Dancer/Choreographer Nijinsky
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Between 1912 and 1916, Vaslav Nijinsky choreographed four works for the Ballets Russes. These works (L'Apres-Midi D'Un Faune, Jeux, Le Sacre Du Printemps, and Til Eulenspiegel) were radical innovations in the world of dance choreography. Serge Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes, had a strong influence on this contribution by Nijinsky. In addition to making Nijinsky a star, Diaghilev provided the young dancer with his first opportunity to work as a choreographer. Diaghilev was a teacher and homosexual lover to Nijinsky, as well as his employer. The influence of Diaghilev on Nijinsky's career was so powerful, it can be said that he served as "a kind of father figure" to the dancer (Ostwald, 1991, p. 55). In fact, Diaghilev tended to provide this role for most of the young male artists that he worked with. By introducing young dancers to artistic influences, Diaghilev sought "to give them the benefits of his own rich cultural heritage" (p. 33). Prior to joining the Ballets Russes, Nijinsky had already established himself as an accomplished dancer. However, it was under Diaghilev's guidance that Nijinsky first became aware of the artistic ideas that would become so important in his choreography (Garafola, 1989, p. 54). In many ways, Diaghilev was an essential balance to Nijinsky's temperament. Throughout his brief career, Nijinsky was known as an extremely sensitive person who had difficulties in communicating with others. Diaghilev, as the leader of the Ball
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in space than was seen in the earlier work. Thus, Jeux was unique in terms of the dancers' movements because "each limb made a different movement and followed a different rhythm" (Kirstein, 1987, p. 290).
Diaghilev also had another important influence on Nijinsky's development of the theme which was contained in Jeux. Originally, the two female dancers and one male dancer in the work were intended by Nijinsky to be three male dancers. In his diaries, Nijinsky openly claimed that the three figures were intended to represent Diaghilev's homosexual desire to "love two boys at the same time" (Ostwald, 1991, p. 62). At that time in his life, Nijinsky was starting to turn away from his youthful homosexuality and was thus beginning to feel "disgust" for Diaghilev (p. 65). As noted by Garafola, Nijinsky's symbolic break with Diaghilev's homosexuality can also be seen in the choreography of L'Apres Midi D'Un Faune. Specifically, a certain anti-homosexuality can be seen in Nijinsky's depiction of a young boy-faun's "sexual awakening" in the midst of female nymphs (Garafola, 1989, p. 56).
In terms of choreography, Le Sacre Du Printemps is generally regarded as Nijinsky's masterpiece. This 1913 work was much longer and used a larger
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Ballets Russes, Diaghilev Nijinsky, Du Printemps, Til Eulenspiegel, Jeux Originally, Russes Nijinsky, Specifically Diaghilev, Nijinsky Diaghilev, Diaghilev Nijinsky's, D'Un Faune, ballets russes, le sacre, du printemps, sacre du printemps, sacre du, d'un faune, le sacre du, til eulenspiegel, ostwald 1991, garafola 1989, l'apres-midi d'un faune, diaghilev nijinsky, l'apres-midi d'un, midi d'un faune, l'apres midi d'un,
Approximate Word count = 1929
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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