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Esther Hopkin
Dance 461
March, 2013
Pat Debenham
Igor Stravinskys Influence on Twentieth-Century Dance
Many claim Igor Stravinsky as one of the greatest influences on modern ballet of the
twentieth century. The composer collaborated with some of the most familiar names in dance
history. Each of Stravinskys collaborative projects with Fokine, Nijinsky, Diaghilev, and
Balanchine resulted in a shift in the global perception of what the relationship between music
and choreography should be in ballet and paved the road for many future choreographic
explorations in the dance world.
Igor Stravinsky was born to a musically-proficient family on June 17, 1882 near St.
Petersburg, Russia (Hossick). Music was a fundamental part of his home life, his mother being
an accomplished pianist, and his father the principle bass in the opera at the Maryinsky Theater.
At a young age, Stravinsky met the son of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, one of The Five greatest
Russian composers of the Romantic Era. At the age of twenty-one, Stravinsky began taking
composition lessons from his friends father (Hossick).
As Hossick puts it, St. Petersburg was a cradle of an enormous activity in the arts at
this time, as is evidenced by Sergei Diaghilev forming the internationally-renowned Ballet
Russes. For the companys second season, Diaghilev had promised the public a new and daring
ballet. He had previously asked two Russian composers to write the music for the work, but they
both failed to deliver a score. When Diaghilev found himself empty-handed, he asked young
Stravinsky, to compose something fresh and new to raise the musical standards of the company,

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seen as lacking during the 1909 season, with an exhilarating example of new Russian music
(Jordan, 27). Stravinsky was honored at this request, knowing that the company had just begun a
bold and artistic adventure with the new choreographer, Mikhail Fokine. Working with Fokine
was not the only exciting aspect of collaborating with Ballet Russes. Stravinsky also anticipated
rubbing shoulders with a whole bouquet of artists full of talent and originality: [Anna] Pavlova,
[Tamara] Karsavina, [Vaslav] Nijinsky. All this greatly tempted [Stravinsky], and impelled
[him] to break through the pale and seize the opportunityan opportunity that would begin his
career as a world-wide composer (Autobiography, 27).
Doing so joined him to the league of radicals in searching for a new kind of dance
[that was free] from the old strictures (Jordan, 23), and Diaghilev was indeed the mastermind
behind the mission. As is stated in Hossicks biographical documentary, Igor Stravinsky, the
artistic directors greatest gift lay in making the complexities of ballet production work.
Stravinsky describes him as having a degree of endurance and tenacity, possessing great
intelligence and mentality, and a wonderful flair. He continues to describe Diaghilev as
always looking for something innovative and avant garde, which cause him to be frequently
carried away by passion or temperamentthe two forces predominant in him. His boldness
in making decisions and expressing opinions made it always somewhat terrifying though at the
same time reassuring for the composer to work with him (Autobiography, 28). The young
composer knew that he could trust what Diaghilev said as a bold, but honest opinion. It seemed
that Diaghilev had an uncanny ability foresee what the public would like, which comforted
Stravinsky.
Mikhail Fokine was the first of many choreographers to set movement to Stravinskys
compositions, beginning with LOiseau de Feu (Firebird in English), which was warmly

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applauded by the Paris public (Autobiography, 29). They were fascinated by the bird-like
qualities represented in the music with the flutes and strings in the Firebird-Prince Ivan Pas de
Deux. Fokine mirrored that bird-like sound in his choreography with quick and light movement
in the head and arms, resembling a bird remarkably well (Ewaasia). As a whole, the ballet
perpetuated Diaghilevs original idea of playing upon the Parisian fantasies of old Russia
(Thomas) through the rich Russian heritage in the story line, music, and movement.
Stravinskys idea for his next great success came to him while composing another work.
I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life (Autobiography,
31), and thus, the ballet Petroushka was born. He proposed the idea to Diaghilev, who would
not leave it alone. Soon the Ballets new project was underway with Fokine choreographing,
Alexandre Benois designing the set and costumes, and Stravinsky composing the music
(Autobiography, 32). Vaslav Nijinsky gave an unsurpassed rendering of the role of
Petroushka, performing Fokines saltatory, or jumping movement.
In spite of the partnerships success with Firebird and Petroushka, Stravinsky did not
completely approve of Fokines choreography for either of them. He writes, I have to admit
that the [movement in Firebird] always seemed to me to be complicated and overburdened with
plastic detail, so that the artists felt great difficulty in coordinating their steps and gestures
with the music (Autobiography, 30). Regarding the townsfolk in Petroushka, he laments, It
was a pity that the movements of the crowd had been neglected. [The performers] were left to
[improvise] instead of being choreographically regulated in accordance with the clearly
defined exigencies of the music (Autobiography, 35). Perhaps the exigencies of the music
had been ignored because, according to dance historian Stephanie Jordan, Fokine was musically
conservative (29). Although Stravinsky had intentionally written auditory demands for certain

