Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky)

Lore & Background

The ballet was developed as a possible new production for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Diaghilev, Nijinsky, and Bakst developed the original idea, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek vases and Egyptian and Assyrian frescoes viewed at the Louvre. Bakst had previously worked with innovative theatre producer Vsevolod Meyerhold, whose concepts of two-dimensionality, stylized postures, and a narrow stage were transferred to ballet format. Nijinsky aimed to reproduce the stylized look of ancient artworks on stage, and in his portrayal of the faun, he combined multiple ancient sources rather than reproducing a single exact figure from Greek vases.

Reader's Guide

The Afternoon of a Faun is significant for its deliberate archaism and rejection of classical ballet formalism. Dancers moved in profile as if on a bas relief, performed barefoot, and the 12-minute piece required 90 rehearsals due to its unconventional style. The ballet had an overtly erotic subtext, ending with a scene of graphic sexual desire, which led to a controversial reception from audience and critics. The work also caused the dissolution of the partnership between Nijinsky and Michel Fokine, as Fokine resented the loss of rehearsal time for his own productions and attacked Nijinsky's choreographic competence. Despite initial doubts—even Diaghilev asked for changes—the ballet is now regarded as a pioneering work of modern ballet, influencing later choreography and performance aesthetics.

Conception & Artistic Vision

The ballet's aesthetic was born from a specific visual encounter. Diaghilev, Nijinsky, and Bakst drew their inspiration from ancient Greek vase paintings and Egyptian and Assyrian frescoes they studied at the Louvre. Nijinsky's goal was to translate the stylized figures of those antiquities into living movement on stage. In his faun role, he reportedly recreated the exact silhouette of a satyr depicted on a Greek vase. The movement vocabulary was deliberately archaic: dancers traversed the stage in profile, evoking the flat, bas-relief quality of classical pottery. This approach was not purely Nijinsky's invention. Bakst had previously collaborated with the avant-garde theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold, whose productions emphasized two-dimensionality, stylized postures, and deliberate pacing to mark significant moments. The trio adapted those theatrical principles into a ballet framework, producing a work that rejected the ornamental formalism of classical dance in favor of something raw, angular, and rooted in the visual language of the ancient world.

Choreographic Process & Collaboration

The development of the ballet was a complex, often secretive collaboration. Diaghilev, who had initially relied on Michel Fokine for most of the company's choreography, decided to give Nijinsky—an exceptional dancer but, as his sister Bronislava noted, a poor teacher—a chance to create. Nijinsky spoke little French, so the poet Jean Cocteau served as interpreter, explaining Mallarmé's source poem and helping shape the dramatic outline. Back in St. Petersburg, Nijinsky worked with Bronislava, who functioned as his testing ground, trying out positions and sequences. She described the experience as being clay in a sculptor's hands. Nijinsky struggled to articulate his vision verbally and operated almost entirely through physical demonstration, often overlooking the gap between his own ability and that of the corps. The entire project was kept under wraps until Diaghilev was prepared to stage it, partly out of concern that Fokine would take offense at being bypassed.

Staging, Costumes & Visual Design

Bakst's scenography was designed to be impressionistic rather than literal. The backcloth featured broad washes of muted grey, brown, and green that echoed the fluidity of Debussy's score without depicting a specific landscape. Crucially, it was hung at the second wings rather than the stage's rear, deliberately compressing the performance space. The floor was painted black up to the mound where the faun reclined, then green beyond. Bakst also arranged the lighting to reinforce the flattened, two-dimensional quality of the movement. Against this subdued backdrop, the costumes were meant to pop. Nijinsky wore a cream bodysuit with brown piebald patches, a short tail, a vine-leaf belt, and a cap of woven golden hair framing two golden horns that read as a circlet. His ears were extended with wax and his makeup rendered more bestial. The nymphs wore white pleated muslin tunics with stencilled blue or rust-red patterns, tight golden-rope wigs, and minimal makeup save for pale pink eyes.

Reception, Controversy & Legacy

The 12-minute ballet, first staged at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 29 May 1912, provoked a storm of debate. Beneath its Greek-antiquity surface lay an overtly erotic narrative: a young faun flirts with and chases several nymphs, and the piece culminates in a scene of graphic sexual desire. Audiences and critics alike were divided, and the work's quality was hotly contested across multiple newspaper reviews. The controversy extended beyond the audience. The unconventional choreography demanded extensive rehearsal time, and the strain of training dancers in this new style contributed to the breakdown of the working partnership between Nijinsky and Fokine, the company's other leading choreographer. Despite the uproar, the ballet has since been recognized as one of the first truly modern works in the dance form, standing alongside Nijinsky's equally provocative Jeux and Le Sacre du printemps, both of 1913, as a landmark that shattered the conventions of classical ballet.

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