Critical Silence : The Unseemly Games of Love in Jeux (1913)
Järvinen, Hanna (2009)
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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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
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.