Nijinsky Vs Fokine

It is said that Fokine opened the door for modernism, but “he himself failed to cross its threshold (Garafola 50).” This first step was taken by Vaslav Nijinsky. During his time with the Ballets Russes, Nijinsky created only four works; L’Après-midi d’un Faune (1912), Jeux (1913), Le Sacre du Printemps (1913), and Till Eulenspiegel (1916). During this time, modern ballet has its first definitive split into Russian and Western techniques. Nijinsky became the Ballets Russes single most successful member during its twenty years in existence. He is described to have “transcended the bounds of what seemed humanly possible for even a consummate virtuoso, while as an actor he possessed an uncanny, even pathological ability to submerge his personality in the role at hand (Garafola 51).” However, Nijinsky’s final thirty-two years were clouded with schizophrenia, which in turn, has hindered the

Fokine used virtuosic movements very sparingly, preferring to use expression. Nijinsky on the other hand, abandoned this type of movement all together, along with classical technique. For example, the choreography in Nijinsky’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune consists entirely of walking, pivoting, kneeling, and in one instance a jump; essentially bringing ballet back to its very basic movements. Unlike Fokine, Nijinsky frequently used parallel positions and used it as a “commentary upon the very aesthetics of turnout (Garafola 57).” In terms of choreographic style, Fokine celebrated the use of curves, whereas Nijinsky saw the body as the relationship between the Euclidean forms—triangles, arcs, and lines. Garafola states that this “denial of nature is implicit in the very design of the ballet, for if geometry stylizes Nijinsky’s protagonists, it also unsexes them, as if form, like some higher morality, were a shield against instinct (Garafola