ABSTRACT
THE HISTORY of Russian ballet in the first years of the twentieth century-from Petipa’s last works to the ballets of Gorsky, Fokine, and Nijinsky-is the story of the Russian dance academy in decline. But where Fokine and Gorsky tampered with academic formulas in their quest for dramatic truth and naturalistic stylization, Nijinsky launched a full-scale assault on the academy, a declaration of war. Levinson concluded his review of Nijinsky’s first ballet, L’Après-midi d’un faune (1912), with a startling assessment of the new direction Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes had chosen: “What is clear is that the fate of Diaghilev’s ballet venture…is no longer tied to that of the Russian choreographic stage by any solid link” (1982, 62).
