Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Bringing Fokine to Light

1984; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 16; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1478716

1940-509X

Karen Nelson,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

While valuing freedom of movement as the sine qua non for making dance expressive, his overriding goal, Michel Fokine nonetheless maintained that a dance could be beautiful only if it followed “the rigid laws that govern the creation of one of Shakespeare's sonnets.” As far as Fokine was concerned, setting dances was “all pure brain work, extracting and using the magical harmonies and rhythms that lie hidden in nature.” The “natural law” of choreography that Fokine postulated had as its main precepts principles governing rhythm and plasticity. This paper discusses Fokine's dance aesthetic, its validity, and the degree to which his aesthetic was actually realized in his work. A context for this discussion is provided in the form of a recapitulation of the principal facts of Fokine's career arid of related aspects of the careers of his forerunners. The materials with specific reference to Fokine available for study include current versions of a few of his ballets, films of a somewhat larger number, critical responses to his work, recollections of people who came into contact with him or his work, and his own statements and writings.