Nijinsky on youtube

Browsing through the June 29, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, I found a short piece about videos of Nijinsky dancing on youtube. Being an avid Nijinsky fan, I was immediately drawn in. Nijinsky was never filmed dancing, so I was curious as to how where these films had come from. Apparently, one enterprising youtube user, Christian Comte, has been making short clips of Nijinsky dancing based on photographs of his performances from the golden age of the Ballet Russes. The clips are very short (0:09 to 0:45) and appear quite stiff and awkward. However, they do give a sense of how Nijinsky's movement might have flowed, one into the other. Also, to be perfectly honest, it's quite enjoyable to lose oneself in the fantasy of such "lost footage."

For more information, check out the article from The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/06/29/090629ta_talk_acocella

Christian Comte's youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/user/christiancomte

The Tragic Loss of Pina Bausch

German choreographer Pina Bausch is dead at 68. Her creativity and imagination breathed fresh life into concert dance and her choreography captured emotion on a whole new scale. Her version of the "Rite of Spring" is the only choreography I have seen (other than the reconstruction of Nijinsky's original work) that is powerful enough to stand up to Stravinsky's score. She will be sorely missed in the dance community.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html?partner=rss&emc=rss