SACRE # 2

Le Sacre du printemps, Vaslav Nijinsky’s third piece (after Afternoon of a Faun (1912) and Jeux (1913)), is a ballet which was first performed on the 19th May 1913 at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes.

Through Sacre #2, Dominique Brun rejigs the choreography of Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (costumes and set inspired by Nicolas Roerich; music by Igor Stravinsky). The music is presented here as a previously unpublished version. François-Xavier Roth, with the permission of Boosey & Hawkes and the assistance of musicologist Louis Cyr, has endeavoured to restore Le Sacre du printemps as it was first performed at the premiere.

With a cast of 30 contemporary dancers, Sacre #2 is based on the research carried out by two historians, Sophie Jactotot and Juan Ignacio Vallejos. These two tried to find the archives of the 1913 work, and then to gather, analyse and interpret them. They also looked to uncover other images and writings so that where the archives were lacking they could fill in the gaps and recreate movements.

While remaining as close to the archival sources as possible, and it is this which constitutes the real constraints for the choreographer, Dominique Brun renounces the fantasy of an illusionist reconstitution of Nijinsky’s choreography and defends her own choices.  

To do this, she takes note of the only evidence of Nijinsky’s choreographic writing that we have: the score of his first piece, Afternoon of a Faun. In addition to this exceptional archives, are the archives of the Sacre: the testimonies of those who danced or saw the performance in 1913; the press reviews; the annotations to the dance written on the scores of Marie Rambert (Nijinsky’s assistant) and Stravinsky; a rich iconography composed of several photographs by Charles Gershel, drawings by Valentine Gross-Hugo, Emmanuel Barcet and Nicolas Roerich. These documents suggest postures, actions, spatial positions for the group, rhythmic indications, methods of composition, and sometimes qualities of movement. Interpreted, commented on, and crossed-checked with other references, these documents stimulate the choreographer’s and the dancers’ imaginations, giving a contemporary sensibility to the work of constitution.

The piece is also set to a musical version of Le Sacre du printemps, reduced for the pianola by Stravinsky himself in the 1930s, performed by Rex Lawson. It aims to remove the dance from decorum and expose the bodies more.