine's choreography, like Nijinska's, was a stylization of sport motifs and different dance idioms within a structured balletic framework." The athletic dance scenes in both incorporated jazz movements. A half-century later, Nijinska's 1924 choreography was reconstructed and revived.
'Théâtre Chorégraphiques Nijinska', England and Paris 1925 Leaving Diaghilev, start of her dance company January 1925 marked Nijinska's departure from Ballets Russes. In part she left because of the grief she experienced when in the end Diaghilev had sided with Cocteau over
Le Train Bleu. She wanted to lead her own company. Another reason was the 1924 arrival of the dynamic
George Balanchine (1904-1983), with an experimental dance troupe from the Soviet Union. Diaghilev recognized his demonstrated talent and recruited him for Ballets Russes. Balanchine filled the choreographer position vacated by Nijinska. In 1925 Nijinska found sufficient financing to form her ballet company: Théâtre Chorégraphiques Nijinska. It was a chamber ensemble that employed eleven dancers. The Russian avant-garde visual artist
Alexandra Exter designed the costumes and sets. Nijinska had first met Exter in Kiev during war and revolution. It was a professional relationship that had continued as Nijinska choreographed for Ballets Russes. Nancy Van Doren Baer highly praised their collaboration, "a most dramatic synthesis of the visual and the kinetic". For her company, Nijinska choreographed six short ballets, and danced in five. She also staged four divertissements, dancing one solo. For the 1925 summer season (August–October), her ballet company toured fifteen English resort towns and provincial cities. It then performed selections in Paris, at an international exhibition and for a gala program. "Judged by any standard, the Théâtre Chorégraphiques offered dancing, choreography, music, and costume design of the highest order."
Holy Etudes, an abstract ballet [Bach] Her first abstract ballet seen outside Russia, to
J. S. Bach's First and Fifth
Brandenburg Concertos, was also the first ballet mounted to his music. The dancers wore identical tunics and capes made of silk, with halo-like headgear. "Exter's 'uni-sex' costumes were revolutionary in their day." Yet, according to accounts, their simple and severe design "added immeasurably to the broad flowing movement and stately rhythms of the choreography, suggesting androgynous beings moving in heavenly harmony." Silk "enhanced the ethereal quality of the ballet. The brilliant pink and bright orange capes hung straight from bamboo rods placed across the dancers' shoulders... ." Baer further observes, "By varying the levels, groupings, and facings of the dancers, Nijinska created a pictorial composition made up of moving and intersecting planes of color." As in
Les noces, Nijinska called for dancing
en pointe "to elongate and stylize the line of the body". Her short, abstract Bach ballet was one of those creations "she cared most about." She continued to rework its choreography, and presented it in varying forms and under different titles: for Teatro Colón in 1926; for Ballets Nijinska in 1931, which continued to be staged throughout the 1930s; and in 1940 at the Hollywood Bowl.
Five short modern pieces, four divertissements ;i.
Touring (or
The Sports and Touring Ballet Revue). Nijinska "took contemporary forms of locomotion as her theme", with music by Francis Poulenc, costumes and set by Exter. "Cycling, flying, horse-riding, carriage driving ... were all reduced to dancing." It further illustrated ballet's reach to modern life, following her brother Vaslav Nijinsky's
Jeux of 1913, and her
Les Biches and
Le Train Bleu of 1924. ;ii.
Jazz. The music was
Igor Stravinsky's 1918 composition
Ragtime. The composer writes it "was indicative of the passion I felt at that time for jazz ... enchanting me by its truly popular appeal, its freshness, and the novel rhythm..." Exter's costumes followed an 1897 Russian performance of ''L'Africaine''. In 1921 Exter had written about her fascination with "interrelationship, co-intensity, rhythmization, and the transition to color construction..." Nininska's choreography, however, is lost. When children, she and her brother Vaslav had developed a friendship with two traveling African-American dance performers, house guests of their parents. ;iii.
On the Road. A Japanese pantomime. Based on a
Kabuki story, with music by
Leighton Lucas, and costumes by Exter. Nancy Van Norman Baer conjectures that it developed from a solo called
Fear designed and danced by Nijinsky in Kiev in 1919, and inspired by the dynamic movements of a Samurai warrior. In discussion, Nijinska mentions a Japanese influence on her early choreographic works, one source being a collection of prints purchased in 1911. de Lyon ;iv.
