10/7/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Nureyev & The Joffrey Ballet Tribute to Nijinsky 1980

Shall We Dance
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Nureyev & The Joffrey Ballet Tribute to Nijinsky, features three ballets Petrouchka, Le spectre de la rose, L’après-midi d’un faune was recorded on August 1980 in Nashville. 

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As Robert Joffrey, artistic director of the company, explains toward the end of this program, no one really knows in precise detail how the Vaslav Nijinsky of legend danced. These re-creations were assembled by reading about him and by looking at photographs in costume. Needless to say, dance scholars have been afforded endless opportunity for taking indignant exception to bits and pieces of the reconstructions.

Nureyev & The Joffrey Ballet Tribute to Nijinsky 1980

Petrouchka (Rudolf Nureyev, Denise Jackson, Christian Holder, Gary Chryst)

Le spectre de la rose (Rudolf Nureyev, Denise Jackson)

L’après-midi d’un faune (Rudolf Nureyev, Charlene Gehm)

National Philharmonic Orchestra ; Terence Kern, conductor ; Paul Jacobs, solo piano.

Rudolph Nureyev: Encore Performance- Afternoon Of A Faun (1981)

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Vaslav Nijinsky himself did the choreography for Afternoon of a Faun, using the music of Claude Debussy. In this interpretation, Bakst’s scenery and costumes have been stunningly reconstructed by Ralph Holmes. The original choreography, designed to evoke the two-dimensional flatness of a Greek frieze, was reconstructed by Elizabeth Schooling and William Chappel. Continue reading