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kinds of movement in his music, those nuances had simply surpassed the choreographers
understanding. Ironically enough, in Mikhail Fokines autobiography, he deplores the lack of
danceability in the ballet, criticizing the finale in particular because the dancers were totally
unused to this level of musical difficulty (Jordan, 30, emphasis added). To Fokine, Stravinskys
clearly defined exigencies were not clear at all. In fact, they were not even danceable. There
was apparently a lack of mutual understanding between Fokine and Stravinsky. Each had their
own individual idea of how their art should work with the others, and neither of them
understood the others vision.
Fokine did all in his power, however, to demand that Stravinsky accede to the
choreographers desires. In her book, Stravinsky Dances: Re-Visions across a Century, Jordan
reports that Fokine gave Stravinsky strict instructions as to the construction of the Firebird
score Stravinsky made many concessions. [Fokine] was a notoriously difficult
collaborator (30). It appears that, although initially impressed with one another, neither of
the two held the other in high esteem for much longer than two years, and their collaborative
relationship eventually dissolved. Jordan quotes a letter that Stravinsky wrote to his mother in
1912: I consider Fokine finished as an artist Its all just [skill], from which theres not
salvation (29-30). Although Stravinsky once thought Fokine an innovative and artistic
choreographer, he came to view him as nothing more than a technician.
But Stravinskys work with Ballet Russes was not yet finished. Impressed with
Nijinskys performance in Petroushka, Diaghilev was determined to make him the
choreographer for the companys next project, Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring, in English).
Diaghilev informed Stravinsky that the young dancer would be his next collaborator, making the
composer anything but eager for the opportunity. The idea filled me with misgiving,

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notwithstanding our friendliness and my great admiration for his talent as dancer and mime
(Autobiography, 40). Apart from being a gifted performer, the composer described Nijinsky as
undeveloped for his age and full of embarrassing [social] defects (Autobiography, 28). In
addition, he claimed that the dancing prodigy knew nothing about music. His choreography was
nothing but trite movement phrases, simply putting others verbal suggestions into movement.
After some rudimentary music lessons (reviewing tempo, bars, rhythm, etc.), it was still
necessary to remind Nijinsky that he must take tempi and rhythm into account when
choreographing. Stravinsky claims that the poor boy had been saddled with a task beyond his
capacity [and was] quite unconscious of his inadequacy (Autobiography, 41-42).
Unfortunately Stravinskys fears of Vaslavs inadequacy were realized. In writing the
score, he had envisioned a series of rhythmic mass movements of the greatest simplicity with
no superfluous details or complications. In contrast, many of Nijinskys movements were too
complex to be performed in time with the music. This is a common flaw among
choreographers, but the composer had never met one who erred in that respect to the same
degree as Nijinsky (Autobiography, 48). It seemed that this collaboration was going to be more
difficult than the previous two with Fokine; the latter may not have caught on to the nuances of
Stravinskys music, but at least he understood the basics.
The greatest and most cultured artists of the area received Sacre well (Autobiography,
47), and the company expected the same response from the audience on opening night. Nothing
could be farther from the case. Musically speaking, Stravinsky had written the opening bassoon
solo higher on its register than had ever been heard before; the audience could not even
recognize the instrument they were hearing (Thomas). There was no melody, but rather a series
of pulsating, dissonant chords with unpredictable accents that tested the audiences patience. To