Le Guignol The title role is a character in a French puppet show, which became also a name for all puppet shows. Music by
Joseph Lanner. It was later performed in 1926 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. ;Four divertissements.
The Musical Snuff Box was a restating of the solo
La Poupée first danced by Nijinska in Kiev.
Trepak was her
The Three Ivans that she had choreographed for Diaghilev's
The Sleeping Princess in London. The
Mazurka to Chopin was from
Les Sylphides.
Polovetsian Dances was an ensemble for the entire company.
Companies and exemplary ballets 1926–1930 During these years, for various ballet companies (including Diaghilev's in 1926) and for Teatro Colón in Argentina, Nijinska continued to choreograph and direct performances, and to dance.
'Théâtre de l'Opéra' in Paris: Bien Aimée [or Beloved] At the Paris Opera Nijinska choreographed the ballet
La Rencontres [The Encounters], libretto by
Kochno, music by
Sauguet. At the circus, Oedipus meets the Sphinx. In 1927 she presented there another new ballet,
Impressions de Music-Hall. She also choreographed dances for several operas.
Bien Aimée, a one-act ballet in 1928, was choreographed by Nijinska, music from
Schubert and
Liszt, libretto and decor by
Benois. The dancers included
Ida Rubinstein and Anatole Vilzak. Its thin plot features a poet at the piano who reminisces about his departed Muse, and his youth. The ballet was revived by the Markova-Dolan company in 1937.
Ballet Theatre in New York City arranged for Nijinska to stage its American premier in 1941/1942.
Diaghilev's 'Ballets Russes' in Monte Carlo: Romeo and Juliet A new version of
Romeo and Juliet with music by
Constant Lambert premiered in 1926. The ballet impressed
Massine, who saw it later in London. "Nijinska's choreography was an admirable attempt to express the poignancy of Shakespeare's play in the most modern terms." At the end, the leading dancers
Karsavina and
Lifar, lovers in real life, "eloped in an aeroplane".
Max Ernst did design work,
Balanchine an
entr'acte. "It seemed to me that this ballet was far in advance of its time," Massine later wrote. In 1926 she found in Argentina "an inexperienced but enthusiastic group of dancers," thirty in number, in a ballet organization newly founded by
Adolph Bolm. She drew on innovative ideas she'd first developed in Kiev during war and revolution. In both these Bach ballets, there was no libretto, no plot. This abstract ballet, inspired by the spirituality of the music, was choreographed to an arrangement of the six
Brandenburg Concertos and was the first ballet to be mounted to the music of
J. S. Bach. In 1926 and 1927 for the Buenos Aires theater, Nijinska created dance scenes for fifteen operas, including Bizet's
Carmen, Wagner's
Tannhäuser, Verdi's
Aïda and
La Traviata, Stravinsky's
Le Rossignol, Rimsky-Korsakov's
Tsar Saltan, Massenet's
Thaïs, and Gounod's
Faust.
'Ida Rubinstein Ballet' in Paris: Boléro, La Valse, Le Baiser de la Fée The dancer
Ida Rubinstein formed a ballet company in 1928, with Bronislava Nijinska named as its choreographer. Rubinstein quickly arranged for
Maurice Ravel to compose music for her new dance enterprise. By luck or genius, one of Ravel's pieces became popular immediately and famous. It has remained so to this day: his
Boléro. Rubinstein herself had danced for Diaghilev in the early years of his company Ballets Russes. In the 1910 ballet
Scheherazade she and Vaslav Nijinsky (Nijinska's brother) both had leading roles. They danced together in a scene Nijinska called "breathtaking". Rubinstein and Nijinsky also had partnered in the ballet
Cléopâtre a year before in Paris for Ballets Russes. Rubinstein played the title role. The ballet was "the runaway success of the 1909 season that made her an overnight star". Following
Bolero Rubinstein directed her company to prepare another ballet choreographed by Nijinska, with music by Ravel: his
La valse. It opened in Monte Carlo in 1929, décor by Benois, featuring as dancers Rubinstein and Vilzak. The ballet was often revived, most famously in 1951 by Balanchine. A ballet of
Le Baiser de la Fée [Kiss of the Fairy] originated when Ida Rubinstein asked
Igor Stravinsky to compose music to be choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. It would be staged in Paris in 1928. "The idea was that I should compose something inspired by the music of
Tchaikovsky," wrote Stravinsky. For a theme he chose
Hans Christian Andersen's 'eerie' tale of
The Ice-Maiden, but he changed the story with his positive spin: "A fairy imprints her magic kiss on a [male] child at birth ... Twenty years later ... she repeats the fatal kiss and carries him off to live in supreme happiness with her..." Stravinsky understood the fairy to be Tchaikovsky's
Muse whose kiss branded him with a 'magic imprint' to inspire his music. The composer Stravinsky conducted the orchestra for the ballet's first performance at the Opéra in Paris in 1928. The dancers included Rubinstein,
Ludmila Schollar, and Vilzak.
