20th Century and Dance

¶ … Rite of Spring - Vaslav Nijinsky & Igov Stravinsky

In what ways has The Rite of Spring laid the foundations for postmodernism in art, music, and dance?

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, laid the foundations of postmodernism in art, music and dance by promoting the ideas rooted in Kant and Nietzsche -- namely that truth exists not as an objective reality but rather as a construct of the mind -- a subjective, internalization of externalities (Knight 89). Postmodernism in the 20th century was essentially a reaction to the modernism of the 19th century and modernism's elevated belief in Reason, based on Enlightenment ideology which came about as a result of the Scientific Revolution and Protestant Reformation in Europe. The postmodernist reaction to the inheritors of the Enlightenment was to elevate irrationality and absurdity -- the idea that human beings, far from using Reason, very often acted emotionally, selfishly, self-destructively and savagely. Ideas of self-destruction, irrationality and unpredictability are evident in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and in the choreography of Nijinsky -- and coming as it did at a pivotal juncture in world history -- just before the outbreak of WW1 -- Rite of Spring served as a turning point in the way the societies of the world view themselves: crumbling institutions, changing principles, a technologically-dependent world, a divorce between the past and the present, and a dislocation within the soul. All of this would impact the direction and course of art, music and dance over the course of the 20th century, and Nijinsky and Stravinsky share in the credit of establishing that course.

At twenty years of age, Vaslav Nijinsky had joined the Ballets Russes in 1909, which had been newly formed by Sergei Diaghilev, focusing on innovative and new productions and art exhibitions for foreign audiences (Parker 50). Nijinsky, who had attended the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg as a child but whose big break came through his meeting with Diaghilev, embraced the itinerant nature of the production company -- sensing in it the embodiment of all that was changing in the world: nothing was fixed, permanent; ideals, principles, and forms were transforming; the boundaries of art itself were being pushed in directions that were more and more abstract, inward looking, and highly controversial because of their break with the past (Buckle 27). When Igor Stravinsky signed on with Diaghilev, the character of the Ballets Russes was complete: it would be to the dance world what Picasso would be to the art world -- a revolution.

While the Ballets Russes performed rich and lavish productions abroad, its big concern was in producing spectacles. Through his innate talent as a dancer, Nijinsky quickly became the star of the shows and by 1912, Nijinsky was doing his own choreography, relishing the opportunity to give Diaghilev and audiences something new, exciting and fresh. The Rite of Spring, written by Igor Stravinsky and choreographed by Nijinsky, premiered in Paris in 1913 -- to controversial reception: a riot literally broke out in the audience, with contentious patrons attacking one another and the orchestra, which nonetheless continued on with Stravinsky's score (Kelly 293). Ironically, the ballet -- about a young woman's self-sacrifice in a pagan Russian rite by dancing herself to death -- foreshadowed the tragic end of Nijinsky, who just six years later would be committed to an asylum as a schizophrenic; having devoted himself to dance and struggled to find work following his break with the Ballet Russes (in the post-Spring period), his mental health sharply deteriorated. Following his stint in the asylum, he would never dance again.

Rite of Spring was a controversial work for a number of reasons -- but indeed that was the point, as Ivan Hewett, Classical Music Critic for the UK's Telegraph notes: "Diaghilev, the great entrepreneur behind the Ballet Russes, was hoping for something more than an emergence. He wanted a scandal." The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, choreographed by the up-and-coming new sensation Najinsky (both of whose previous works had caused a sensation), was to be just that -- a scandalous affair for Parisian audiences. Modernism was just coming into vogue: Picasso's Cubism was sweeping the art world and Dada would appear in Switzerland in 1916, led by sound poet Hugo Ball and a host of other disenfranchised, disillusioned, and disaffected poets and artists (Hans 153). The future looked bleak; the past impossibly irrevocable. For Stravinsky, the stage needed something new, jolting. Najinsky felt the same -- and Diaghilev expected each to deliver a work that would get people talking. He received such and more, as fights broke out in the theater where Rite of Spring was performed in 1913 -- a result of disagreements among the audience regarding the piece's merit and worth.

The Rite of Spring captures the postmodern shift from literal and hierarchal art towards an art that is more critical in tone. This is evident all throughout the ballet -- which resembles more an ancient pagan ritual -- a kind of tribal African dance/ceremony -- than a traditional ballet like The Nutcracker. There are no mesmerizing dance movements or steps, no turns, no true form or presentation that would indicate that this was produced by professional dancers -- or even musicians. The music by Stravinsky is literally a haphazard, random sequence of notes that arrives and departs in fits and bursts of sound that emphasize chaotic action and frenzy rather than arc, movement, development, theme, idea or meaning. The music and dance begin like undeveloped works of an undeveloped imagination/skill. Yet it is purposefully done this way -- with the dancers coming onto stage like pre-evolved entities, crudely hop-stepping in unison, while twisting about in haphazard expressions of fear and subjection.

In some ways, The Rite of Spring can be viewed as the bridge between modernism and postmodernism. It represents the crude chaos between reason and irrationality -- a nightmarish landscape where the imagination and reality meet at twilight and all manner of incivility passes as form and function. It also highlights the intersections between class, gender, and power -- which would only become more important towards the end of the 20th century and beyond as post-modern choreographers more consciously built upon the traditions established by Nijinsky and Stravinsky. What Nijinsky and Stravinsky set up in 1913 was a tableau of sorts -- a stage where everything of old could be questioned, torn down, eviscerated, mocked -- much like Ball and his cadre of poets would do in Switzerland at Cabaret Voltaire. This was Cabaret Voltaire at the ballet. The Rite of Spring pre-dates the Dada movement -- but it is very Dada in form, style, idea, and execution.

Indeed, just as Dada was a protest against an art world that took itself too seriously and pretentiously acted like what it was doing was somehow meaningful and important on a deep level, The Rite of Spring countered the prevailing notion of the time that the world was still an ordered and even Christian place. By situating the dance within a pre-Christian era (pagan Russia) and essentially offering no redemptory moral through its telling, the dance was subverting the existing order of the day -- not just in terms of sociality and politics but also in terms of economics as well.