Le Spectre de la rose
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Le Spectre de la rose is a short ballet about a young girl who dreams of dancing with the spirit of a souvenir rose from her first ball. The ballet was written by Jean-Louis Vaudoyer who based the story on a verse by Théophile Gautier and used the music of Carl Maria von Weber's piano piece Aufforderung zum Tanz as orchestrated by Hector Berlioz.
Interior of the Monte Carlo Casino, 1879. The Casino theatre later became the Opera House.
Nijinsky in the rose petal costume
Vaslav Nijinsky
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Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. He was celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time, and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps.
Nijinsky in Krasnoye Selo, 1907
Nijinsky as Armide's slave in Le Pavillon d'Armide. The middle act was originally choreographed by Michel Fokine as L'animation de Gobelins for the 1907 Imperial ballet school student show, and was performed by the new Ballets Russes on its opening night in Paris, 1909.
Nijinsky in Le Festin, a suite of classic dances performed on the opening night of the Ballets Russes in Paris, May 1909. The company's courier later described the audience's reaction to Nijinsky's performance with Tamara Karsavina in the Bluebird (ballet) pas de deux: "when those two came on, good Lord! I have never seen such a public. You would have thought their seats were on fire."