Le Baiser de la Fée played at other European capitals, and in 1933 and 1936/1937 at the Colón Theatre in Buenos Aires. In 1935
Ashton choreographed a new version that played in London, and in 1937
Balanchine did so for a version that played in New York.
'Opéra Russe à Paris': Capriccio Espagnol [Rimsky-Korsakov] This ballet company 'Opéra Russe à Paris' was founded in 1925 by a Russian singer and her husband, a nephew of French composer
Massenet. A company director and major figure was
Wassily de Basil (the former Vassily Voskresensky, a Russian
entrepreneur, and perhaps once a
Cossack officer). Since
Sergei Diaghilev's death in 1929, followed by the collapse of his 'Ballets Russes', a discomforting void inhabited the world of European ballet. Nijinska in 1930 joined 'Opèra Russe à Paris' run by de Basil. She was "to choreograph the ballet sequences" in several well-known operas. She was also "to create works for the all-ballet evenings that alternated with evenings of opera." Consequently, she created the ballet for
Capriccio Espagnol by Russian composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. She also staged several of her previous ballet creations (
Les noces and
Les Biches) and other
Ballets Russes fare of the Diaghilev era. In 1931 she turned down an "unusually generous" offer from de Basil in order to start the company, 'Ballets Nijinska'. She wanted to pursue projects independently, although she maintained her former working situation for a time longer. Latter in 1934 and 1935 she would again work with de Basil's company.
René Blum (brother of the French politician
Léon Blum) was then "organizing the ballet seasons at the
Casino de Monte Carlo." In 1931 he began talks with de Basil about combining ballet operations, hence the naissant company '
Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo'. From de Basil would come "dancers, repertory, scenery, and costumes" and from Blum "the theater and its facilities and financial support". A contract was signed in January 1932. "From the beginning de Basil acted as
impresario." Soon, however, Blum and de Basil fell out and in 1936 split, each forming his own company. Later in the 1940s Nijinska staged works for
a successor to Blum's half, then run by Sergei Denham. and then resume working for other companies. and at the
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, where under auspices of the 'Opera Russe' her 'Ballets Nijinska' operated autonomously. In 1931 her company staged
Etude-Bach with Boris Belinsky's decor and costumes, after Alexandra Exter. This was a new version of her 1925
Holy Etudes and her 1926
Un Estudio Religioso.
