Bronislava Nijinska
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Bronislava Nijinska
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When F. T. Marinetti published the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism in 1909, it is almost certain that he did not have the work of Bronislava Nijinska in mind. 1 The sister of the illustrious danseur and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska never reached the level of renown her brother had , indeed, her own autobiography is more concerned with her connection to her brother than with her own work. Her most enduring work, Les Noces, is barely mentioned in the text.2 However, had Marinetti seen Les Noces, he would have recognized his own ideals in Nijinska's choreography. A futurist reading of Les Noces shows the complexity of emotional responses to the machine age, especially in relation to the rise of Communism and uncertainty of life in post-WWI Europe. Les Noces uses the cast to create a "dancing machine" which allows "an idealization of the body's performative prowess and a critique of its mechanization."3
A sign for Les Ballets Russes
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Les Noces, choreographed by Nijinska and scored by Stravinsky, stylized the rituals of traditional Russian peasant weddings. It was originally performed in Paris in 1923 by Les Ballet Russes du Monte Carlo. Diaghilev was very careful about the pieces which were performed and when they were performed. 1922 had been a poorly earning year for Les Ballets Russes, so he dedicated a significant amount of time to rehearsal and preparation for the 1923 season in Paris. Les Noces started a trend towards avant-garde works performed by Les Ballets Russes in Paris. It was part of Diaghilev's insistence on catering to what he considered a "more sophisticated and cosmopolitan audience" than found in Monte Carlo. In the previous season at Monte Carlo, no new works premiered. However, in Paris the ballets were either new, or were older works which tended towards avant-garde sensibilities, e.g., Le Sacre du Printemps.4 Les Noces was meant to impress an audience knowledgeable of the era's artistic trends.
The powerful, mechanical score enables a futurist reading of Les Noces. The Russian poet Alexander Blok spoke of human society in the years prior to its performance as "ever more a thing of iron, of machines: more and more it resembles a gigantic laboratory," and Stravinsky's work reflects this machinery.5 The score was originally set for a series of mechanical instruments, including player pianos, and "non-mechanical instruments, subject to the rational decision of their players ... The arrangement had to be abandoned" because "the mechanical and non-mechanical instruments could not be integrated 6." Though Stravinsky ultimately decided to create his work for four pianos and percussion, the intent to explore the relationship between machine and man is a futurist one. That the interplay between mechanized instruments and the "rational demands" of humans on non-mechanized instruments could not be resolved is a real commentary on the pitfalls of dependence on machines.
Stravinsky's music also reflects the revolutionary spirit of Russia in the early twentieth century. Stravinsky denied the connections to folk music that other people attributed to Les Noces, protesting, "Only one of the themes of Les Noces is folk derived; and it is not really a folk melody, but a workers' melody, a proletarian song 7." In her paper on the relation between Stravinsky's score and Russian wedding rituals, Margarita Mazo explores the clear similarities in melody and in language between Stravinsky's writing and Russian folk songs. In fact, the only connection to which Stravinsky would admit is not even a legitimate folk song, but "was published by Istomin and Diutsh in 1894 as a traditional peasant song."8 Robert Jordan cites Robert Craft when suggesting "that the lament at the beginning for the Bride's loss of her virginity is also" Stravinsky's lament for his "own loss of the Holy Mother Russia after the 1917 revolution 9." If Stravinsky felt pressured to connect his work to the Communist ideals of Russia in order to disguise his true feelings about the Russian Revolution, then making reference to a proletariat song in his score would assure concerned Comrades that he had the workers' plight at heart. Further adherence to the Communist ideology can be found in its score, since "like other primitivist art, the music seems to yearn to transcend the boundaries of European bourgeois reality" through enlightenment. 10
Natalia Goncharova — Peasants Dancing
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Beyond the music, the best places to find evidence of futurism in Les Noces are Nijinska's choreography and Natalia Goncharova's design. The curtain opens on the first section of Les Noces revealing an almost bare stage.11 The "Consecration of the Bride" requires no decorations, no scenery, and no elaborate set. A girl, the Bride, lies with her head down, extremely long braids lying about the floor. She is flanked by two rows of girls with their arms circled over their heads in fifth position, each tilted inwards towards the Bride. All the girls wear peasant-inspired clothing: white blouses under calf-length brown dresses, pointe shoes dyed, hair tucked under brown kerchiefs. Les Noces' dependence on peasant rituals and vocabulary is integral to the dance's conception