Cowboys - It's what's for dinner

[bironic]

Well, so the ballet was a success yesterday, aside from having to lean, duck and at times sit on my coat to see around and between the heads of two of the tallest men in the audience in my direct line of sight depending on how they slouched, and even though the graceful arm-waving of "Les Sylphides" set to half a dozen Chopin tunes grew dull very

Comments

[maddy_harrigan]

I remember studying "Afternoon of a Faun" to DEATH in one of my InterArts courses in college. Studying its political and social implications, that is, not the actual piece. Apparently, its supposed portrayal of onstage masturbation and its blatantly pagan imagery shocked a few people in the thirties. Who knew?

I do have to say, however, that Nijinsky runs DH a close race for "most beautiful man to dance that piece," and given that Nijinsky choreographed it as well, he might have to get some bonus points for that.

By the way, my LJ is now operational again, in case you ever feel like dropping by.

[bironic]

"Afternoon of a Faun" was a very sensuous piece and I can definitely see where it could have shocked its original audience, though I'm not sure why your teacher and/or the critic chose to describe it as "pagan" when it never claimed to be Christian or anti-Christian (or affiliated with any sort of religion). It was two ordinary people in a studio, dancing with each other in front of a mirror (the audience). I didn't catch any implication of masturbation at the time. "Rodeo" was much raunchier (but then, it's a few decades younger and set in a more definite place and time

[maddy_harrigan]

I actually can't think of any decent books on ballet at the moment, but I'll keep thinking.

The original "Afternoon of a Faun," if it was, in fact, the same piece (and it sounds like it), was set in a forest. The faun was wearing a speckled bodysuit, with horns, and hooves over his hands, and he danced by himself for a while, and then was joined by a nymph. They danced together, and then she ran off and left her scarf behind, and he lay back with the scarf and held it up to his face and then passed it between his legs while lying on his back and arching upwards. It was viewed as pagan due to its pastoral and mythical imagery, though Milton had used the same damn imagery in "Lycidas," and nobody could really accuse HIM of being pagan.

[bironic]

Well that makes a lot more sense, both for the title and the masturbation comment. The girl didn't leave anything behind her in this version, and though the man's back arched more than once during the performance, which suggested sexuality, it could be explained away as warming up or cooling down after practice.