'Théâtre de la Danse Nijinska' in Paris: Variations [Beethoven], Hamlet [Liszt] From 1932 to 1934 Nijinska directed her Paris-based company, 'Théâtre de la Danse Nijinska'. A new ballet
Variations was staged in 1932, inspired by
Beethoven (a selection of his compositions). The dancers followed a difficult theme: the flux in the fate of nations (classical Greece, Russia under Alexander I, France during the early Second Empire). Choreographed primarily as ensemble dances and pantomime, the costumes and decor were by
Georges Annenkov. In 1934 she designed a ballet
Hamlet, based on Shakespeare's
play, performed to music by Hungarian composer
Franz Liszt. Nijinska played the title role. "Her choreography, however, instead of retelling Shakespeare's plot, emphasized the feelings of the tragedy's tormented characters." Nijinska conceived "three aspects for each of the protagonists". In addition to "the real character" there were "characters representing his soul and his fate" played "by separate groups of dancers" like "a Greek chorus". A similar
Hamlet ballet was later staged in London. There were performances of two of her remarkable ballets from the mid-1920s,
Les Biches in 1932, and in 1933
Les noces. Nijinska's Théâtre de la Danse enjoyed ballet seasons in Paris and Barcelona, and toured France and Italy. The company's 1934 season at the Théâtre du Châtelet featured the ballets
Etude-Bach, La Princesse Cygne, Les Biches, Bolero, Les Comediens Jaloux, and
Le Baiser de la Fée. with the Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo, April 1934 In 1934 Nijinska joined her dance company to
Wassily de Basil's company
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. For the 1934 Opera and Ballet seasons, she directed the
Monte Carlo productions of the combined companies in performances of her repertoire. Later in 1934 'Théâtre de la Danse Nijinska' lost its costumes and sets when they were mistakenly seized, for the benefit of unpaid artists of another company, the 'Opera Russe à Paris'. Although blameless, not until 1937 was Nijinska able to recover them. Thus she was "forced to cancel all Théâtre de la Danse engagements" scheduled for its autumn tour of France and England. Her dancers then began to accept other work. Nijinska herself was offered a choreographing contract by a film producer, and so left Paris for Hollywood.
Companies and ballets 1935–1938 Max Reinhardt's Hollywood film: ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' ,
Dick Powell,
Jean Muir and
Olivia de Havilland. In 1934
Max Reinhardt requested Nijinska to travel to Los Angeles and choreograph the dance scenes for his 1935 film
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. It was a Hollywood recreation of the
William Shakespeare comedy, with music by
Felix Mendelssohn. Much of the music was taken from
his two compositions about this Shakespeare play. The first was Mendelssohn's 1826
concert overture, the second his 1842
incidental music, which incorporated the overture. Apparently Los Angeles agreed with Nijinska, for a few years later she would make it her permanent residence. In 1934 she designed the dances. Nijinska's incidental choreography for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1935) was as imaginative and magical as everything else in that sumptuously produced film." As a one-act ballet in Saint Petersburg ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' had been "first choreographed by
Marius Petipa in 1876" and in 1902 by
Mikhail Fokine, to Mendelssohn's 1842 music. Other versions were later staged by Terpis (Berlin 1927), Balanchine (New York 1962), Ashton (London 1964), and Spoerli (Basle 1975). A staging of Fokine's choreography, however, at the Imperial Theatrical School on March 26, 1906, was especially memorable for Nijinska. Not only did she dance in it, but the date marked a visit by her father after a long absence. The 1935 film was not Nijinska's first time in the employ of Max Reinhardt. The well-known
impresario's practice was to stage a variety of performance arts in theaters across Europe. In 1931, for a Reinhardt production in Berlin, Nijinska had created the ballet scenes for
Offenbach's opera
The Tales of Hoffmann.
de Basil's 'Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo': Les Cent Baisers Nijinska choreographed
Les Cent Baisers [The hundred kisses] in 1935 for de Basil's company. This one-act ballet was set to music by Anglo-French composer
Frédéric Alfred d'Erlanger. It opened in London at
Covent Garden. The
libretto by
Boris Kochno followed the literary fairy tale
"The swineherd and the princess" created by
Hans Christian Andersen. Here a disguised prince woos an arrogant princess. Nijinska's choreography is considered one of her more
classical. Yet she incorporated subtle variations from the usual academic steps, according to
Irina Baronova who danced the role of the princess. It gave the piece a special feeling of the East. The prince was played by
David Lichine. It was based on
Hans Christian Andersen's 1861 fairy tale "
The Ice-Maiden". Yet, in recreating the tale, music composer
Igor Stravinsky had changed the eerie maiden into a fruitful Muse, inverting Andersen's original story in which the ice-maiden, disguised as a beautiful woman, attracts young men who are led to their death. In 1937 Nijinska returned to Buenos Aires for a reprise performance of
Le Baiser de la Fée at the Stravinsky Festival. Ballet choreography she also created for dance scenes in operatic works that played at Teatro Colón. Accordingly, Nijinska worked with the music of various composers, e.g., Mussorgsky, Verdi, de Falla, and Wagner.