and style, since "people living on the land ... must wear its brown colour, unconscious and simple, and they must wear the colour of innocence , white. Therefore their dress on the great day [of the wedding] must be white and brown and simple in line. It must be like working clothes, simple not to hinder their movements and of strong material."12 The Bride's clothing is the same as the other girls', but a white kerchief represents her maidenly innocence and her hair is visible in two extraordinarily long braids. These braids are reminiscent of the braids in Nijinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps , further evidence of Nijinska's devotion to her brother. In more literal terms, they also reference an important part of Russian peasants' wedding ritual. The devichnik segment of the ritual occurs when the village girls gather and "includes unplaiting the braid and other actions which signify the Bride's extrication from girlhood." 13
Though futurists eschew feminism as "opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice," they cannot discount the futuristic bent of Les Noces because of its connection to women and their experiences, by nature a feminist concern.14 There is simply no feasible way for a ballet which was choreographed, designed, and danced in part by women to ignore females. In fact, many of the most explicit connections between human and machine occur in the first section of the ballet, The "Consecration of the Bride." Because the Les Noces as a futurist work is so tied to Stravinsky's score, an important aspect of the choreography of Les Noces is its rhythmic connection to the music. Nijinska uses specific musical cues to inform the dance, and this is clear from the very beginning. As the girls begin their dance with the Bride, the eight girls flanking her unfold their line two by two with a sharp motion exactly in unison with the choir and piano. This extreme attentiveness to musical cues is not often utilized by modern artists, or even classical ballet. Isadora Duncan avoided strict rhythmic schemes, and typical choreography of classical ballets like Swan Lake is very rarely performed exactly on the beat with such a strict adherence to the rhythmic structure. Clearly, Nijinska has a specific purpose when she emphasizes the beat so strongly with the choreography. This connection to the beat is part of what establishes the validity of a Futurist reading of Les Noces. As early as one minute into her ballet, Nijinska draws a parallel between the regularity and efficiency of machinery and the precise timing of her dancers, providing an aesthetic which reflects the beauty of the mechanical world. Like other artists of the avant-garde, she draws attention to "the abstract similarities between machines and non-mechanical objects , such as the human face and body."15
The movements of Nijinska's choreography continue to parallel specific processes through the "Consecration of the Bride", mechanical or otherwise. These are often stylized gestures which reappear throughout the piece, maintaining a sense of continuity and structure throughout the different segments. These can be as clear or as abstract as necessary within the gestural range of the piece. For instance, "a gesture in which the dancer curves his arms like a sickle ...may be a recollection of the harvest" appears several times. Another significant repetitive movement occurs when the Bride's Friends weave their footsteps while holding the Bride's braids in an expression of "the rhythm of braiding."16 These movements are especially important in the final section of Les Noces, when the corps de ballet's dancing is made up on an already familiar vocabulary. This allows the audience to easily identify with the dance and makes the world one where ritualistic movements heighten the ritualistic nature of the ceremonies.
The Consecration of the Bride
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The dancing women of the "Consecration of the Bride" create many mechanical moments. While the Friends with the Bride's hair are weaving, six of the eight dancers have a repeated step which is reminiscent of sowing fields, casting seeds to the ground in a uniform fashion. This both grounds the piece in its context , a ritual one would find in a peasant village dependent on farming , and continues to reference the mechanical world with precise motions and rhythms. The folk influence is apparent in the "Consecration of the Bride" as well, when the chorus has a sing-song section, and the girls skip, hop, and utilize folk steps translated by Nijinska into the ballet vernacular to be performed en pointe. This section is also characterized by more farm-influenced movements, including a step which is reminiscent of hoeing a field in preparation for planting. This highlights the power of the industrial age, since machinery has entered this village where old rituals still hold sway. Mechanization is a powerful and lasting change. The folk choreography continues to remind the audience that, though this piece is ultimately a celebration of the mechanical, it is placed in a rural village during a more 'primitive' moment. The theme also places the piece in a context where Communists are permitted to appreciate it. Since Les Noces celebrates the common people like the proletariat farmers, it was not as offensive to the Communist party, which led Russia, as a purely avant-garde work celebrating technology might have been.
