1. Le Sacre du Printemps (1913)
The Rite of Spring
Watch 5:20-12:04

2. Cast of characters
Choreographer:

3. Cast of characters
Choreographer: Vaslav Nijinsky

4. Cast of characters
Choreographer: Vaslav Nijinsky
Composer:

5. Cast of characters Choreographer: Vaslav Nijinsky
Composer: Igor Stravinsky

6. Cast of characters Choreographer: Vaslav Nijinsky
Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Artist: Nikolai Roerich
Russian painter and archeologist with a lifelong interest in pagan and peasant spirituality

7. Cast of characters Choreographer: Vaslav Nijinsky
Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Artist: Nikolai Roerich
And Diaghilev!

8. The Great Sacrifice: a Tableau of Pagan Russia
A ritual reenactment of an imagined pagan sacrifice of a young maiden to the g-d of fertility and the sun: a rite of spring.
It’s initial title

9. Set by Roerich

10. Set by Roerich
Kind of barren, rocky landscape

11. The ballet
Performed only eight times

12. The ballet
Performed only eight times
Notably unballetic

13. The ballet Performed only eight times Notably unballetic
Movement was difficult; music was difficult

14. The ballet Performed only eight times Notably unballetic
Movement was difficult; music was difficult
No narrative
Used repetition, stomping dances, stylized rape, abduction of the chosen maiden, dance of death
“coldly rational depiction of a primitive and irrationally charged world” (312)

15. The ballet Performed only eight times Notably unballetic
Movement was difficult; music was difficult
No narrative
Diaghilev stacked the house.
Rival and feuding artistic factions who could be counted on to create a ruckus
Also had invitation only stage rehearsals – increased interest in it

16. The ballet Performed only eight times Notably unballetic
Movement was difficult; music was difficult
No narrative
Diaghilev stacked the house.
The audience rioted.
Caused by Stravinsky’s music and Nijinsky’s movement
Shouting, yelling, throwing chairs, police came
Nijinsky stood backstage counting, telling the dancers to keep going

17. The ballet Performed only eight times Notably unballetic
Movement was difficult; music was difficult
No narrative
Diaghilev stacked the house.
The audience rioted.
It was a betrayal of everything that had come to expect from the Ballet Russes.
Nijinsky, who they loved, wasn’t dancing
Critics felt like it depicted a diminished humanity – it increasingly became seen as a prelude to war

18. Ballet changes. Ballet was always inherently noble – no more.
Ballet clung to anatomical clarity and high ideals.

19. Ballet changes. Ballet was always inherently noble – no more.
Nijinsky made ballet ugly.

20. Ballet changes. Ballet was always inherently noble – no more.
Nijinsky made ballet ugly.
Sacre was genuinely new, the first modern ballet.