'Markova-Dolin Ballet' in London and Jamaica; (Markova later: Autumn Song) In 1937 Nijinska reprised her 1924
Les Biches for a performance by the Markova-Dolin troupe. "For six months during 1937 the troupe was creatively bolstered by the presence of Nijinska, who took charge of rehearsals and classes in addition to staging
Les Biches and
La Bien-Aimée."
Alicia Markova was a leading ballerina of London. In 1935 she left the
Vic-Wells ballet company of
Ninette de Valois, where she had excelled in classical roles. She left to "form the Markova-Dolin Company (1935–1938), with Bronislava Nijinsky as chief choreographer." Irish dancer
Anton Dolin had worked with Ballets Russes starting in 1921. Later he was the 'handsome swimmer' in Nijinska's 1924
Le Train Bleu. During the 1930s he became a frequent dance partner of Markova. He joined
American Ballet Theatre in 1940. After the war, for the Markova-Dolin company Nijinska choreographed
Fantasia, music by Schubert and Liszt. A one-act ballet it opened in 1947 at the Ward Theatre,
Kingston, Jamaica. Costumes and decor were by Rose Schogel, principal dancers: Bettina Rosay and Anton Dolin. In the 1930s Nijinska gave Alicia Markova 'creative sessions' in ballet, including instructions for her own choreographies. In particular she taught Markova an early work of hers from Kiev:
Autumn Song to music by Tchaikovsky. Nijinska had originally danced it barefoot wearing a
tunic of her own design. In 1953 Markova performed this solo ballet for a variety show on
NBC television.
'Ballet Polonais' in Warsaw: Concerto de Chopin, La Légende de Cracovie In 1937 Nijinska was asked to become the artistic director and the choreographer for the newly recreated Balet Polski (aka Les Ballets Polonais, or The Polish Ballet). In the revival of this
national ballet, among its chief aims: to advance the Polish dance heritage, to train new ballet professionals, and to perform internationally. She signed a 3-year contract. For the company's 1937-1938 debut season, she created five new ballets:
Le Chant de la Terre,
Apollon et la Belle,
Le Rappel,
Concerto de Chopin, and
La Légende de Cracovie. For the
Exposition Internationale in Paris, the five opened at the Théâtre de Mogador in November 1937. Well received, the Exposition awarded Ballet Polonais the Grand Prix for performance and Nijinska the Grand Prix for choreography. The ballet company then continued on to perform their prize-winning program chiefly in London, Berlin, and Warsaw, also touring other cities in Germany and in Poland. For
Le Chant de la Terre (
Pieśń o ziemi naszej) [Song of the Earth], Nijinska drew in part on a recent folk festival in
Vilna featuring dance. She also took inspiration from the drawings of Polish artist Zofja Stryjenska. "The first scene, 'Little Saturday,' depicted the spring rituals of sun and fire worship...The customs of the Slavic wedding were represented in the second scene when the celebrants danced 'wild Mazurkas and [steps] of the vital earth-stamping kind with complicated rhythms and...leaps in the air.'...The final scene, 'Harvest,' had powerful choreographic images of the ceremonies surrounding the season's harvest." In this powerful climax "a wedge of dancers, wielding curved scythes in great arcing movements, carved their way diagonally across the stage." at 28 -
Delacroix The
Concerto de Chopin "follows no plot but tries to reflect the shifting moods of the music." Baer suggests that the ballet shows Nijinska's "feeling of longing, farewell, and sorrow that she had experienced on leaving Russia" in 1921. About the
Chopin Concerto (as later performed in 1944), dance critic
Edward Denby wrote of it as "oddly beautiful ... because it is clear and classic to the eye but tense and romantic in its emotion." The structure of the piece—like that of much of Mme Nijinska's work—is based on a formal contrast: in the background, rigid impersonal groups or clusters of dancers, which seem to have the weight of statues; in the foreground, rapid arrowy flights performed by individual soloists. One appreciates their flashes of lightness and freedom because of the weight they seem to rise over, as if the constraints of the group were the springboard for the soloist's release. Nijinska also staged
La Légend de Cracovie, "a new ballet of high merit" to music by Michal Kondracki. In plot it is "a medieval Polish variation of the
Faust story". In choreography she employed her "celebrated group architecture" but also fashioned roles open to
character dance development. As described by French critic Pierre Michaut, "Les héros et ses compagnons composaient leurs danses avec des éléments de folklore et avec des danses traditionelles polonaises, telles que la Cracovienne. Mais pas et figures étaient déformés, outrés, fortement accentués en burlesque, et ils devenaient une sorte de gesticulation frénétique et d'ailleurs expressive." After Balet Polski's 1937-1938 tour, which started with the Grand Prix performances in Paris, Nijinska was "abruptly released" from her leadership position. The cause of her dismissal, most likely according to Baer, was "her insistence upon a full disclosure of the troupe's financial records." Due to the increasing danger of military attack by neighboring countries, the Polish government apparently was seeking to covertly route some of its funds to America. "Characteristically, Nijinska would have refused to become involved with politics or intrigue." She was replaced by
