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REVIEWS NIJINSKY - DANCER, CLOWN, GOD
Het Parool:
Moving trio sections
Anyone going to see Nijinsky - Dancer, clown, god – which had its world premiere yesterday – would be well advised to read up on the subject a bit beforehand, as the powers that tug – literally and metaphorically – at our tragic hero of the title, Nijinsky (Cédric Ygnace), are so diverse. There is his brother Stanislav (Juanjo Arqués), whose mental illness is an omen of Vaslav Nijinsky’s own schizophrenia; his male lovers Prince Lvov (Jozef Varga) and impresario Diaghilev (Alexander Zhembrovskyy), who were to make him famous at the Ballets Russes; and of course Romola (Michele Jimenez), who helplessly watches him sink ever deeper into his madness.
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Krzysztof Pastor, resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet, didn’t make it easy on himself when he chose Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) as the subject of the second part of his multimedia triptych (the first being Kurt Weill in 2002), which revolves around ‘striking artists of the twentieth century’. Nijinsky’s life contains material enough for several biographical ballets. He was a star dancer with the Ballets Russes, a pioneering choreographer and a troubled man, who spent the last thirty years of his life in and out of psychiatric institutions.
In his balanced ‘bio ballet’, Pastor investigates mainly the undertones of relationships and psychology. Hemmed in between sung fragments from the diary that he wrote just before he was admitted to the mental institution, we see the struggles between Nijinsky and other people.
Especially moving are the two trio sections: the first with Diaghilev (in a magician’s cloak!) and Prince Lvov, who drives him into the arms of the impresario, and the second with Diaghilev and Romola, who would mean the end of his career with the Ballets Russes. The ballets that made Nijinsky great receive a more sparing treatment. Several Petrouchkas come on stage when Diaghilev, as a puppeteer, pulls Nijinsky’s strings. Fans of Nijinsky's scandalous Le sacre du printemps have to make do with fragments of Igor Stravinsky’s music.
Sometimes everything falls exactly into place, like in the final scene, where Diaghilev inspires Nijinsky to choreograph his first ballet, L'après-midi d'un faune, about the burgeoning lusts of a faun for a nymph.
Ygnace, who won the ‘Zwaan’ award for best dance achievement last year, gave an impressive performance. As Nijinsky, he displayed a vulnerability and a hesitancy we have not seen in him before.
Bregtje Schudel
16 June 2010
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Noordhollands Dagblad:
Incarnation of a brilliant madman
He would have liked to dance longer, but God said it was enough. Then the final note of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps sounds and the lights fade. The life of Nijinsky (1889-1950) has just passed the audience by; impressive and oppressive. Choreographer Krysztof Pastor has succeeded in baring Nijinsky’s soul and bringing a legend to life.
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In his ballet Nijinsky - Dancer, clown, god, Pastor almost makes us believe that the legendary dancer is on stage himself. Cédric Ygnace is the incarnation of a brilliant madman, who most probably sought refuge in dance in order to prevent his fear of life taking possession of him. But it was all in vain, as the schizophrenic Nijinsky ended his life without dance, eventually spending over thirty years in psychiatric institutions.
It is contradictory, as Nijinsky’s love of life and fear of death are recurring subjects in his diary. Fragments of the diary appear very subtly in opera form in Pastor’s Nijinsky; to the credit of composer Bob Zimmerman and dramaturge Klaus Bertisch. They are sung beautifully by baritone Frans Fiselier. Zimmerman created a music collage of existing compositions that are linked to Nijinsky’s life, such as Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and Le Sacre du Printemps, and Debussy’s Jeux, along with Zimmerman’s own compositions.
Life, love and death. Though they sound ordinary enough, for Nijinsky they weren’t – and Pastor manages to convey this clearly. The question arises of whether Nijinsky actually led his own life, or whether maybe it was led for him by his two great loves: first Diaghilev and later his wife Romola Pulszky. Or was he only able to live through the characters he brought to life on stage, such as the clown Petrouchka?
The mystery surrounding one of the greatest dancers of the twentieth century, who was frightened of ending up in an institution like his brother, appears to be unravelled by Pastor bit by bit. There is the naive Nijinsky, searching for love and security, who enters the world still full of innocence – a world filled with gossip and slander that won’t let memories slip. There is still his brother (a wonderful role by Juanjo Arqués), who follows him like a shadow. And then there is the love that tosses him to and fro and makes him insecure.
The fears that play the upper hand in Nijinsky’s life are successfully laid bare by Cédric Ygnace in movement and particularly in expression. This is shown especially in the final image, when only a pitiful creature is left on stage.