Tower of Dancers
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At certain intervals, the dance freezes and the machine halts momentarily , the Bride and her Friends are caught in almost photograph-like stillness, sharply contrasting the frenetic weaving and unweaving. These tableaus highlight the geometric, malleable capability of the body when it is treated like an inanimate object. In one such instance, the Bride's Friends create a tower with their heads. The first dancer kneels and turns her head so it is entirely parallel with the floor, the next dancer places her head on top of the one below her, and so forth, until they have created a pedestal made of dancers. From the audience, the construct looks solid and static, supporting the Bride who stands contemplatively, resting her elbows on their backs and her chin on her hands. However, a closer inspection reveals the individuality of the eight Friends creating this pyramid , a totem pole, which further connects Les Noces to primitivism. They blink, and wobble slightly in a position which is extremely awkward and unnatural to hold. This is a clear example of the humanity which remains in the mechanized world.
Industry's Beauty as photographed
by Margaaret Bourke-White
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One further important section of mechanical choreography in the "Consecration of the Bride" occurs close to the beginning of the section. The Bride and Friends stand in line, four girls on either side of the Bride. Each girl holds a section of the Bride's hair, which arcs from Friend to Friend. In unison, they step to the side, extend their elbows parallel to the floor, cup their hands on top of each other in front of their chests, and lay their heads against their arms, also parallel to the floor. Again, there is a very explicit rhythmic connection between dance and music as they step forwards and backwards when each new note is struck. Finally, in tandem with exact notes of the music, the Bride pulses upwards three times while the rows of her Friends pulse downwards three times. They return to the same level, and then the Bride pulses down as the Friends pulse up. This is repeated several times, like the treadle of a sewing machine being pumped, or a compression and expansion of pipes. The exacting unison of the movement and the exacting accompaniment of beat to pulse give the step such a connection to the mechanical that specific mechanical processes are brought to mind when watching it. And yet, there is more than just machine behind the music. The pathos of the Bride who fears her wedding day is compounded by the anonymity of a mechanized world where she is isolated from her friends. For all the melancholy of the situation, Nijinska still emphasizes the beauty which can be found in machine-inspired movement. Her choreography points to the classical qualities which lend modern objects their beauty, especially as the avant-garde and futurists explore them. In modern machines, "the relationship of volumes, lines, and colors demands absolute orchestration and order. These values are all unquestionably influential: they have extended into modern objects such as airplanes, automobiles, farm machines, etc. [In 1923] we are in competition with the beautiful world.'"17 That beautiful world, and the beauty of the mechanical processes which Nijinska translates into a dance vocabulary and depicts through human movement, is what attracts Marinetti and the Futurists.
Russian soldiers looking at dead Japanese
soldiers during the Russo-Japanese war
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In his Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, Marinetti calls the youth of the world "to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness." His followers believe that, "except for struggle, there is no beauty. No work without an aggressive character can become a masterpiece."18 Even if Les Noces fits no other futurist parameters, it exudes energy and strong, aggressive movement. The "Consecration of the Bridegroom" is almost militant in tone, so powerful is its movement and the accompanying music. Nijinska's choreography incorporates militaristic steps not necessarily derived from a strict ballet vocabulary. The men "march" in unison several times, and there is a repeated motif in which the Bridegroom's Friends raise their arms, saluting the Bridegroom. Drums have a central role in the score, heightening the connection to militarism. Furthermore, the Bridegroom and his friends all begin the piece with their arm crossed over their heart, a gesture often interpreted as an expression of patriotism. The Bridegroom's hand is in a fist over his heart, and he stands at the center of the group, commanding their movement.