Léon Wójcikowski. With Ballets Russes since 1916 Leon Wójcikowski (1899-1975) had enjoyed prominent roles in Nijinska's
Les noces,
Les Biches, and
Le Train Bleu (as the Golfer). In 1939 he led the Ballet Polonais to the
World's Fair in New York. "The company returned to Warsaw one day before the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and was never heard from again." Wójcikowski himself found work in the Americas during the war. Much later he helped in reconstructing Nijinska's 1920s choreographies at Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes. Yet for Nijinska then in 1938, in pre-invasion Poland, the going became more difficult. The "shock of her dismissal" and "the impending war caused a profound depression."
Ballet companies and exemplary ballets 1939–1950s Nijinska and her family were in London when World War II started with the combined Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland (September 1939). She had a contract to "co-direct the dance sequences on a new film,
Bullet in the Ballet," but it was cancelled due to war. Fortunately, an offer from promoter
de Basil allowed them to make their way back to the United States. She eventually established a new residence in Los Angeles.
'Ballet Theatre' in New York: La Fille Mal Gardée of Dauberval Nijinska in 1939 began to choreograph a "rustic and comic" two-act ballet of the 18th century,
Jean Dauberval's
La fille mal gardée ['The ill-watched Daughter' or 'Useless Precautions']. For the inaugural season of
Ballet Theatre (now ABT), it opened in January 1940 in New York City at the old
Center Theatre in Rockefeller Plaza.
La Fille Mal Gardée is perhaps "the oldest ballet in the contemporary repertory" whose "comic situations are no doubt responsible for its survival." Jean Dauberval wrote the libretto and first choreography, the original music being a mix of popular French songs. Premiering at
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in 1789, the comedy "quickly made the circuit of European stages." Later in 1864
Taglioni's production in Berlin first adopted composite music scored by
Hertel, which in 1885 was adopted by
Petipa and
Ivanov for the Maryinski Theater in Saint Petersburg. Dauberval's plot follows a lively rural romance, the lovers being "the mind-of-her-own Lise and the hard-to-resist Colas". They are challenged by Lise's mother the widow Simone, who prefers Allain, a wealthy but dull suitor. "In America the most important production was Nijinska's for Ballet Theatre in 1940."
Lucia Chase had invited her to mount her own version, which incorporated decor from
Mordkin (his company had merged with Ballet Theatre). Nijinska took to revising Petipa's Russian version of
La Fille Mal Gardée and staged the ballet with
Irina Baronova and Dimitri Romanoff. This 1940 staging was soon revived, once as
The Wayward Daughter, with later versions by Romanoff, and in 1946 by
Alexandra Balashova. Eventually it entered the repertory of the
Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. Twenty years later in London, Nijinska's former student
Frederick Ashton of
The Royal Ballet staged it. He refashioned the Dauberval libretto, wrote his choreography to Hertel's music as modified by
Lanchbery, and provided a revised decor. The result was a popular, and declared a "substantial work". Also for Ballet Theatre, in 1951 Nijinska choreographed and staged the
Schumann Concerto, music by
Robert Schumann, with
Alicia Alonso and
Igor Youskevitch as principal dancers. The music's romantic mood frames the abstract ballet in three movements. The couple is joined by a
corps de ballet of boys and girls. In 1945 Nijinska had choreographed
Rendezvous with music by
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), with principal dancers Lucia Chase and Dimitri Romanoff. Both were staged for Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
'Hollywood Bowl': Boléro, Chopin Concerto, Etude-Bach; and Jacob's Pillow Later in 1940 she staged three short ballets for a performance at the
Hollywood Bowl. For the program with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra she selected favorites from among her prior choreographies: Ravel's
Boléro (premiered with Rubinstein in 1932, revised), the
Chopin Concerto (from 1937 with the Polish Ballet), and
Etude-Bach (originally 'Holy Etudes' done for her own company in 1925, revisions). The event drew an audience of 22,000, and featured dancers
Maria Tallchief and
Cyd Charisse. Nijinska revived
Etude-Bach and
Chopin Concerto again, in 1942, at the
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. There the cast included dancers
Nina Youshkevitch,
Marina Svetlova, and Nikita Tallin; while
Ann Hutchinson Guest danced in the corps.