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use the words of National Public Radio, Stravinsky had taken the orchestra, which was
associated with high society and culture, and brought it to this carnal, bestial, earthy level
(Thomas).
As for the choreography, Jordan describes it as spasmodic, bound, grounded, [and] inturned, disregarding the traditional floating aesthetic of classical ballet and giving into gravity,
to the realities of weight and breathing, to graceless postures, to sexual subject matter (410,
413). One of the dancers proclaimed that it was physically unnatural to perform (Igor). The
evenings performance had begun innocently with the familiar and relatively peaceful Les
Sylphides. However, as the follow-up piece, The Rite of Spring turned out to be anything but
spring-like (Igor). The audience shouted out to the performers with hisses and catcalls that
were so loud that the dancers could no longer hear the music (Thomas). Fighting ensued, and
eventually, the police had to be called and the thing round to a halt (Hoffman). As American
musician Thomas Kelly states, The pagans on-stage made pagans of the audience (Igor).
Nijinsky himself ended up on top of a chair, leaning onto the stage with Stravinsky holding onto
his coattails, shouting the counts to the dancers (Thomas). To put it simply, chaos reigned in the
Maryinsky Theatre on the evening of May 29, 1913, with the audience physically rebelling
against the highly inappropriate and even inflammatory spectacle on stage.
Stravinskys experiences with Diaghilev at the Ballet Russes presented him to the public
and gave him international recognition. That being said, his negative experiences with Mikhail
Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky altered his interactions with future choreographers immensely.
Historian Charles Joseph explains that, As a young, untested composer, [Stravinskys] earliest
ballet collaborators had forced him to make too many concessions, and he resented it. He was
not about to make the same mistake (Joseph, 5). He needed more creative freedom.

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Paradoxically, he longed to conform his future collaborators creativity to his idealsto
collaborate with someone that understood his work (unlike young Nijinsky), who shared his
vision of how choreography and music should compliment one another.
He found that ideal collaborative partner in George Balanchine, a dancer and
choreographer that had a strong musical background before even entering the dance world
(Joseph, 1). This background allowed him to understand Stravinskys intricate rhythms and hear
hidden rhythms that not even the composer had noticed before, while maintaining his own sense
of artistry and expression. He seemed to be the perfect match for the composers choreographic
philosophynamely that any great artist must first be an executant (understand and follow all of
the rules precisely) before they can have the liberty to be an interpreter (add their own
expression). In his book entitled Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons, he declares that
all virtuosos should know or recall that the first condition that must be fulfilled by anyone who
aspires to the imposing title of interpreter, is that he be first of all a flawless executant (Poetics,
130). For Stravinsky, the same was true of choreography: A choreographer must understand all
the rules of music before he or she aspires to be able to add their own layer of movement. Only
then can choreography realize its own form, one independent of the musical form though
measured to the musical unit. One must not duplicate the line and beat of the music, for
if music and dance were too synchronized, the meaning would evaporate (Joseph, 1, 7). In
other words, the choreographer must understand the music inside out, interpret it on its own, and
create movement which compliments the musical score, rather than duplicates it. Ultimately,
Stravinsky [does] not see how one can be a choreographer unless, like Balanchine, one is a
musician first (Joseph, 1).

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Both artists had a sharp sense of clean, pristine perfection, free of any extra frills that
could confuse audience members. To the composer, visual aesthetic whether in regards to
movement or mere presentationwas also essential to completing his music. He lamented that
musicians often overlooked the importance of the performers least gesture in their
performances. For instance, violin teachers may teach their students to play a certain piece
flawlessly, but they seldom address the issue of sitting with their legs too far apart. The result is
that the mere position of the musician is distracting from the music being performed (Poetics,
133-134). Film director Malcolm Hossick notes that even [Stravinskys] written scores looked
good and that he seemed to be extremely carefully dressed. Movement and visual aesthetic
were important to Stravinsky in his every-day life, and that ideology bled into his compositions
and ultimately into his vision of what ballet should be.
George Balanchine agrees that unnecessary ornamentation in movement distracts from
the power of the music. He explains, When I choreograph Stravinskys music, I am very
careful not to hide [it]. You see, usually choreography interferes with the music too much.
When too much goes on on stage, you dont hear the music. Somehow the messy stuff obscures
the music. I always do the reverse [and] subdue my dances [to be] less than the music. You
rather should do less than more (Joseph, 1). This bare minimum ideology affected his
choreographic choices in many ways, one of which is his typical costume choice of plain
rehearsal attireleotard and tights. New York City Ballet dancer, Megan LeCrone explains that
the simplicity of the costumes in their ballet Agon help to [show] the score very clearly. Its
just the raw elements: the music, the dancers, the choreography. Thats it (newyorkcityballet).
Balanchine incorporated music into his choreography on a level that had never been reached
before.

