L'après-midi d'un faune

A faun is lying down on a rock. Nymphs appear. Intrigued, he looks at them and leaps near them. They all run away, scared, except one of them who enjoys being courted. When the faun attempts to catch her, the nymph goes away letting a silk veil fall…

A faun is lying down on a rock during a summer afternoon. Nymphs appera. Intrigued, he looks at them and leaps neart them. They all run away, scared, except one of them who enjoys being courted. When the faun attempts to catch her, the nymph goes away but lets a silk veil fall on the ground. The faun takes it back to te rock and caresses it as in a love act.

In this synopsis, I mainly focused on the faun desire and the expression of his sensually through dreams and fantasies. My version does not refer to the antic Greece and its woodlands. That is why the boulder sheltering the faun is not represented by a mound painted by Léon Bakst, but is a Kleenex box. Because of the innovating style of the choreography and the gestures of « erotic bestiality » performed by Nijinsky, the first representation of this ballet provoked uproar amongst the audience. Carnal desire was at the very heart of this work. As in the original ballet, my faun performs in a fantastical and sensual world, except that he is not a legendary half-human, half-beast creature, but a lonely young man expressing his desire for the very vague remembrance of love.

Thierry Malandain