Part 1 of 3
part 2 is
https://youtu.be/iH1t0pCchxM and part 3 is
https://youtu.be/C_7ndqgwxcM
Begin at minute 2:42 if you wish to jump right in to the dance.
OK . Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky collaborated by chance with Nicholas Roerich and on May 29, 1913 debuted most shocking, ground breaking composition and ballet the world had ever experienced and it may still be most striking work ever done. Paris was not ready for this 3 prong attack and only Igor Stravinsky would have the victory - though not financial, never that. Nijinsky's choreography, performed only 9 times in 1913, was the effigy and was nearly lost forever until Robert Joffrey, once a student of Nijinsky's assistant Marie Rambert decided to unearth it and spent cvlose to 15 years in the rabbit hole with dance historian and choreographer Millicent Hodson and Dr. Kenneth Archer, the foremost authority on the authenticity of costume, set design and ritual pattern. Robert Joffrey had cancer which advanced as the reconstruction did as if Nijinsky had run to Joffrey's timeline, This was the first performance anyone alive would see. THis is all raw emotion telling the story as there was no video to mimic. It is perfect. Everything would change in 1987 and many choreographers would walk away pouting. The intensity of this process of recovery can not be overstated as we would not know about the odd connection of Roerich, Stravinsky and Nijinsky nor of the alchemist of it all, Diaghilev. Much more on this at my blog This Is Not Swan Lake.
PLEASE watch the other 2 pieces or you are missing out on the darkest of this whole thing. All of this is for educational use. Comment because those comments will be in a documentary soon!
