One thing I would like to make clear: my goal was not to write the best English prose. Staying close to the French text is less pretty but more efficient for learning purposes.
Founded by two masters of French ballet,
the famous Imperial Ballet School of St. Petersburg was, in the early 20th century,
a unique institution of its kind.
It trained the future dancers of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Vaslav Nijinsky studied there.
He became the star of the Ballets Russes.
It is to Nijinsky that Diaghilev entrusted the choreography of The Rite of Spring, of which Stravinsky and painter Nicholas Roerich had written the libretto.
At 24 Nijinsky is famous worldwide.
The new God of dance, his performances enthrall audiences.
Stravinsky’s score and Nijinsky's choreography break sharply with the music and aesthetics of 19th century ballet.
The Sacre is a revolutionary work, and its première at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées on May 29, 1913 degenerated into a battle among the spectators.
The tumult is such that the dancers struggle to hear the orchestra.
The violence of the music, the shock of the scenes of pagan Russia, in which a young girl dances to death during a savage ritual in honor of Spring stupefies the audience.
Removed from the Ballets Russes repertoire after only a few performances, The Rite had a long eclipse, until choreographer Millicent Hodson and art historian Kenneth Archer went in search of the lost choreography.
From documents of the time, Hodson and Archer were able to reconstruct Nijinsky's choreography.
Born of the collaboration of two geniuses, The Rite of Spring remains one of the fundamental Works of art the twentieth century.