Nijinska, who was heavily influenced by her experiences in Revolutionary Russia, explained the militarism in her choreography as expressing "the air of Russia, a Russia throbbing with excitement and intense feeling. All the vivid images of the harsh realities of the Revolution were still part of me and filled my whole being." 19 Life for many young Russian men during the early twentieth century was a preparation for war: the Russian Revolution, World War I, or the Russo-Japanese War. Natalia Goncharova, the designer for Les Noces, also cited the events of the time as influences for the overall mood of the piece. She recalled seeing "weddings of necessity, no doubt the boys were being called up for military service." She later saw very similar young men marching through cities, "holding a rifle in their hand, too heavy for those brown, fragile, child's hands, their heads resigned and weighed down by their caps, which seemed too big for their heads, like the nuptial crowns that had been held "over their own heads before their departure for the army."20
The Consecration of the Bridegroom
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Certainly, the beginning lament and the somber faces of the wedding party speak to the huge prices paid by both men leaving for war and the 'brides of necessity' left behind by their young husbands. However, a futurist would scorn that sentimental, depressing view of warfare, and indeed Les Noces has a further purpose in its portrayal of the militaristic Consecration of the Groom. Futurism seeks to "glorify war , the world's only hygiene , militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for." 21 While Les Noces does not actively glorify war, it does not function as an anti-war work of art. Instead, it takes the aesthetics of war and translates them into a dance vocabulary where they can be incorporated into a larger context. Nijinska implies that beauty can be found in these militaristic movements, which is an assumption of futurism. The young men's aggression is not without purpose. Rather, it brings the men of the community to an arena where they can show their strength of character and the depth of their bond of friendship, within the masculine context of warfare.
More than any other section of Les Noces, the "Consecration of the Bridegroom" is male-dominated. The chorus is almost entirely men for the majority of the section. The only woman on stage is the Groom's Mother, whose role is to bless her son before his marriage, and to stand contemplatively with him while the men dance behind them. The Bridegroom stands at the forefront of an arc of his friends, often originating the movements which the whole group later performs. The Bridegroom is not clearly differentiated by his costume; however, unlike the Bride, he dances separately from his friends. "The Groom's stance is both central and unique [from the men in the corps,] and another contrast exists between the Groom as an erect figure and the lines of crouching men extending out from his hands" throughout his Consecration.22 There is no assertion that he is a central figure in the community apart from this ceremony, but since the wedding ritual dictates his presence at the forefront of the men, he is a commanding figure and appears comfortable in his place.
A Russian Orthodox Altar
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The "Consecration of the Bridegroom" contains more religious symbolism in the choreography than do any of the other sections. There are appeals to saints throughout the libretto of Les Noces, and Stravinsky spent a lot of effort exploring and expressing the peasant religions of Russia, which utilized Christianity within the larger framework of superstition and pre-Christian cultural rituals. For instance, in the "Consecration of the Bride", the chorus requests "Purest Mother, / Come, come to our hut, / Help matchmakers / To comb the curls" in reference to the devichnik section of the wedding ritual.23 However, the "Consecration of the Bridegroom" is really the only section where Nijinska's choreography reflects the religious overtones of Stravinsky's score. The lack of emphasis on religion in Nijinska's choreography may be a form of self-censorship to appeal to a Communist audience.
In the "Consecration of the Bridegroom," one of the most affecting images occurs when the men create an altar of their own bodies, reminiscent of the tower of the Bride's Friends. Four men link arms and kneel, facing the audience with their head down. Then a row of three men lean back-to-back with them, arms outstretched. Another row of three leans on top of them in the same position, but with arms crossed over their chests. A final row of two men completes the structure, also leaning with their backs on the other men, and their arms crossed. The Bridegroom steps up to this altar, and emphatically draws a cross in the air twice, once with each hand. While he worships, the men of the village are held captive by the expression of Christian faith, literally chained to the altar.
