Conference Agenda

Organized by the Music and Dance Study Group.

MDSG Business Meeting with Short Papers, 2024: Investigating Nijinska’s Musical Legacy

Chairs: Rebecca Schwartz (University of Michigan); Rachel Gain (Yale University)

Presenter: Rebecca Schwartz (University of Michigan)

Facilitators: Rachel Gain (Yale University) and Lena Leson (Dickinson College)

Organized by the AMS Music and Dance Study Group

The first half of this meeting, lasting roughly forty minutes, will take care of the business pertinent to running the study group, including elections of new officers, review of funds, discussion of future plans, and the approval of minutes.

The second half of the MDSG business meeting, lasting roughly fifty minutes, will include three short papers probing the radical advances of Bronislava Nijinska’s style and choreography on the music of her dances. A pioneer of twentieth-century neoclassical style, member of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, leader of the avant garde, choreographer, dancer, author, pianist, and sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, Nijinska’s approach to music has much to reveal about her artistry, the music she chose, and her collaborations, but it is understudied. A few music scholars have contributed to this aspect of Nijinska’s history, including Matilda Ann Butkas Ertz (2009), Deborah Mawer (2006), Stephanie Jordan (2005, 2000), and Margarita Mazo (2005, 1990). In her recent monograph, dance scholar Lynn Garafola (2022) has also advanced knowledge of Nijinska’s significance to ballet choreography, technique, and twentieth-century history. There is, however, a need for further investigation of Nijinska’s relationship with music to better comprehend her vital contributions and develop a more nuanced understanding of her remarkable accomplishments.

After an introduction by Rebecca Schwartz to Nijinska’s manifesto, “On Movement and the School of Movement,” and best-known work, Les Noces, pre-solicited contributions on the following topics will follow:

• How does what we know of Nijinska’s embodiment of musical sounds, ideas, and gestures impact our understanding of Ravel’s Bolero, Poulenc’s Les Biches, and Milhaud’s Le Train Bleu, and other works?
• How can we characterize Nijinska’s approach to music across her career?
• How does a more musically-centered and nuanced understanding of Nijinska’s work inform our perspective of music connected with theatrical dance in the 20^th century?

To foster depth of study, inclusive conversation, and contact with scholarship, prior to the meeting attendees are encouraged to read Margarita Mazo and Stephanie Jordan’s introduction to the Chester Music Stravinsky Edition of the Les Noces study score; Matilda Ann Butkas Ertz’s chapter “Embodiment and Reception in Les Noces: Choreographic Relationships to Music, Libretto, and the Folk Wedding” in Igor Stravinsky: Sounds and Gestures of Modernism; and Lynn Garafola’s recent book La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern.

By deepening knowledge and stimulating interest in Nijinska’s works, style, approach to music, and life, this discussion will provide attendees with new perspective and generate new interest in this revolutionary pioneer of twentieth-century dance and its music.