SALON LUITPOLD | Nijinski und die Folgen | Über ruhende Faune und tanzende Nymphen

In the organizer's words:

On resting fauns and dancing nymphs - with Claudia Jeschke, Christoph Gaier and Chistian Gohlke

In 1876, a fascinating intermedial passage took its course: Stéphane Mallarmé published his poem L'après-midi d'un faune, which was not "set to music" by Claude Debussy in 1894, but was nevertheless "set to music". In 1912, Vaclav Nijinsky created a choreography for himself and six dancers to Debussy's instrumental music based on Mallarmé. Subsequently, Serge Lifar, Jerome Robbins, Kurt Jooss and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui also created choreographies to Debussy's music, each referring to Mallarmé and Nijinsky in their own specific way.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's dance piece Faun from 2009 is part of the three-part ballet evening Wings of Memory, which the Bavarian State Ballet will present in April 2025. Salon Luitpold is taking this as an opportunity to draw connections between yesterday and today and to trace Vaclav Nijinsky's dazzling artistic figure and its influence on posterity. This will take place in a discussion between Dr. Christoph Gaiser, dramaturge of the Bayerisches Staatsballett, and Prof. Dr. Claudia Jeschke, winner of the Munich Dance Prize and professor emeritus of dance studies in Leipzig, Cologne and Salzburg. She is the leading Nijinsky expert in the German-speaking world and has researched Nijinsky's self-developed notation method in particular, thanks to which his choreography from 1912 can still be performed in the 21st century.