Posted by on Nov 5, 2016

The Chosen Maiden is a work of fiction, but since it is inspired by historical characters, it is based on historical research and refers to ballets considered milestones in ballet history. If you like to get a sense of the ballets that play an important part in the novel, here is a peek into the world of Ballet Russes from its inception to the famous Parisian 1913 premiere of The Rite of Spring choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. 

This short film puts together the animated still photographs of Vaslav Nijinsky dancing in Le Roi CandauleLe Dieu Bleu, Schéhérazade, Petrouchka, Afternoon of the Faun, as well as some footage if his choreographic masterpiece, The Rite of Spring. The compilation of these fleeting fragments ends with the haunting drawings Vaslav Nijinsky made as he was slipping into madness. 

The Afternoon of the Faun is worth watching in full. In her memoirs Bronia Nijinska wrote: “Vaslav is creating his Faun by using me as his model. I am like a piece of clay that he is moulding, shaping into each pose and change of movement.  ….how much I am learning form him….”

 

 

We have precious little documentation of the original 1913 production of Vaslav’s Nijinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The Joffrey Ballet recreation of the ballet is an educated guess based on research and the testimony of dancers who took part in it. The third part is the dance of The Chosen Maiden, the role which Vaslav  choreographed with his sister in mind, but which–in the original production–was danced by Maria Piltz.