Religion is not explicitly mentioned in the Futurist Manifesto, but it is mentioned peripherally. The futurists pledge "to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit."24 Hymns, analogous to psalms and religious praise, suggest that the futurists have found a new God to worship. Rather than focus on the vague abstractions of God and Christianity, they have a concrete religious connection to a very modern figure in society. "The man at the wheel" is the modern man, driving a car, driving factory work, ultimately driving change and forging a very new type of power in society. If the futurists find the ultimate beauty in speed, and the only true cleansing in warfare, then they would almost certainly find an adherence to the two thousand year old Christian spirituality, and the even older roots of Russian peasant faith, to be a retardant to growth and a factor in the continued oppression of individuals like the men in the "Consecration of the Bridegroom." Nijinska's choreography apologizes for the religious exploration in the score.
The "Consecration of the Bridegroom" is followed by the "Departure of the Bride." More than in the "Consecration of the Bride", the "Departure of the Bride" displays the artistry of the corps. Action swirls around the Bride as she stands, relatively immobile and passive. The Bride's Friends continue to gather her hair, weaving and unweaving. Finally, two girls gather it all up and wrap it around her neck. The Bride's youth ends with her braids draped around her neck, and she is surrounded by her friends and family, preparing to leave. Nijinska set the mournful tone of the piece based on her conception of peasant marriages. The Bride "knows nothing at all about her future family nor what lies in store for her. Not only will she be subject to her husband, but also to his parents. It is possible that after being loved and cherished by her own kin, she may be nothing more, in her new, rough family, than a useful extra worker, just another pair of hands. The soul of the innocent is in disarray , she is bidding good-bye to her carefree youth and her loving mother."25 This section ends with a solo by the Bride's Mother, distraught to be bidding her daughter goodbye. The Bride's Mother utilizes the gestures which the Bride used in the "Consecration of the Bride," emphasizing the cyclical nature of life and ritual. From this solo, Les Noces shifts atmosphere and tone to the "Wedding Feast".
Russian Factory Workers
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In one reading of Les Noces, the "Wedding Feast" is described as showcasing the irony between "the rowdy self-indulgent conduct of the wedding guests, who are there solely for a good time," and the Bride and Groom, who are living in their own separate world on a raised platform in back of the stage.26 To the contrary, the "Wedding Feast" represents a coming together of the community to celebrate the continuation of the wedding ritual. While the guests are rambunctious, and certainly more energetic and athletic than the Bride and Groom, this is not a new theme for the piece. The Bride and Groom have spent the majority of the ballet weighed down by the enormity of their new lives. Throughout their respective dances, "The Bride and Groom ... move less than the corps de ballet, and also usually more slowly. [They] are often still and isolated, in contrast to the leaping masses of the corps."27 As far as the wedding guests are concerned, however, they have always been active participants, often doing more difficult choreography than the principle dancers. To the wedding guests, this event is cause for celebration. This is the way the ritual works. While they understand the solemnity of the Bride and Groom, they are not weighed down by their fears. Though "the Bride and Groom are, in some ways, elevated above the level of the crowd" it does not negate the importance of the community. Rather, "in a sense, the two principals are symbols of the community, and vice versa." They represent a path that the whole community will eventually take. This recognition of the importance of the corps of common people allows Nijinska to raise "the so-called corps de ballet to the highest artistic level" and showcase their athleticism.28 It also enhances the Communist credentials of the ballet, since the bulk of the dancing in the "Wedding Feast" is performed by a huge corps of dancers, all essentially indistinguishable from each other, and largely indistinguishable from the principle dancers.
As the mechanical beauty and militaristic pride of the other sections adheres to a futurist view, so does the emphasis on the crowd above the principle dancers. The futurists sing the praises of the common people, "faces smeared with good factory muck, plastered with metallic waste, with senseless sweat, with celestial soot," and recognize their immense potential. Within the Futurist Manifesto, Marinetti declares "We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot."29 The corps de ballet of Les Noces performs as this great crowd of wedding guests in the spirit of the Futurist movement. The chorus has gained many voices, all singing in unison, and the corps has gained many dancers , eighteen men and eighteen women. The stage is divided in two, with a raised platform in the back and a lower section at the front. In back of the stage, the Bride's parents, the Groom's parents, and the Bride and Groom sit quietly on benches against a wall. Downstage, however, the corps is arranged by gender. Men and women are both in three lines of six dancers, perfectly in unison.
