Authors

Discussion

This chapter of Nijinska’s life is poorly documented (there are few diary entries about her everyday life), but the treatises she composed betray a rich period of intellectual development and her process of coming into her  own aesthetic perspective. Nijinska’s residence in Moscow in the year immediately after the 1917 Revolutions, serves as a point of departure for the proposed paper. Viewing Nijinska through the photographic lens, I attempt to understand how Moscow initiated the formalisation of her aesthetic theory and incorporated the praxes of her brother, Vaclav Nijinsky, and the theatre director, Vsevelod Meyerhold.

Triangulating Nijinska through the theoretical works of Vsevelod Meyerhold and her brother’s portrayal of the popular figure, Petrouchka, her positioning within the avant-garde is defined by an ambiguous stance intending to unite both tradition and innovation. Moscow was an important locus for the theatrical praxis of Meyerhold, particularly when considering the centrality of the city in his work for the Soviet government as disciplinary leaders. On the other hand, Moscow serves as a paradoxical site for Nijinska’s development of her aesthetic theory and performance of pre-revolutionary repertoire, her own rejection of Bolshevik theatre reform, and her concurrent interpretation of avant-gardist manifestoes in shaping her own perspective on dance and its trajectory. For Meyerhold and Nijinska, Moscow served as a platform for regeneration: stepping into new chapters of creative praxes, as well as constructing and enacting new theoretical approaches to their craft, each artist forged unique aesthetic codes that shaped their respective disciplines.