Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows part of a re-enactment of L’Après-midi d’un Faune (The Afternoon of a Faun), a dance performance originally choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. The young faun meets six nymphs in the forest, who are at once attracted to and frightened by him. One drops a scarf, which the Faun finds and makes love to in place of the nymph who has fled.

Educational value points

• This is an extract from a documentary film based on the diaries of Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, the premier dancer of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and generally considered to be the most talented male dancer of the 20th century. Nijinsky (1890–1950) was noted for his superb technique, particularly for his 'elevation’ (ability to leap high) and his ability to perform 'en pointe’.

• Nijinsky choreographed four ballets, L’Après-midi d’un Faune (1912), Jeux (Games) (1913), Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913) and Till Eulenspiegel (1916). His choreography was a radical departure from classical ballet and his use of angular movements and sexual overtones was controversial at the time. Le Sacre du Printemps, which premiered at the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées in Paris (1913), became notorious after the performance caused a riot among the audience.

• The clip presents a re-enactment of Nijinsky’s performance of L’Après-midi d’un Faune and reveals the style of dance that characterised Nijinsky’s modernist choreography. The ballet, the first that Nijinsky choreographed for the Ballets Russes, was presented in bare feet and rejected classical formalism. Nijinsky gave an erotic performance in the lead as the virile faun and the ensuing scandal led to the premature ending of the performance season.

• Nijinsky used a unique system of dance notation to record L’Après-midi d’un Faune and other choreographed works in his notebooks. There is no existing film of Nijinsky and when the notebooks were deciphered in 1987, it was an important breakthrough. Since 1987, Nijinsky’s ballets have been reconstructed and performed by ballet companies around the world. They have influenced many modern choreographers, including Australian Graeme Murphy.

• Various filmmaking techniques convey immediacy to the audience. Fixed-length focus and a single take demonstrate the flow of movement in real time and present a viewing experience similar to that of watching a theatrical performance. Natural lighting and shadow are used effectively to create a fantastical forest setting and, due to the locked-off camera, the dancers move out of view as they might on stage.

• Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky is a documentary by director Paul Cox, one of Australia’s best known and most prolific film directors, who has made more than 35 feature, documentary and short films. Some of his best known and widely acclaimed films include Lonely Hearts (1982), Man of Flowers (1983), My First Wife (1984), A Woman’s Tale (1991), Innocence (2000) and Human Touch (2005).

This clip starts approximately 1 hour 57 minutes into the documentary.

This clip shows part of a re-enactment of L’Après-midi d’un Faune (The Afternoon of a Faun), a dance performance originally choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. The young faun meets six nymphs in the forest, who are at once attracted to and frightened by him. One drops a scarf, which the Faun finds and makes love to in place of the nymph who has fled.