• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE PHOTOGRAPH IS RE-CALLED AS THE DANCER’S BODY RE-TURNS: THE PERFORMATIVE MEMORY OF VASLAV NIJINSKY IN L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE by CHERYLDEE HUDDLESTON (Under the Direction of David Zucker Saltz) ABSTRACT Vaslav Nijinsky (1890?-1950) made his fame in Paris as the premiere danseur of the Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1912. It is largely upon these four seasons that Nijinsky came to be considered the greatest dancer who has ever lived. In 1912, Nijinsky choreographed his first ballet, L’Après-midi d’un Faune (Faune). Approximately ten-and-a-half minutes in length, Faune is considered one of the most significant works in dance history, and a pivotal work of twentieth century theatrical modernism. In this study, Faune is identified as an extraordinary example of praxis, with Nijinsky as choreographer, performer, creator of an original dance notation system to record his ballet, and notator of its score. For nearly three-quarters of a century, Nijinsky’s score of Faune was considered an indecipherable oddity. Thus, with no film footage existing of Nijinsky dancing, the only material evidence of his performance in and choreography of Faune were photographs, including those from the famous Adolph De Meyer session in London in June of 1912. In 1989, however, Ann Hutchinson Guest and Claudia Jeschke “broke” the code of Nijinsky’s notation system, and in December of that year an historic performance of Faune took place at New York City’s Juilliard School, with then-student dancer Yoav Kaddar performing Nijinsky’s role of the Faun for the first time in seventy-five years exactly as described by Nijinsky in his original notation system. As primary researcher, the focus of my study is the description of a phenomenological “event,” my 2006 viewing of the 1989 videotaped Juilliard production of Faune. Within my viewing of Kaddar’s performance in the Nijinsky role of the Faun, I recalled my memories of the De Meyer photographs of Nijinsky and, through this “recollection,” imbricated within the “present” performance of the dancer Kaddar, I discovered what I believed to be an experientially “new viewing” and subsequent “new performance memory” of Vaslav Nijinsky. Under an umbrella methodology of phenomenology (embodied consciousness), I engaged in research on nonarchivalism and photographic realism (as they pertain to performance documentation), and performative knowledge within dance notation systems, to strengthen my experiential “belief,” and to enrich the description, as opposed to providing evidentiary “proof,” of my phenomenological event. INDEX WORDS: Vaslav Nijinsky, L’Après-midi d’un Faune (Afternoon of a Faun), Phenomenology, Performance Preservation, Embodied Consciousness, Nonarchivalism, Dance Notation Systems, Photographic Realism THE PHOTOGRAPH IS RE-CALLED AS THE DANCER’S BODY RE-TURNS: THE PERFORMATIVE MEMORY OF VASLAV NIJINSKY IN L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE by CHERYLDEE HUDDLESTON B.A., California State University at Hayward, 1993 M.F.A., University of Nevada at Las Vegas, 1997 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2010 Cheryldee Huddleston All Rights Reserved THE PHOTOGRAPH IS RE-CALLED AS THE DANCER’S BODY RE-TURNS: THE PERFORMATIVE MEMORY OF VASLAV NIJINSKY IN L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE by CHERYLDEE HUDDLESTON Major Professor: David Zucker Saltz Committee: Farley Richmond Charles Eidsvik Yunyu Wang Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2010 DEDICATION In 1919 Vaslav Nijinsky wrote in his diary, “I am feeling in the flesh and not intellect in the flesh. I am the flesh. I am feeling. I am God in the flesh and in feeling. I am man and not God. I am simple. People must not think me. They must feel me and understand me through feeling. Scholars will ponder over me, and they will rack their brains needlessly, because thinking will produce no results for them. They are stupid.” Acknowledging his sentiments, I nonetheless dedicate this work and the desire beneath its completion to the art and person that is and was Vaslav Nijinsky. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In my ability to pursue research of an individual I have long admired as the embodiment of artistic transcendence, I must acknowledge with gratitude the aid and support of a number of extraordinary individuals. They include Dr. Ann Hutchinson Guest, who shared her tremendous knowledge of Nijinsky’s dance notation system and score of Faune, Dr. Claudia Jeschke who patiently answered by “dense” questioning of the performativity available within Nijinsky’s score, Professor Yunyu Wang who brought her passion for Nijinsky and expertise in the reconstruction of Faune to my research, Yoav Kaddar who allowed me access to his intimate experience of learning and performing the Faun, Dr. Sunil Kothari who shared his passion for dance, Dr. John Kundert-Gibbs for his hours of help to create a photographically-modified recording of the 1989 Juilliard Dance Ensemble’s