'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo' under Denham in New York: Snow Maiden. Nijinska choreographed
Snow Maiden in 1942 with music by
Glazunov, for 'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo' under Serge Denham as Artistic Director.
Snow Maiden drew on Russian folklore. The maiden, the Frost King's daughter, would melt in the sun's heat if she fell in love with a mortal man. The choreography "did not open any new avenues of artistic exploration." Yet critic
Edwin Denby notes that "by preserving just enough independence of rhythm in relation to the sugary Glazounoff score [her groupings and dance phrases] keep a certain acid edge." For Denham's company Nijinska and
Balanchine "were well-known choreographers on whom he could call." It was, however, "not Nijinska but another woman-an American-who revitalized the Ballets Russes in 1942.
Agnes de Mille [did it with her]
Rodeo..." by
Ilya Repin, ten days before Mussorgsky's death
'Ballet International' in New York: Pictures at an Exhibition During the 1940s and into the 1950s, Nijinska served as the
ballet mistress for the International Ballet, later known variously, e.g., the
Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. The company played chiefly in Europe and the Mediterranean until 1961. In 1944 for an opening at the International Theater in New York she choreographed
Pictures at an Exhibition, an 1874 suite of piano pieces by
Modest Mussorgsky, later orchestrated by
Maurice Ravel, and by Ivan Boutnikov. Mussorgsky wrote no ballet music, but two of his compositions inspired Nijinska:
Night on Bald Mountain (Ballets Russes 1924), and here
Pictures. Costumes and decor were by
Boris Aronson. Aronson was an apprentice of
Aleksandra Ekster, Nijinska's designer in Kiev and Paris. Evidently Nijinska was the first to choreograph
Pictures. The next ballet to this music was staged by Erika Hanka at the
Vienna State Opera (1947), and then by Lopokov at the
Bolshoi in Moscow (1963). In 1952 also for Marquis de Cuevas' Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo, Nijinska choreographed
Rondo Capriccioso. Composed in 1863 by
Saint-Saëns, it was originally crafted for the virtuoso violinist
Pablo de Sarasate. The 1952 ballet by Nijinska opened in Paris at the Théâtre de l'Empire, with principal dancers
Rosella Hightower and
George Skibine.
Ballet companies: revivals of her early choreographies 1960–1971 'Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas' in New York: The Sleeping Beauty In 1960 the
Cuevas Ballet produced a revision of
The Sleeping Beauty, which was to have been staged by Nijinska. She was familiar with the ballet from
Diaghilev's production of 1921. For it she had created several popular dances. In 1922 she and
Stravinsky abbreviated it into the successful one-act ballet ''Aurora's Wedding''. Long associated with the Cuevas company as ballet mistress, Nijinska began to craft her choreographic revision. A conflict, however, developed over the ballet which involved artistic issues. In discussions she declined to compromise. Nijinska withdrew from the company.
Robert Helpmann then came into the process. A dancer, he had also staged ballets, and had long partnered with
Fonteyn, namely in
The Royal Ballet's post-war
The Sleeping Beauty. In the end the Cuevas company gave its choreographic credit to both, as Nijinska-Helpmann.