The Wedding Feast
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Dancers of each gender utilize specific steps that occurred during the "Consecration of the Bride" or "Consecration of the Groom," which maintain the sense of continuity established by the stylized gestural vocabulary Nijinska created. The women, for example, mimic the hoeing motion which occurred earlier in the ballet. Again, the men's choreography is characterized by fists and is set to an all-male chorus which sounds more intimidating than the chorus of women. For the first minute of the section, the Bride and Groom do not acknowledge the presence of the corps , they remain in back of the stage, the Bride's head resting mournfully on the Groom's shoulder. When they stand up, the order of the corps is disrupted, and they are sent into a circling pattern. The steps are still separated by gender, and there is still a specific pattern of movement, but it is no longer set in three neat rows. Instead, the corps forms a wheeling pattern. Men rotate in a clockwise direction in four spokes, lunging forwards with every jump, while the women rotate counterclockwise, stepping en pointe in arabesque with fist raised. Their gear system coalesces into a single wheel, as they continue to circle the stage, driving the action further. Futurism is appreciative of the powerful "habit of energy and fearlessness" which characterizes the athleticism of the dance, especially for the large corps.30
The Final Tableau
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By this point, the Bride and Groom have risen from their bench. They are still oblivious to the chorus below them, but are beginning to connect with each other. Downstage, the corps de ballet continues their frenetic dance, men and women raising their fists in shows of power. The corps stops, except for two soloists. The soloists exhibit more folk vernacular dancing, continuing the drive for a Communist-accepted, primitivist ballet along with the futurist influence which has been the main concern. Far from accepting historical value and material, the futurists wonder "what is there to see in an old picture except the laborious contortions of an artist throwing himself against the barriers that thwart his desire to express his dream completely 31?" The dependence of Nijinska and Stravinsky on historical ritual and folk influence could be a failing for futurist logic, or more positively, it can be construed as a method for appealing to the masses. This appeal is what gives Les Noces its strength in relation to the French avant-garde movement. The primitivism holds the ballet together, and creates a connection between the segments. Also, this has the same affirming quality as the dependence on folk vocabulary earlier in the work. Since the mechanization has reached so far into Russia as to imbue the old rituals with mechanical sensibilities, Les Noces uses history to celebrate the mechanical revolution!
Eventually, the ballet reaches a fevered pitch. The corps wheels about the stage in an exhaustive series of leaps, hops, and further displays of impressive quality. The Bride, Groom, and their families bid each other goodbye, and then wait passively at the front of their raised platform to thank the wedding guests for their attendance and participation in the wedding ritual. Les Noces ends as a bell chimes many times in succession. The guests stand in three lines once again, but as the bells chime they separate, raise their right arms and clench their fists in succession. The Bride and Groom make their way off-stage, hand and waist, through an open door where an abstract bed can be seen. As they leave, the girls onstage begin to arrange themselves in the totem of the "Consecration of the Bride", heads laying on top of each other as they did earlier in the piece.
As the ballet ends, a new girl is standing with her face frozen in an expression of fear, chin resting on her fists while her elbows are placed on the back of the Bride's Friends. The ritual has continued, and like the Bride and Bride's Mother, this girl has become a symbol for the path of the community and the power of community expectations. Nijinska ends Les Noces with a reminder of the isolation of humanity in a completely mechanical world. However, there is a new element in this tenuous totem pole. Behind the contemplative girl, a man has been lifted onto the shoulders of his friends, arms raised triumphantly over his head. Les Noces speaks to the immense potential for human advancement with the arrival of machines even as it warns against abandoning humanity for clockwork. Though Les Noces does not follow all the precepts of futurism, it does explore the relationship between man and mechanization. It expresses the beauty inherent in militaristic movement; it elevates the working crowd, and it celebrates the spirit of a large number of individuals creating art with "Courage, audacity, and revolt."32
T-Rex explains Futurism
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