Vaslav Nijinsky Le Sacre Du Printemps Analysis

3336 Words14 Pages

Choreographic innovation in Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre Du Printemps “I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring. Such was the theme of the Sacre du Printemps. I must confess that this vision made a deep impression on me, and I at once described it to my friend Nicholas Roerich.”(Stravinsky: 31). The conception of Le Sacre marks a moment of superb innovation in the history of modern dance. At its premiere, on the 29th of May 1913, it was received with shouts and insults from the audience that made the score inaudible the choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky had to stand on the side and count the steps to maintain their unison. The performance ended in a riot and the original choreography was only performed nine times. The work represented ground breaking innovation because it was with Le Sacre Du Printemps (Henceforth Le Sacre), Nijinsky ushered the world of dance into modernity. With Le Sacre the romanticism that governed ballet was forgotten and the realism and expression was reintroduced to dance. …show more content…

He brought the collaborators together and was responsible for the production of Le Sacre. The process that led up to the actualization of Le Sacre was a combined effort involving, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky and Nicholas Roerich. For the purpose of this argument I will focus particularly on the innovative aspects of the choreography and its relationship with the score and the libretto by Stravinsky as well as the design, costume and research done by Roerich that influenced the