And in between, there are those wonderful fragments that can also be oppressive, through which Pastor proves his artistry in portraying an image that can pierce the soul. They are small choreographic details, such as an almost erotic beauty concealed in the pas de deux by Ygnace and Seh Yun Kim, which along with the scenery, lighting, music and texts form a masterpiece. The audience should hope that it won’t be too long before the Dutch National Ballet revives Nijinsky.
Nanska van de Laar
16 June 2010
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NRC Handelsblad:
Ballet about Nijinsky’s moving life lacks choreographic drama
You can expect anything in the theatre, but when Sergei Diaghilev soars by doing a big leap in splits, it does make you wonder. Diaghilev – the somewhat indolent and clumsy-looking impresario and driving force behind the legendary Ballets Russes – competing in dance quality with his ‘creation’: dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky?
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In Nijinsky - Dancer, Clown, God by choreographer Krzysztof Pastor, it’s possible. Apart from that, there are few artistic surprises in the twenty-eight scenes. Pastor’s portrayal of Nijinsky (1889-1950) suffers from too great a wish to piece together and explain all the bits of the puzzle of his fascinating but tragic life (he suffered from schizophrenia and spent the last thirty years of his life in psychiatric institutions).
A musical-biographical course is set out, using texts from the diaries of the deeply disturbed dancer, set to music by Bob Zimmerman, and ballet music from Nijinsky’s main roles and choreographic works. Pastor and dramaturge Klaus Bertisch associate each composition with one aspect of Nijinsky’s tormented psyche. l’Après-midi d’un Faune (Debussy) and Jeux (Ravel), for example, stand for his problems in dealing with sensuality and his sexual ambivalence, and the stamping rhythms of Le Sacre (Stravinsky) for his advancing madness. This is interpreted in dance by some graceful pushing and shoving, in which Nijinsky (Cédric Ygnace) is tossed to and fro between his master and lover Diaghilev (Alexander Zhembrovskyy) and his wife Romola (Michele Jimenez).
All easy to follow then. And even a little too easy. The presence of psychiatrist Dr. Fränkel, his presumed affair with Romola, and the old-fashioned ‘explanatory’ tableaux vivants add nothing to the drama. What’s worse is that the dramatic line keeps getting broken as a result of the musical collage form. This is partly the reason why the ballet never gets off its starting blocks. It is an overdose of high legs and turns and attitude. Elegance is more important than expressiveness.
The piece only becomes dynamic and compelling when Nijinsky dances with Stanislav (Juanjo Arqués), his brother who has also gone mad. When the totally confused Nijinsky – he identifies himself with God – shouts out “Enough!” after an hour a quarter, it comes as a relief.
Francine van der Wiel
17 June 2010
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De Telegraaf:
Elegant ballet about dance legend
[rating: three stars]
Several people have already created ballets about Nijinsky, including Béjart and Neumeier. Now the Dutch National Ballet is presenting its own version in The Amsterdam Music Theatre. In an hour and a quarter, resident choreographer Krzysztof Pastor shows the life of the legendary dancer. Photos, fragments from Nijinsky’s diaries, and the famous roles he created at the beginning of the twentieth century all formed a source of inspiration.
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In Nijinsky: dancer, clown, god, the dancer looks back on his life. Once again, he experiences his childhood in St. Petersburg with a schizophrenic brother, the fear that he will become mad himself, the triumphs with the Imperial Ballet, his homosexual relationships, the protection and manipulation of the illustrious impresario Diaghilev, the successes with the Ballets Russes, the marriage to Romola and the break with Diaghilev. His view of it all becomes more and more coloured by his religious delusions. He was to spend a great deal of his life in psychiatric institutions, where he died at the age of sixty.
Obstacle
You would think the subject matter guaranteed to produce an exciting performance. However, it did not completely succeed. One obstacle is the music collage by Bob Zimmerman, with lots of short fragments from well-known ballet scores. We zap from Weber to a kitsch arrangement of a Prelude by Chopin, from Stravinsky via Glazunov to Debussy, etc. Episodes are linked by orchestral songs of extracts from Nijinsky’s diaries. The resulting sound is fragmented. It lacks a continuous line and particularly dramatic tension.
Mime scenes
Krzysztof Pastor was, of course, inspired by Nijinsky’s dancing roles and choreography, such as Petrouchka, Faune, Jeux and Sacre. Yet his use of classical technique remains predominantly smooth and elegant, with little differentiation in respect of expressiveness. Though he refers to famous steps and poses, the angular and jerky impulses with which Nijinsky enriched balletic tradition remain largely ignored. There is a lack of dramatic contrast, apart from a few striking mime scenes.
