A debut by Daria Pavlenko

Scene from the ballet Le Sacre du printemps

It is one hundred years since the first production of Le Sacre du printemps. At the dawn of the last century Vaslav Nijinsky, the choreographer of the first dance version of Igor Stravinsky’s score, had to overcome the habits of the performers (the dancers in Sergei Diaghilev’s company). Raised in the classical traditions, from their earliest years they had striven to dance with their legs perfectly straight and with proper turn-out of the feet. Nijinsky demanded the opposite: he conceived a style with bent knees and the feet turned inwards. With monotone repeated movements, inadmissible in classical ballet, he created the image of a ritualistic event from pagan Russia. It was not easy to get the result he wanted from the dancers. Bronislava Nijinska, the choreographer’s sister, was open to experimentation and he had envisioned her dancing the role of the Chosen On. Indeed, Nijinsky was very annoyed with his sister when she was unable to perform in the premiere as she was pregnant at the time. He was reluctant to entrust the daring choreography to anyone else, fearing that no-one else would be able to bring his idea to life in all its colours – both in terms of the movements and the emotions. At the premiere, the lead role in Le Sacre du printemps was danced by Maria Piltz.

One hundred years on, Daria Pavlenko has been rehearsing the role. With her wealth of experience, she has earned a reputation as an all-round ballerina, equally convincing in classical works and contemporary dance. In Petipa’s ballets Daria demonstrates a firm grasp of the style of St Petersburg classical dance, in Balanchine’s works she appears as a confident instrumentalist and she performs with ease as the heroines in Fokine’s poetic ballets or as the “iron lady” in the postmodernist choreography of William Forsythe. Next up on her list of dance styles is the choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky.