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Nijinsky's Choreographic Method - Sacre
Nijinsky's Choreographic Method - Sacre
Nijinsky's Choreographic Method - Sacre
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Nijinsky's Method:
Choreographic Visual Sources
from Roerich for Le Sacre du printemps
Millicent Hodson
NicholasRoerich,the scenaristand designerof LeSacreduprintemps what could these "archaeological documents"have been?The on-
for the originalproduction,by Diaghilev'sBalletsRusses, in 1913, ly "primitiveSlavic paintings"were those on the walls of caves.
builtthe balletaroundthe sacrificeof a youngmaiden.As the climax Roerichcouldnot havecollectedthem, of course,but he couldhave
to a seriesof ritualtasksby membersof an archaictribe,the Chosen shown Nijinskyphotographs.When Nijinskyset the solo for the
Maiden dances herself to death to assure the returnof Spring.In Chosen Maidenon his sister,Bronislava,he askedher to visualize
the logic of the rite her sacrificeis seen as a marriagewith Yarilo, certainRoerichpaintingsand told her that "thebeautyof the tinted
the sun deity of pre-ChristianSlavicmythology.The composerof stones and the wall paintings of the cave dwellers have inspired
the ballet,IgorStravinsky,claimedfromthe outsetthathe had con- Roerich'sown art."6 In her memoirsNijinskarecallsthe discussions
ceived the idea for Sacreas he was finishing Firebirdin 1910.Butan between Roerichand Nijinsky,which her brotherreportedto her
interview with Roerich in the St. Petersburgpress and other at length. Among the canvaseshe asked her to visualize was The
documentationshow thathe had alreadywrittena scenariowhen IdolsofAncientRussia.In this and otherworksof the period,Roerich
Stravinskyapproachedhim with the notionof a balletaboutarchaic featured the brightly painted, carved wooden idols that were
Russia. Roerich'sscenariowas entitled "TheGreatSacrifice,"and characteristicof pre-ChristianSlavicsettlements. Quite possibly,
it survives as the second act of what we know as Le Sacredu as the RoerichscholarKennethArchersuggested to me, the "ar-
printemps. Contrastedwith the sombertasksand gravetone of the chaeologicaldocuments"referredto by Pruniereswere Roerich's
second actarethe vigorousgames and ceremonieswhich Roerich own paintings on such subjects, although earlierhe could have
and Stravinskytogetherplannedforthe firstact.Stravinskymarked shown Nijinsky small idols in his collection.
the score for ActI "Day"and ActII "Night,"a polaritythat is car- The wooden idols are the most probablesource of Nijinsky's
ried out in all aspects of the music, decor and choreography. postures and gestures. Indirectly,LeonideMassine says as much
Much of what Roerichcontributedto the collaborationon Sacre in writing about his version of the ballet, the so-called "second
was based on his extensive archaeologicalbackground.The pur- Sacre,"which Diaghilevcommissionedin 1920,seven yearsafterNi-
pose of this articleis to indicatesome of the sourceshe sharedwith jinsky'sdeparturefromthe company.Massine defended his own
Nijinsky which helped to shape the strangely introverted use of parallelinsteadof invertedfootpositionsby pointingout that
movementsof the dance. The use of primitivistmodels was a criti- the ancientcarvedfigures did not reallyhave turned in feet.8His
que of contemporaryculturefor progressiveartistspriorto World point was well taken, which only serves to underscoreNijinsky's
WarI, and the exampleof Gauguin,Picassoand othersstimulated originality in pushing the postures, and the gestures as well,
the Russiansto mine the rich ore of their mythologicalpast; they beyond the limits of his visual sources. That Nijinsky com-
did not have to look to Oceaniaor Africafor sources, as elements municated to the dancers in Sacrethe concentratedfocus of the
of paganculturehad persistedin Russia,partlybecause of late in- carvedfigures is evident in one critic'scomment on the maidens
dustrializationand partly because of the protractedstrugglebe- and youths in the first act:
tween adoptedEuropeantraditionsand indigenouscustomssince Theireyes have the fixity of those of wooden fetishes; their
the time of Peterthe Great. cheeksarepaintedred liketheirdresses;they hoverawkward-
How RoerichintroducedVaslavNijinskyto visual sourcesfrom ly, heavily, with movements which still belong to animal
the early Slavsis hinted at in an articleby Henri Prunieres,editor ism... .9
of the RevueMusicalein Paris.The articlecoses the Revue's memorial
issue afterthe deathof SergeDiaghilevin 1929and the disbanding In Roerich'sIdolsof AncientRussia(Illustration1), parts of the
of his company.The greatachievementof the BalletsRusses, ac- carvedfigures areaccentuatedwith red paint, a detailwhich may
have motivatedthe stylized make-upfor the dancersin Sacre.The
cordingto Prunieres,was the unityof danceand decor,and he cited
Sacreas a particularlyeffectivecollaboration: sage, laterin the firstact, appearswith his face paintedlike an idol
too, but with long blacklines, probablyto denote his extremeage.
A photographof a typical Slavicidol (Illustration2) revealsstrik-
SergeDiaghilevasked paintersnot only for models of decors
andcostumesbut ideasforplastic-realization. Atbase the great ing similaritiesto the originalSacremovements, as preserved,for
revolutionaccomplished with Le Sacredu printempswas in- example,in a backstagephotoof the youngmen (Illustration 3). The
spiredby lookingat archaeologicaldocuments,primitiveSlavic singlemostimportantfactorin Nijinsky'schoreography, as his assis-
paintingscollectedby Roerich,in which the characterswere tant for Sacre,MarieRambert,emphasized to me in an interview,
contorted,the knees turnedin, the armstwisted back. Nijin- is the basicposture of the dance and the creativelimitationsit im-
sky followedsuit by reversingthe "positions"of the academic poses on all aspects of movement.?0In the introductionto her
dance.In "first"the dancer,insteadof placinghimselfwith the choreographicnotes on a piano scoreof Sacre- what RobertCraft
toes turned out, turned them in.5 has calledRambert's"promptbookscore"- she specifiesNijinsky's
As reconstructorof the choreographyforthisballet,I askedmyself, fundamentalprinciple,simple movement from a restrictedbase:
Illustration2. Slavicwoodenidol.Notethehorsetalismanlocated
betweenthelevelofthearmsandlegs,thusseemingtohangfrom
a beltat thewaist,as in someoftheRoerichcostumesforSacre.
Books,The
andtheeditorsof Time-Life
Credit:RobertWallace
Riseof Russia(Nederland: 1967),p. 16.
International,
Time-Life
DanceResearch
Journal 18/2 (Winter1986-87) 9
llustration3. Thegesturesofthefigureson thewoodenidolsarestrikinglysimilarto thoseNijinskygavetotheyoung
men,as indicatedin this backstagephotofromthe 1913Sacre.Credit:PhotoGerschel,Paris.
4. Destruction
Illustration ofthefinal
oftheoldgods:Photograph
scene from the Bolshoi Ballet productionof Le Sacre du
printemps (1965).
Eraof the RussianBallet(London:
Credit:NataliaRoslavleva,
Gollancz,1966),p. 265.
10 DanceResearch
Journal 18/2 (Winter1986-87)
The final sacrificeof a chosen virgin, it is true, is an invention much about the Stone Age ... and learn a lot fromit too,"adding
thathas no historicalSlavicantecedents.It seems to be Aztec "only the Indian and the Shaman wisdom has kept some
and not anything connected with native Russianreligion or reminiscences of it" a statementthat articulatedthe thought of
folklore.2 many artistsin his generation.
Even though some historians recognized a synthesis of ritual Nijinsky's choreographicmethod started with the design of
traditionin Sacre,few specify the possible originsof the sacrificial posture and gesture on the individual dancer.In Sacrehe seems
to have had a directvisual model in the wooden idols thatwere of
ceremony,an exceptionbeing CyrilBeaumont.He discussed the
end of LeSacrein his early book on Nijinsky: particularinterestto Roerich.Othervisual sourcescame through
Roerichas well, probablyinfluencing the shapes of groups and
Just as the Aztecs sacrificed the handsomest young man groundpatterns.Nijinskyandhis sister,Nijinska,evolveda method
among them in honour of the god, Tezcatlepoca[sic], so one of choreographythat freed the body of classicalrestrictionsbut
spring evening, after initial ceremonies, we see the fairest channeledits energythroughequallyrigorousdisciplinesof design,
maidenof the tribeforcedto danceuntilshe dies fromexhaus-
tion... 22 such as the invertedposturesof LeSacreduprintempsand the parallel
movement en pointein Nijinska'sLesNoces.Their choreography
Roerichwrote an essay on the Stone Age, which does not relate unifiedpostureand gestureforseparatedancerswith the organiza-
directlyto Sacre,but in it he associatesthe rites of Slavicand Scan- tion of ensembles and their configurationson the stage. Forboth
dinavian tribes with those of Mexico.3So he may have found a of the Nijinskysthere seems to havebeen an attemptalso to coor-
precedentforthe danceof the ChosenMaidenin eachof these tradi- dinatethe design of the movementwith formsin the decor.In Sacre
tions, but he left no documentationof it. Given Roerich'scommit- the figures are huddled together in clumps on the ground,
ment to archaeological authenticityand the encouragementhe gave repeatingin successiveplanes the roundedhills of Roerich'sdrop
both Stravinskyand Nijinsky to use their Slavic heritage, it is - with a group in red repeatingthe shape and colorof the sacred
curiousthathe rewrotemythologyforthe climaxof Sacre.I wonder stone, a large reddish rock painted at the center of the drop.30
if the decision enabled him to resolve the desireto use an archaic Likewise,the pristineposturesand gesturesand groupformations
subjectwith whathe consideredan appropriateway to end a ballet. of LesNoceswere relatedto the decor;the piling up of dancersin
Death of a young woman, or apotheosis of her spirit, is, afterall, doublelines and pyramidsis comparableto the multiplelevelsand
the cruxof Romanticballet.In a sense AlexandreBenois made the realvolume in the Constructivist-inspiredset designed by the ar-
same decisionin Petrushka, combininga folksubjectwith the pathos tistNataliaGoncharova31 NijinskaregardedLesNoces,choreograph-
of loss, the death of the most vulnerablecharacter.I also wonder, ed for Diaghilevand the BalletsRusses in 1923,as her companion
though, whetherRoerichperceivedthe impendingdestructionof piece of Russian ceremonyto Nijinsky'sSacre32
war, like VassilyKandinskyand other artistsrethinkingcultural ThatNijinskytookRoerich'splans forcostumingintoconsidera-
values throughprimitivistmodels?4Sacrificeof the young is still tion in his choreographyis clearfrom Stravinskycorrespondence
the image that shrouds the generationof 1914,and it was the sub- duringthe earlyrehearsalperiod. On December14,1912,the com-
ject Nijinskychose to dance in the solo that concluded his career poser wrote from Clarens, in Switzerland, to Roerich in St.
in 1919.25Roerichmade sacrificethe climaxof all the ritualactions Petersburg:
in Sacre,and it was this emphasis which, in retrospect,gave con-
temporaryrelevanceto the archaicrite.JeanCocteau,amongothers, I have just returnedfrom Berlin and receivedyour costume
laterregardedthis balletas a predictionof what was to him and his designs for our "Spring"I am pleased they were sent to me
first so that I could see them - they are a real miracle,and I
peers, "the GreatWar."26
In the Stone Age essay Roerichaffirmedhis faithin the aesthetic only hope the realizationof them will be good! - but I regret
the delay beforeNijinskyreceives them, which is the reason
development of primitiveman: that my telegramsaid, "Send to Nijinsky."I am forwarding
The caves in the South indicate beyond any doubt the true them to him today.33
sense of artin ancientman;theybeartracesof the firstmineral
Stravinskyalso told Roerichthat "Nijinskystartedhis staging of
paintsand sometimeshavecomplexdesigns on theirceilings. the 'Spring'only yesterday"which would havebeen December13,
Such dwellingsaresureto havebeen lightedwith suspending
and probablymeans the first rehearsalwith dancers,other than
lamps, especiallyas the discoveredobjectsof thatperiodreach
the qualities of jewelry:finest needles, bridles for deer, or- his sisterforher solo as the ChosenMaiden?4Diaghilevtelegraphed
naments made of pierced sea-shells and of the teeth of Stravinskyon December18,advisingthatneitherhad arrived,nor
animals?7 rehearsalsstarted.5The rehearsalon the 13thwas only, it would
Such objects were Roerich'smodels for the accessories to the seem, foracquaintingsmallgroupsof the castwiththe music,rather
than for setting movement. The timing of the communiquesis of
costumesforSacre:greatloop earringsforthe women, ornamented
interestbecauseSergeGrigoriev,the companyregisseur,wrotealso
headbandsandbelts,some with a charmattached- a horse,which
is associatedwith divinationceremoniesof the early Slavs- and on the 18th,reportingthat "Nijinskyhas not startedthe rehearsals
of our new ballet;he is waitingforthe drawingsof the costumes"36
forthe men, belts with decoratedweapons?8"Thereis something
refined about their ornamentation,"Roerichcontinued, "which Presumably,the drawingswere those Stravinskyjust sent, which,
as an earlierletterfromRoerichindicated,were in two books, ac-
reminds you of India and Japan,"and as he narratedwhat was
known of a festivalfor "thevictoryof the SpringSun,"it is possi- companiedby twenty-fourfinished costumes.37It may be that Ni-
ble to imagine his conversationwith Nijinsky: jinsky simply wanted to have a visual sense of the whole produc-
tion beforeembarkingon the ensemble dances. Or, he may have
Quick, alertdancingis going on, to the piping of wood-and- been concernedaboutthe bulk of the garments,as it would affect
horn pipes. Manyof the variousgarmentsamidthe crowdare the movement.Buthe mayhavewantedto constructthe Sacregroup
trimmedwith furs and with touches of coloredneedle-work work and ground patterns in a way directly connected to the
.... The youngergenerationformingrings for dancing and costumes.
singingwearsamberornaments,embroidery,stonebeads and The two books of designs thatRoerichmentionedarenot known
the talismanteeth.9 to survive,althoughseparatedrawingsmaybe amongthose in col-
Roerichconcludedthat "thedaywill come yet when we shalllearn lectionsin the SovietUnion, United States,and WesternEurope.38
DanceResearch
Journal 18/2 (Winter1986-87) 11
Mostof the seventy-ninecostumeshe createdhavebeen preserved, Th6etredes Champs-Elysees,forthe dimensionsof the stage,which
and the largegroup of them housed at the TheatreMuseum of the meansthathe was workingon the relationshipsof the groups,their
Victoriaand AlbertMuseum, London, are in good condition, so proximity,the time it would takeforone groupto pass anotherand
thatI was ableto studythemfirst-hand.Becauseof Roerich'slifelong other ensemble questions44Two days earlier,Nijinsky wrote to
interestin iconographyand systems of ritualsigns, I attemptedto Stravinskyfrom Leipzig, where the company was still touring
analyzethe costumemotifsfortheirmythologicalreferences.In the before the London season. The letter is such a comprehensive
courseof this analysis,I beganto noticecorrespondenceswith the reporton rehearsalsand the choreographer's reflectionson LeSacre
choreography.It stood to reason that Roerichmight use motifs that it makes all the more enticing the fact that similar cor-
associatedwith Yarilo,the solar deity who was the subjectof the respondencewith Roerichdid exist, althoughits whereaboutsare
rite.One malecostume,whichhad a labelforthe dancerAlexander now unknown.45Nijinsky also wrote regularlyto his mother in
Gavrilov,was notableforthe emblemsthatranup fromthe border Petersburgduringhis travelswith the BalletsRusses,and those let-
at the hem; the emblemslook likeladderssurmountedby wheels, ters, too, would have disclosed much about his creativeprocess,
and they may representthe wooden wheels that were threaded but they were lost in WorldWar .46 What Nijinsky expressed to
with dry twigs, placed atop ladders or poles, and set afire to Stravinskyon January25, 1913,summarizedthis process.
celebratethe returnof the sun.39A photographof the costumes,
from the sale of the collectionat Sotheby's,featuresthis garment Dear Igor,I have been able to make five rehearsalssince our
with the firewheels40The colors Roerichused supported the in- departurefromVienna.Thisis not very many,of course,con-
sideringhow much remainsto be done, but with the burden
terpretationof these emblems as firewheels for Yarilo- the lad- of workthat we have, and with these tiringmoves fromtown
der and wheel were orange, and the spaces between the spokes to town, wherewe stayonly two orthreedays,it was not possi-
on the wheels were dark aqua, as though the sky were showing ble to do more. I squeezed as much out of these rehearsalsas
throughthem. On the sleeveof the samecostumewas a figuresten- I could, and if I am able to continue this way, I will possibly
cilled in orange and dark aqua with magentaadded. It occurred have enough time for everything - without damaging my
to me that it might be a totem of Yarilo,such as are shown on the healthand at the same time dancingwell atthe performances.
wooden idols of the earlySlavs.At the same time, it remindedme Wehavecomposed almosteverythingthroughthe games and
of BronislavaNijinska'sdescription of the dance of the Chosen dances in the ring, and the game of abduction47
Maiden, which she wrote in a letterto the Soviet ballet historian Nijinskymaymean thatin less than threeweeks he completedthe
VeraKrassovskaya.Detailinga section towardthe end of the solo, firsttwo scenes of ActI, Augursof Spring (which climaxesin the
Nijinska suggested that "the movements give the image of a gamewith the twigs)and the continuationin Danceof the Maidens
prehistoricbirdwhose wings try to raisethe body, which is clum- (whichincludeschainmovementthatbecomecircles,orrings)plus
sy and not yet ready to fly."41When I met Svetoslav Roerich,I RitualAbduction- seven minutes of the thirty-fiveminuteballet.