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Stravinsky agrees with Balanchines simplicity in his own way, claiming that the
musically extraneous elements found in Romantic music invite betrayal of the composers
intent. If performers are not careful, they will take the extra trills and frills and create a piece
that is entirely different from the one that was originally written. On the other hand, a page in
which music seeks to express nothing outside of itself better resists attempts at literary
deformation (Poetics, 130). In his autobiography, the composer explains that he prefers the
clear-cut and positive lines found in the Danses du Prince Igor, to the somewhat detached
designs of LOiseau de Feu (Autobiography, 30). To summarize the two artists opinions, they
had a practical, no-nonsense creative approach (Jordan, 158)keep it to the clean, bare
minimum of movement, costume, and music. Anything extra is unnecessary and could confuse
audience members.
The piece that demonstrated these various ideals the best is what Jordan claims as the
most brilliant score of the period, Agon (Jordan, 56). In it, Stravinskys passion for rhythmic
excitement is thoroughly exploited (Hossick), and the soloist never [stops] moving the whole
time. Its just this fete of human athleticism (newyorkcityballet). LeCrone continues to
explain that the choreography contains negligible gender differences, keeping the movement to
the bare essentials. One can also see how Balanchine interpreted the essence of the castanets as
slightly provocative and seductive in the upper body without mirroring every beat of the
castanets in the movement (newyorkcityballet).
It would be naive to say that Stravinskys great works are now whistled on the
sidewalk by the general public. One need only mention Stravinskys name on the street to
know that his music and the dancing that is associated with it often are beyond the understanding
of many. He recalls the crowds response to Firebird and Petroushka (two of his more

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traditional works) in 1912: Afterwards I knew that they said, Too much noise. And I want
to say, Where, exactly? (bpvro). Clearly, the composer never understood why that might be.
Despite the lack of understanding, he felt that if he were to follow the publics demands for more
conventional and predictable music, he would be going backward and only doing violence to
[himself] (Autobiography, 176). In speaking of the music for Sacre du Printemps, perhaps his
most radical composition, he did acknowledge that it was not meant to please an audience or
to rouse its passions. He was among the first to think along those lines, to be true to his sense
of exploration over being loyal to the publics emotional cravings, as he put it in his
autobiography (95).
This idea of almost disregarding the publics initial disapproval paved the road for
Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and the Modern Dance Pioneers. With his contemporaries, Ravel,
Debussy, and Picasso, to name a few, he set the stage for every artistic exploration of the
twentieth century from animal fad dances, to the twist, to Happenings, to Cunninghams
Chance Dance, and so on. In each of these cases, the general public initially thought of the idea
as radical and/or inappropriate and shunned it just as they did on the opening night of Sacre du
Printemps.
Igor Stravinsky stretched the musicality of dancers and audience members until, at last,
he found George Balanchinea collaborative choreographer who understood his musical
intricacies and could compliment them with equally intricate and pristine movement. Because of
their works together, the music and dance communities have a greater understanding of one
another. To use the words of Malcolm Hossick, Stravinsky combined a sensitivity to language,
to movement, and rhythm and to things visual as hardly any other composer has done.

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Works Cited
bpvro. Too much noise Talking to Stravinsky. YouTube. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. Stravinsky,
Igor.

Ewaasia. Firebird - Ekaterina Kondaurova. YouTube. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.


<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC6MmmLKEmA>.

Type to enter text


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Hoffman, Miles, and Renee Montagne. "Stravinsk'ys Riotous 'Rite of Spring'." National Public
Radio. National Public Radio, 21 Mar 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2013. <http://www.npr.org/
templates/story/story.php?storyId=88490677>.

Hossick, Malcolm, dir. Igor Stravinsky. Film. 21 Mar 2013.

"Igor Stravinsk'ys, The Rite of Spring." Milestones of the Millenium. National Public Radio:
Washington, D.C., 1999. Web. 18 Feb 2013. <http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/
milestones/991110.motm.riteofspring.html>.

Jordan, Stephanie. Travinsky Dances: Re-Visions across a Century. First. Great Britain: Dance
Books Ltd, 2007. Print.

Joseph, Charles M. Stravinsky and Balanchine: a journey of invention. Yale University Press,
2002. Print.
newyorkcityballet. NYC Ballets Megan LeCrone on George Balanchines AGON. YouTube.
Web 16 Feb. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCtwWY9byQE>.

Stravinsky, Igor. Igor Stravinsky: An Autobiography. First. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc., 1962. Print.

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Stravinsky, Igor. Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons. New York: Vintage Books, 1947.
Print.

Thomas, Michael Tilson, ed. "Stravinsk'ys 'The Rite of Spring'." Keeping Score. PBS, 2009.
Web. 18 Feb 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/keepingscore/stravinsky-rite-of-spring.html>.

Stravinsky: Redefining the Relationship Between Music and Movement in the Twentieth
Century

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Esther Hopkin
Dance 461, Debenham
April 2, 2013

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