The fact that the production does not succeed completely is not due to the strong performance by the dancers. Cédric Ygnace shines in the title role. His dancing is lyrical rather than dramatic; supple, sensual and wonderfully light in tone, and he is endearingly vulnerable in his portrayal of the role. He is supported by excellent performances from Juanjo Arqués as the schizophrenic brother and Alexander Zhembrovskyy as the dominant impresario Diaghilev. And Toer van Schayk’s costumes are particularly striking.
Even though the ballet does not delve deep, it does give an interesting picture of the times and lends insight into the ultimately sad course of the life of a dance legend.
Eddie Vetter
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Trouw:
Life and work of Nijinsky coincide beautifully
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) has a past that a soap writer could not have shaken from his pen. The Ballet Russes dancer was already a legend during his lifetime for his sensual, animal-like charisma and inhumanly high jumps, yet he died misunderstood and completely mad.
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Choreographer Krzysztof Pastor has taken Nijinsky as the second consecutive twentieth-century artist on which to base a full-length ballet production. Unlike his first, impressionist part about Kurt Weill (the triptych will be concluded by a third episode about a figure yet to be announced), Pastor opted for a narrative approach to Nijinsky, dancer, clown, god. That is commendable in a dance world dominated by abstraction, but it is also inherently risky (Pastor’s narrative mega-production Don Giovanni from 2005 had dramatic shortcomings). It is actually the purely musical ballets that are regarded as the best of his oeuvre.
Klaus Bertisch, resident dramaturge of De Nederlandse Opera, did the staging this time. This opera touch is noticeable in the intelligent mix of music, which goes from Ballets Russes composers Stravinsky (Sacre du Printemps and Petrouchka) and Debussy (L'Après-midi d'un faune) to Strauss (Till Eulenspiegel). Contemporary song compositions from Bob Zimmerman, performed by bass-baritone Frans Fiselier, bring Nijinsky’s famous diary fragments to life and make audible (surtitled) what is visible on stage: the degeneration of an artistic genius, bowed down by love, (homo)sexuality and (social) expectations.
As Nijinsky, dancer Cédric Ygnace delivers a breathtaking tour de force, by transforming from a naive youth from an insanity-blighted family into a society darling and lover of Serge Diaghilev, the Ballet Russes impresario through whom he eventually slips away into the depths of his schizophrenic mind.
In this psychological quest, choreographic fragments from Nijinsky’s legacy come to the fore: his famous Faune, which shocked but thrilled Paris audiences around 1900, follows him around like a phantom.
In this way, Pastor and Bertisch use various elements from original Nijinsky works. There is Nijinsky as Petrouchka, for instance – the puppet controlled by his environment – and as the jester from ‘Eulenspiegel’, who holds a mirror up to this same environment. Life and work coincide beautifully.
What does not work well, however, is the procession of one-dimensional minor characters and the documentary look of the piece. Video projections show the World War I trenches, to symbolise going from old to new times (just as Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes were also a transitional phenomenon) – an idea that is treated with more subtlety in the costume designs by Toer van Schayk. The archive images clash with Pastor’s emotional movement idiom. The vision of the phenomenon of Nijinsky and a fresh look at narrative dance vanish in the apotheosis – although Cédric Ygnace does make it a totally credible apotheosis.
Sander Hiskemuller
18 June 2010
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De Volkskrant:
Legendary dancer brought respectfully to life
Choreographer Pastor focuses on discord in Nijinsky’s life
‘I started to dance like a God’. Proud and muscular, the beautiful boy Nijinsky – a role cut out for Cédric Ygnace – displays his famous jumps. He dances ‘because I feel’. At the age of thirty, this sensitivity had taken a complete and devastating hold on him, and he could no longer dance. Like a sick little bird, he sat in a chair – his body much thinner and his words much bigger: ‘I am God!’, sings bass-baritone Frans Fiselier on a high sustained note that goes off key.
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This is more or less how the Russian Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) wasted away at the beginning of the 20th century. In Nijinsky - dancer, clown, god by the Dutch National Ballet, Krzysztof Pastor draws a precise and respectful picture of the life and personality of this first male star dancer, who turned the dance world upside down with his own openly erotic and idiomatically contentious ballets, such as L'après-midi d'un faun (1912) and Le sacre du printemps (1913). Nijinsky was sure of himself as a dancer, but not as a person, and eventually – like his brother before him – he was diagnosed as schizophrenic. Though his sensitivity was his strength, it was also his weakness.
Bisexuality
Pastor, who likes to create narrative, psychological works, focuses on the discord in Nijinsky. Praise or pride, lust or love, happiness or reason, life or death: there were lots of things that confused Nijinsky, who was actually an introvert soul. However honestly he went about all his affairs and however open he was about his bisexuality, this was probably the biggest conundrum of all. Whether he had a relationship with a man or a woman, he always seems to have been manipulated and pushed around on all fronts, making him insecure. In Amsterdam, he is literally tossed to and fro between the great male love of his life, Diaghilev, the director of the innovative Ballets Russes, and his great female love, Romola.
