Sat 8/17 + Sun 8/18
By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
We’re going to see Cleveland Orchestra and Joffrey Ballet of Chicago at Blossom this weekend, a program that features Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Joffrey’s reconstruction of Vaslav Nijinsky’s original choreography. This is the choreography long believed lost, the show that sparked the 2-day-long riot at its premiere in May of 1913.
Why the riot? Allow us, dear reader, to explain. Today the modern and even the post modern in dance are so well established as to be passé in many circles. But in 1913 the contest between the modern and the traditional was fierce. The very theater in which Rite of Spring was first performed, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, went through numerous contentious changes in design and design teams until what was originally conceived as a traditional edifice with a modernist interior was eventually constructed with a starkly modern exterior and extremely traditional interior decor.
Another reason for the riot was that Diaghilev engineered it. Ever alert to the marketing value of controversy, the Artistic Director of the Ballets Russes invited members of rival factions to the premiere, hoping for an uproar.
Without the cultural ferment of 1913 and the machinations of a Diaghilev, we do not expect a riot at Blossom. But watching a video excerpt of the Joffrey’s Rite here we and our friends find ourselves doing some head scratching at first.
First we wondered how authentic this reconstruction is. Some loose talk claims that the Joffrey’s production is not the real Rite of Spring. The erudite and articulate Jennifer Homans, for instance, writes in Apollo’s Angels that the Joffrey’s production is “American postmodern dance masquerading” as the original, a “travesty.” But we have carefully considered Homans’ claims in the light of another book, Nijinsky’s Crime Against Grace, which is Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer’s discussion of their reconstruction of Rite of Spring for the Joffrey. What emerges is the extraordinary care Hodson and Archer exercised as they sifted through notes taken by Stravinsky, Marie Rambert, and others. To the extent that a dance can be reconstructed from notes — and much ballet canon is — we believe the Rite of Spring at Blossom is the real deal.
Then we wonder what Nijinsky and Stravinsky had in mind back in 1913. Why the stamping? Why the strange, contorted postures? It helps us to recall that much of modern art was generated by a modernist treatment of primitive source materials. Just as Pablo Picasso’s interest in African masks informed his treatment of faces in, for instance, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, so Rite of Spring was originally suggested to Stravinsky by Nikolai Roerich, a painter with a deep interest in the archaeology of Russia’s ancient past.
Roerich, whose designs for costumes and set will be part of the Joffrey’s performance at Blossom, was a longtime associate of Diaghilev who had done earlier designs for Ballets Russes. He’s still well-known in Russia and has a museum in NYC.
Given Roerich’s concept and Stravinsky’s score, Nijinsky presented folk dance materials through a modernist lense. Spring planting dances from ancient to modern times have involved stamping to awaken the earth and the seed. Nijinsky also made use of the new discipline of eurythmics, actually choreographing to the ever-changing meters of the score rather than skating over the details as many contemporary treatments of Rite of Spring have. That’s why we say that Nijinsky’s choreography casts the most light on the rhythmic complexities of this music.
Those familiar with choreography for Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun will be struck by the similarities with Rite of Spring, the many hops from parallel fourth position and the flattening of the body into frieze positions.
Other dances on the program may seem tame and traditional in comparison. Son of Chamber Symphony is choreographed by Stanton Welch to music of the same title by post-minimalist John Adams. We understand from our reading that Welch has made stylistic changes to the traditional ballet vocabulary much as Costume Designer Travis Halsey has managed a fresh take on the traditional tutu. The evening’s program opens with Interplay choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Morton Gould’s American Concertette, Joela Jones on piano. Also on the program, the 5-minute Adagio choreographed by Yuri Possokhov to the music of Aram Khachaturian.
Tito Munoz, previously Assistant Conductor of Cleveland Orchestra, will conduct.
[Pictured: Joffrey Ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps (2) – Stacy Joy Keller, Erica Lynette Edwards, Jennifer Goodman; credit Herbert Migdoll]
8pm Sat 8/17 and Sun 8/18 at Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Tickets $55, $45, and $35 in the Pavillion. $22.50 on the Lawn. 18 and under FREE on the Lawn. Special rates for Seniors and Students. For tickets click here or phone 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.