showed him my study sketchfor the costume (Illustration5), and This rateof productivityis high by any companystandards,if Ni-
I askedhim what he thought it signified. 'A bird,he said without jinsky'sperformancesas a principalarebornein mind. Buton the
hesitation,and I queriedwhetherornot it mightbe a totemof some otherhand, he maymean thathe has finished the firstfour scenes
deity,but he repeated, "Anancientbird."42 The leaps of the young of Act I, Augurs of Spring/Danceof the Maidens; RitualAbduc-
men who wear the firewheel costumes adumbratethose of the tion; SpringRounds (possibly the "dancesin the ring");and the
Chosen Maiden in her awkwardeffortto join Yariloin the sky. Gamesof the RivalTribes,which would mean a thirdof the whole
Beyondthe symbolicreferencesof the costume motifs,I hoped, work. Accordingto Nijinska,her brotherwent over every accent
if possible, to decode dance movements from them. On the with everydancer,and he " would not proceedin his compostion
firewheel costumes the border print included circles with a untilhe obtainedthe exactexecution,"which "createdthe impres-
darkenedcirclein the center,and outside the circumferenceof the sion that Nijinsky himself was proceedingat a slow pace"in his
circleswere the curvesof brokenor incompletecircles.According choreography48 TheLeipzigletterhelps establishthe factthat,given
to my cross-referencingof sourcesfor the reconstruction,a ground the complexitiesof Sacreand the touring schedule, Nijinskywas
patternvery like this concentriccirclemotifappearsin the second proceedingapace.Partof the purpose of the lettermay have been
actof LeSacre;once the ChosenMaidenhas been selectedby a trick to demonstrate as much to Stravinsky,who had already pro-
of fateand surroundedby the otheryoungwomen, the eldersbegin mulgatedthe idea Nijinskywas a slow worker49 Thatidea, together
to close in aroundthem (Illustration6). A numberof ground pat- with Stravinsky'sverdictthatNijinskywas unmusical,went a long
ternsfamiliarfrommy researchwere identifiable,perhapsby coin- wayto discredithis dancein the yearsbeforethe composerretracted
cidence, on the costumes. It may well be impossible to prove any his interimviews and declaredthat the originalchoreographywas
relationshipbetweenthe dancers'garmentsand the dancedesign, the best of any for Sacre.?The lettercontinued with Nijinskyfull
but suchcontinuityexistsin ritualtraditionsfromvariouscultures. of hope and excitementover his creation:
That Roerich and Nijinsky may have planned specific cor-
I am very pleased with the way everythinghas turned out. If
respondences in the choreographyand costume motifs is consis- the workcontinueslike this, Igor,the resultwill be something
tentwith the mannerin which they workedtogether.Nijinskydoes
not seem to have put any of the ensembles togetheruntil mid-to- great. I know what Le Sacredu printempswill be when
late January1913,by which time he had receivedRoerich'sdraw- everythingis as we both want it: new, and, for an ordinary
viewer, a jolting impression and emotional experience. For
ingsandcostumes.Manyof the groundpatternsin the originalSacre some it will open new horizons flooded with differentraysof
have antecedents in the ritual dance of shamanistictradition- sun. People will see new and differentcolors and different
circles, concentriccircles, squares, and the circle-in-the-square. lines. All different,new and beautiful.I go to Dresden today,
SurelyRoerichpassed on to Nijinskythe importanceof such pat- where it will be impossibleto rehearsesincewe areonly there
terns in the archaicrites of the Slavs. As designer,he would have for one day. FromDresden we go to London. A bow to your
wife. I kiss your hand. Vaslav.1
alreadyincorporatedthem as motifs on the costumes, which Ni-
jinsky insisted on seeing before his preparationof the ensemble When the BalletsRussesarrivedin Londonatthe end of January,
movement.So it is reasonableto suppose thatthe groundpatterns 1913,Stravinskyjoined them for Sacrerehearsals.Nijinskyconfid-
of the ballethave this derivationfromRoerichand ritualtradition. ed to his sisterhis frustrationoverwhat he consideredtime lost in
On January27, Nijinsky wired GabrielAstruc, directorof the rehearsalswith the composer's"lectures"concerning"thebegin-
Journal 18/2 (Winter1986-87)
12 DanceResearch
r w\ I..
^
Y" \
4 d
Illustration6. Detailsfromcostume:"theprehistoric
bird"andtheconcentric
circles.Groundpattern:ActI, Scene
2, Glorificationof the Chosen Maiden. Drawings by Millicent Hodson.