Nijinsky’s story is told partly through tableaux (his family left by his father), historical photos (of Nijinsky, his ballets, the war and Paris), and projections of fragments of his diaries, which are sung live in a composition by Bob Zimmerman. Nijinsky’s mental leaps tumbling over one another are fascinating – worthy of an opera. The passages from Nijinsky’s key roles and works are used ingeniously. We see whole hordes of Petrouchkas (disorientated and hopelessly in love) and Faunes (controlling and sensual), who clearly function as character sketches of the protagonist.
Ygnace, an exceptionally powerful yet poetic dancer, shows admirable devotion to portraying Nijinsky’s inner conflict.
It is subtle how the costumes (by Toer van Schayk) are black and white for the big ensemble sections (the high society and the ballet classes) and only in colour for everything and everyone close to Nijinsky’s heart: his brother (whom he also feared for his schizophrenia), his own ballets and, of course, Diaghilev and Romola. And yet there is something missing, so that Nijinsky’s genius and madness do not quite catch fire; do not really upset you. It has something to do with the dramatic construction of the ballet – which is so close to the surface that you are always aware of how it is pieced together – and with Pastor’s flowing dance style, which is beautiful but lacking in risk. It even lends an impeccability to the angular quotes from Nijinsky’s own oeuvre.
Mirjam van der Linden
17 June 2010
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Dance Europe:
Nijinsky: dancer, clown, god
Maggie Foyer applauds an innovative take on the legendary dancer.
The biographical novel is a hugely popular and successful medium. Less successful are the theatrical productions or choreographies of the life stories of stars and bygone eras. We tend to treasure very idiosyncratic images of great performers, and it is a rare artist who can capture the essence of another’s greatness and make art out of their own interpretation. To add to the problems, dance has a chequered success rate with narrative, probably doing best with well-known stories like Romeo and Juliet. With all this in mind I went to the Dutch national Ballet’s premiere of Krzysztof Pastor’s Nijinsky with some apprehension.
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Pastor, no stranger to the large scale and multi-media, draws on all his experience to fashion a winning paradigm for his new ballet. Like his previous Kurt Weill and Don Giovanni, Nijinsky is also the product of innovative teamwork. Bob Zimmerman has created a score woven from the music from the Ballet Russes composers, Stravinsky, Debussy, Chopin and others, with original songs, the words taken directly from Nijinsky’s traumatic diaries..Toer van Schaijk’s costumes equally effectively blend original designs with the new. Bert Dalhuijsen’s set is never more than a suggestion but offers a space, less ulitatarian than the standard surtitle board, to project ironic photographs and a poignant image of pages of Nijinsky diary in his own handwriting. In his words of internal struggles that Nijinsky experienced even at the height of his fame are evident, and the public performer seems constantly at odds with the private man. The crucial words –dancer,clown,god- are constantly repeated in the text and Pastor weaves these concepts into the very fabric of his choreography.
Pastor has succeeded in visualizing this dichotomy and externalizing Nijinsky’s inner conflict. The insanity of his brother, Stanislav, haunted him all his life and this is developed into a strong role for Juanjo Arqués, who appears at each vulnerable turn of his life. Diaghilev (a demonic Alexander Zhembrovskyy) is introduced in a guise of the Puppetmaster from Petrushka. The blurring of boundaries between the roles and the characters is a feature of the ballet. Pastor has created a small corps of eight who, costumed as Petrushka or Faune, interpret the role, while Cédric Ygnace, as Nijinsky, in practice dress, engages with the soul of the dancer: an interesting and totally successful experiment.
For Cédric Ygnace, Nijinsky is the role of a lifetime. The ballet opens on the enormous expanse of the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, as he works alone at the barre, fining a simple tendu down to it’s essence. As the music swells he is compelled into performance but is constantly drawn back to his lonely search for artistic perfection. In these few moments the scene is set for the personal tragedy in the larger historical setting. Ygnace is a dancer of wonderfully fluid grace with en eye-watering technical accuracy that makes his portrayal of the Russian dancer believable.
Added to this, he has steadily grown in stature as an artist and rises to the occasion to crown his achievements with a truly inspired performance. Michele Jimenez created an appealing character out of the maverick Romola. She ran the gamut of emotions: passionate, self-seeking and ultimately tragic. Pastor’s strong ensemble work is less of a feature in this production. The Mariinsky ballet dancers and Parisian society frame the drama, bringing context and balancing the dynamics, but it remains completely and magnificently a work about one of the ballet’s greatest protagonists, Vaslav Nijinsky.
Maggie Foyer (july 2010)
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