Word: ballets
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WHEN ASKED HOW his new costume--a beaded, bangled confection--feels, the young Nijinsky replies, "It weighs a ton." So does Nijinsky. Agonizingly slow, the movie staggers under the feathers and furbelows of opulent sets and exotic locales. Ironically, the director who did so much to popularize ballet in The Turning Point is afraid to show too much of it here. He consistently cuts away from a dance sequence to a spectator, or shows only the dancer's face. In The Turning Point, Ross appeared determined to educate the general public in the beauties of ballet; in Nijinsky, he assumes...
Early this century, the Ballets Russes toured Europe and performed dances that helped lay the foundation for modern ballet; a young George Ballanchine honed his craft with this troupe. Under the direction of Russian impresario Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes featured the avant-garde: music by Stravinsky and Debussy, sets by Picasso and Matisse, choreography by Fokine and Nijinsky. The film opens in 1912, with Nijinsky (George de la Pena) at the height of his distinguished dancing career, and beginning to design his own ballets, encouraged by mentor and lover Diaghilev (Alan Bates). But as Nijinsky's innovative ballets meet with...
...then why cast two American Ballet theatre artistes, Leslie Browne and George de le Pena, in leading roles that demand precious little dancing, but require substantial emoting? Browne has lost much of her nasal whine of The Turning Point, and handles the dramatics fairly well. But the role swamps de la Pena; he acts like a dancer, relying on exaggerated expressions and quivering limbs to convey emotion. He performs several of Nijinsky's most famous ballets, including Afternoon of a Faun and Le Spectre de la Rose, but we see all too little of his dancing; Ross focuses the photography...
Panov said he believes the Russian ballet is the finest in the world, adding that the government provides the funds and support necessary for the disciplined training which ballet requires...
...Soviet government "controls" every studio and theater within the Soviet Union, and classical ballet is the only school of dance the government accepts, Panov said...