'The Royal Ballet' of London: Les Biches and Les noces In 1964
Frederick Ashton of
The Royal Ballet asked Nijinska to stage a revival of her ballet
Les Biches (1924) at
Covent Gardens. Ashton had been resident choreographer for The Royal Ballet since 1935. Then becoming also an associate director in 1952, he was appointed the Royal Ballet's director in 1963. Nijinska first mentored Ashton's career from when he was a young ballet student. In 1928 in Paris she'd been the choreographer for
Ida Rubenstein, where he'd become a dancer in the company. He performed in several of choreographed works by Nijinska under her guidance. Ashton consider her a beneficial influence in the development of ballet. More specifically, her choreography had informed his own progress in that art. The staging of the revived
Les Biches went well. Two years later, Ashton asked her to return to London and stage her
Les noces (1923) on his company. These 1964 London productions, according to dance critic
Horst Koegler, "confirmed her reputation as one of the formative choreographers of the 20th century." In 1934 Ashton had expressed his own opinion: Her achievements have proved to me time and again that through the medium of classical ballet any emotion may be expressed. She might be called the architect of dancing, building her work brick by brick into the amazing structures that result in masterpieces like
Les noces.
Other stagings: Brahms Variations, ''Le Mariage d'Aurore, Chopin Concerto'' Following these London events, Nijinska "was repeatedly invited to revive several of her ballets". She staged
Les Biches in Rome in 1969, and in Florence and Washington in 1970. Also
Les Biches, and a revised version of
Chopin Concerto and
Brahms Variations, for the Center Ballet of Buffalo in 1969.
Les noces was staged in 1971 in Venice, where during a rehearsal at the Teatro Fenice, she celebrated her eightieth birthday onstage. "Between 1968 and 1972, Nijinska saw performances of
Les Biches,
Les noces,
Brahms Variations, ''Le Mariage d'Aurore
, and Chopin Concerto'' for ballet companies in the United States and in Europe."
Irina Nijinska's further revivals, and others After her death in 1972, her daughter
Irina Nijinska (1913-1991) continued this work. A growing number of performances of her mother's early ballets were performed. Several entered into the current repertoire of dance companies. Included were works first produced by Ballets Russes. Irina, a dancer in her own right, had been helping her mother for many years, at her ballet school and as her rehearsal assistant. During the 1970s and 1980s, Irina advanced her legacy. She edited and translated
Early Memoirs and saw it to publication. In the theatrical world Irina Nijinska associated with ballet companies to facilitate revivals of the choreographies.
Les noces and
Les Biches increasingly appeared on stage. Among others, Irina brought
Les noces to
The Paris Opera Ballet, and "Rondo Capriccioso" to the
Dance Theater of Harlem. In collaboration with a dance historian, the French Riviera comedy "Le Train Bleu" was reconstructed; then it was staged by the
Oakland Ballet. In 1981 the Dance Theatre of Harlem under
Arthur Mitchell "produced an entire Nijinska evening". After Irina's passing in 1991, the Nijinska revivals continued. Ballerina
Nina Youshkevitch, a Nijinska dancer (e.g., at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1942), revived
Bolero for the Oakland Ballet in 1995. She also staged
Chopin Concerto for students at Goucher College in Maryland that same year.
Commentary by critics, academics, herself Instead, she preferred the pre-war Diaghilev who had been "searching for the creation of a new ballet..." Hence regarding
The Sleeping Princess Nijinska recalled the paradox that "I started my first work full of protest against myself." "Because she stemmed from the academic ballet tradition, Bronislava Nijinska is often called a Neo-Classicist. But her choreography also has an affinity to such styles of modern art as Cubism, Constructivism and Expressionism." She declined her brother Nijinsky's turn to
modern dance. Instead, following the new insights into movement, she initiated "what would be called neoclassical choreography". She eventually came to admire Petipa's work, while pruning its "nondance elements". A "renewable legacy was at the heart of Nijinska's classicism". As "one of the twentieth-century ballet's great innovators ... her repertoire introduced a new classicism that made dance a medium of modern art expression." Her
Les noces (1923) bridged the contemporary tensions "between primitivism and mechanization, exoticism and neoclassicism, Russianess and cosmopolitanism, Soviet and émigré. ... The ability of
Les noces to negotiate so many different boundaries ... accounts in no small measure for its timely, as well as timeless success." ==Based in Los Angeles, from 1940==