Balanchine vs Nijinsky in Neoclassical Dance
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Neoclassicism, as defined by Carol Lee, is the "Revival of the classical treatment in art and literature; usually with a narrower critical interpretation of Greek or Roman models that they were subjected to in ancient times." I have found that some choreographers followed this definition to create neoclassical ballets, while others strayed too far to be true to this classification. The "Diaghilev Years" as they are called, was a time when Diaghilev has his highest involvement with the ballet Russes. He brought forward the freshest choreographers to fulfill his desire to "overwhelm the cultural world of Western Europe. He did" (Cohen 93). The greatest contributing choreographers during the Neoclassical period were Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, Nijinska, and Balanchine. These choreographers collaborated with popular artist of the time to reform the classical with complex rhythms by composers such as Stravinsky, daring and exotic costumes by designers such as Coco Channel, and elaborate, colorful scenery by artists such as Picasso. These new ways to reform the classical techniques made many ballets successful, while others, which went too for into the avant-garde, were booed off stage.
Audiences were beginning to find the classical ballets sterile and unpleasing. Fokine wanted to break away from this feeling but it was nearly impossible under the Imperial Theatre until Diaghilev took him under his wing...