Critical Silence : The Unseemly Games of Love in Jeux (1913)
Järvinen, Hanna (2009)
Järvinen, Hanna
2009
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Edinburgh University Press in Dance Research 27:2, Winter 2009. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.3366/E0264287509000292
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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202002054554
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202002054554
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Following my article on Vaslav Nijinsky's L' Aprè s-midi d' un Faune (1912), I turn my attention to Jeux, the first of Nijinsky's two choreographies for the 1913 season of the Ballets Russes.
Made to a commissioned score by Claude Debussy, Jeux (Games) dealt with the chance meeting of three sporty young people in a twilit garden or park.
Based on contemporary responses and the choreographer's notations to Debussy's manuscript score, I discuss how Jeux addressed modern life and what in this disconcerted the audiences of the Ballets Russes.
Although the work disappeared after only one season, I argue it brings to the fore questions of canonisity and success that are still relevant in our discourse of art, today.
Made to a commissioned score by Claude Debussy, Jeux (Games) dealt with the chance meeting of three sporty young people in a twilit garden or park.
Based on contemporary responses and the choreographer's notations to Debussy's manuscript score, I discuss how Jeux addressed modern life and what in this disconcerted the audiences of the Ballets Russes.
Although the work disappeared after only one season, I argue it brings to the fore questions of canonisity and success that are still relevant in our discourse of art, today.