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Eva Stachniak

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The Chosen Maiden reviews and interviews

Posted by on Jan 4, 2017

 

The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers interview:

           Eva Stachniak on The Chosen Maiden   

Publishers Weeklystar review

Stachniak brilliantly brings the story of Bronia, the lesser-known Nijinsky, to life. She has an excellent command of the period and the dance world, and an ability to draw characters who will enrapture the reader.

The Toronto Star:

…delightful …

…  a tale of intrigue, love, betrayal and redemption set in the realm of art and artists, exploring the line between dedication and obsession, creation and madness.

… Stachniak weaves together beautifully the myriad moments that bring this fascinating family and period to life.

Library Journal:

… exquisite fictionalized memoir.

… Drawing on her thorough research into Bronia’s archives, the author has teased out revealing insights into the art of the dance, and she writes skillfully about the emotional truths that arose from Bronia’s ambitions, family relations, and deep anxieties. Dance fans will welcome this graceful and entrancing foray into the recent past.

Quill and Quire:

Many works of fiction take as their inspiration true events and persons of historical significance, but few do so as lovingly and imaginatively as Eva Stachniak’s fifth novel

….

a remarkable work of historical fiction

The Chosen Maiden is both a tribute to a female artist who remained true to her vision despite numerous obstacles, and to the woman behind her who made it possible. MORE

The Globe and Mail

Eva Stachniak: ‘We live in a country that embodies the essence of the 21st century’

The Chosen Maiden was born out of my fascination with Ballets Russes, a Russian dance company which, in the summer of 1909, took Paris by storm, and fundamentally transformed Western notions of modern art. I wrote it because, after over 30 years in Canada, I’m still exploring the encounters between East and West, their exhilarating possibilities and illuminating setbacks.. MORE

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The Chosen Maiden ballets 1909-1913

The Chosen Maiden ballets 1909-1913

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.

 

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The Chosen Maiden–an excerpt

The Chosen Maiden–an excerpt

Posted by on Apr 16, 2016

 

Room 11, Berth 3, SS American Trader.

My last address? For this ship may well become my coffin, sinking here, somewhere between Europe and America, as did SS Athenia on her way to Montreal last month. Now we, too, are a tiny speck on the grey waters of the Atlantic. If we make it, New York will greet us with its skyscrapers, those towering giant lizards, scaly and beautiful. And a new life that might not be that new after all. We make vows in moments of danger then slip back into old habits.

My London contract was cancelled the day Britain declared war on Germany. With all the theatres closed and the clock ticking on our British visas, I signed with Wassily de Basil’s company for their Australian tour. If we do go to Australia, that is. We make plans, my mother would remind me, and God laughs.

If the protracted visa interview at the American embassy in London was any indication, I’ll have to steel myself for questions, account for the contradictions of history. My imperial Russian passport declares that Бронисла́ва Фоми́нична Нижи́нская—Bronislava Fominitchna Nizhinskaya—was born in Minsk, in 1891. My Polish passport insists that Bronisława Niżyńska is a Polish citizen, born in Warsaw in 1890. My Nansen passport argues that I am stateless. Mercifully they all agree that my face is oblong, my complexion fair and my hair blond, although my eyes are described variously as green or blue.

Mine, I will defend myself, is not a simple story.

 

 

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