L'après-midi d'un faune (1912)

The Afternoon of a Faun – 1912 version

The inaugural opus of Nijinsky’ work, The Afternoon of a Faun was composed in close collaboration with his sister Bronislava, who in turn was to become one of the most prominent artists of Western dance of her time. He took as his base Claude Debussy’s famous score, played here in the transcription for flute and piano devised by his disciple Gustave Samazeuil. However, he turns it around to compose a poem “de geste” (from the old French, “poem of heroic deeds”) and, in so doing, marks a real turning point in modern dance. The written score that he took care to prepare effectively reveals an extraordinarily detailed precise writing style. This is the rigor that allowed Nijinsky to render in fictitious form the invention of a new corporeality, circumventing along the way the norms of the gendered scenario inherited from tradition.

(source : programme du CND)