Faune, Dr. Charles Eidsvik who first encouraged me to explore my phenomenological connection to Nijinsky’s performance, Dr. Farley Richmond who strengthened my resolve to complete this study, and finally, Dr. David Saltz, whose unrelenting enthusiasm and belief in my original research consistently and constantly strengthened my own “belief” that what seemed at times an insurmountably complicated study was within my reach. I wish also to thank my colleagues within the department, Drs. Katharine Carey and Lauren Sexton, with whom I began my doctoral studies, Beth Turner for her friendship and support, Joyce Heard for her help “beyond the call of duty,” and Thomas Stewart, for his invaluable technical support. Finally, I wish to thank my niece, Sharon Strom, and my boyfriend Jeff McCandless, for their love and support during this final stretch of the completion of the study. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Methodology 8 Theoretical and Scholarly Precedents 9 Analysis of the Phenomenological Event 17 Vaslav Nijinsky: Career and Critical Reception 20 Review of Literature 27 Nijinsky’s Praxis in Faune 28 Non-Literary Material 33 Original Research 34 Phenomenology of Nijinsky’s Performance and Faune Photographs 36 2 THEORY: THE NATURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY 44 Introduction 44 The Nature of Photography 48 The Death of Nijinsky-as-Performer 70 Memories of Photographs: A Counter Argument 94 vi 3 NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE: NIJINSKY’S PERFORMANCE 98 Introduction 98 Photographs of Nijinsky: An Overview 104 Photographs of Faune 117 New Evidence 126 Faune Photographs: Availability of Nijinsky’s Performative Traces 151 Conclusion 152 4 NEW EVIDENCE: NIJINSKY’S SCORE OF FAUNE 156 Introduction 156 Theory: Performative Traces on Dance Notation Systems 157 Nijinsky’s Notation System 162 Nijinsky’s Score of Faune 164 Jeschke on Nijinsky 176 Theory: The Perceptual Body of Nijinsky 178 Nijinsky’s Praxis in Faune 186 5 NEW EVIDENCE: PERFORMATIVE TRACES OF NIJINSKY IN FAUNE 218 Introduction 218 My Viewing of Juilliard Dance Ensemble’s Faune 220 Points of Reflection and Focus 231 Nijinsky’s Performativity in Faune Score 232 6 CONCLUSION 272 REFERENCES 279 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Nijinsky as The Golden Slave in Schéhérazade 113 Figure 2: Nijinsky as Petruschka in Petruschka 114 Figure 3: Nijinsky as The Spirit of the Rose in Spectre de la Rose 115 Figure 4: Nymph’s Hands and Arms from Faune 118 Figure 5: Nijinsky “en l’air,” costumed for “Danse Siamoise” 123 Figure 6: Nijinsky as The Favorite Slave in L’Pavillon d’Armide 137 Figure 7: Vaslav Nijinsky 139 Figure 8: Nijinsky as Petruschka 148 Figure 9: Nijinsky and sister Bronislava Nijinska as the Faun and Main Nymph 166 Figure 10: Nijinsky as the Faun with Diagonal Head (Bent Upward) 167 Figure 11: Nijinsky in the Faun’s Seminal Pose 241 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Historical and Research Background Vaslav Nijinsky (1890?-1950)1 remains one of the most influential male dancers in history, whose technical brilliance combined with an unprecedented, individualized intensity of characterization. Nijinsky made his fame in Paris as the premiere danseur of the Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1912.2 Based largely but not solely upon these four seasons, Nijinsky came to be considered perhaps the greatest dancer who has ever lived, dancing roles in works created by Ballets Russes’ choreographer and Ballet Master Michel Fokine (1880-1942): Les Sylphides, Carnaval, Spectre de la Rose, Petruschka, and Schéhérazade. The dancer’s first real negative publicity came in 1912 from a ten-minute ballet in which he both choreographed and starred: L’Après-midi d’un Faune (Afternoon of a Faun) (Faune). Applauded by some and dismissed by many, Faune with its animalistic eroticism and posed, apparently un-musical choreography, encouraged public and private appraisal of Nijinsky as an 1 There continues to be confusion as to Nijinsky’s year of birth. According to John Fraser, Nijinsky stated that he was born in 1890, his sister Bronislava Nijinska, that he was born in February 1889, biographer Richard Buckle, that he was born in February 1888, and his wife, Romola, that he was born in February 1890. See John Fraser, "The Diaghilev Ballet in Europe: Footnotes to Nijinsky, Part Two,” Dance Chronicle 5, no. 2 (1982): 165. 2 These four seasons constitute the most concentrated and consistent period of Nijinsky’s performances with the Ballets Russes. In May 1913, Nijinsky choreographed and starred in Jeux, in June he choreographed Le Sacre du Printemps, and in September 1913 he married Romola De Pulsky. He was then fired from the Ballets Russes by Serge Diaghilev, had a brief, commercially and artistically frustrating season in London, found himself under virtual house arrest in Hungary after World War I began, but was rehired by the Ballets Russes in 1916, and performed throughout the United States, including choreographing and starring in Till Eulenspiegel.

Load more

  296

Copy Link