Diaghilev/CunninghamAuthor(s): David Vaughan Source: Art Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Winter, 1974-1975), pp. 135-140 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/775888 . Accessed: 28/04/2014 04:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 90.147.34.234 on Mon, 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ravel. the other the commissioning of scores from contemporary composers of the caliber of Stravinsky. the prime example being the Fokine-Stravinsky-Benois Petrouchka. and he was dismissed. and design were all of equal importance. In the first period of the Ballets Russes the emphasis was mainly on exoticism of time and place-the Orient. Although their work had a profound effect on the theater and decorative arts in western Europe. rather than his choosing ballet as the medium through which his ideas would be transmitted to the world. Above all. elimination of separate numbers). Choreographically. the project collapsed after Diaghilev had a disagreement with the administration over who was to receive credit for it. returned to Russia from time to time to fulfill their obligations there). it was the ballet that caused the sensation-the dancing of Pavlova. (The walls had been breached. Besides admiring him as an artist he would have respected the seriousness and discipline of his company. the real balletomane of the group: he was to design one act and Constantin Korovin another. integration of dance and mime. the consistent invention of the choreography and the provocative strangeness of John Cage's musical accompaniments. the following year he organized a series of concerts of Russian music there. The decorative aspect continued to be dominated by Bakst and Benois. Nevertheless. As we know. In music there were two important developments-one the use of "symphonic" works such as Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade for ballet. and it was expected that Chaliapin in Rimsky-Korsakov's Ivan the Terrible (Pskovitianka) would be the biggest draw. Nijinsky threw in his lot with Diaghilev and severed his connection with the Imperial Theaters (though other members of the company. -Alexander Bland.234 on Mon. Nijinsky. but more radical 135 WINTER. his acute artistic antennae would have tingled at the sense that Cunningham was talking in the language of today. For a while he also edited the Annual of the Imperial Theaters and at the turn of the century. and in 1908 he presented Chaliapin in Boris Godunov at the Paris Opera. Le Carnaval. The first step toward a greater modernism came with the advent of Gontcharova and Larionov. and Bolm and the decors by Bakst. he soon established his company on a permanent basis and began to create a repertory of new ballets calculated to appeal to the sophisticated public of Paris and other European cities. Even so. 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . pagan Russia. and Roerich-and ballets even had to be added at the end of opera performances to ensure a sellout.147. which omitted to mention that the composer had written three full-length ballets as well as operas and orchestral and chamber music. In those days ballet scenery was not designed by artists. 2 August 1964 It might be said that it was almost by accident that Sergei Diaghilev became the animator of the most important dance company the world has ever known-as though ballet chose Diaghilev. the obvious next step after Godunov was to bring the St.34. whose designs derived from Russian folk and primitive art. Le Spectre de la Rose). it essentially represented a continuation of the ideas of Mir Iskustva. it was executed by scene-painters. Although he had had some musical training he was in the beginning essentially a dilettante who edited a luxurious magazine called Mir Iskustva (The Worldof Art) and organized extraordinary exhibitions. Diaghilev's genius was in the choice of collaborators: Benois had given him the idea that a ballet should be an integrated spectacle in which choreography. and Richard Strauss. Unfortunately. 1974/75 This content downloaded from 90. the first ballets embodied the reforms proposed by Fokine (naturalism. when several members of the group of painters centered around his magazine planned a new production of Delibes' ballet Sylvia. Karsavina. ancient Greece. until the Revolution. Petersburg ballet to Paris the following year. he acted as intermediary between them and the administration. Debussy.Diaghilev/Cunnin DAVID VAUGHAN Diaghilev would have loved Cunningham. The ballet repertory was thrown together hurriedly and consisted of reworked versions of ballets that had already been given in Russia. That Diaghilev was still not particularly interested in the ballet was made clear by his program note on Tchaikovsky for one of the concerts. with costumes by Leon Bakst and Valentin Serov. Benois. The initiative for this production came from Alexandre Benois.) A few years later Diaghilev conceived for himself the mission of showing the art of Russia to western Europe: in 1906 he took an exhibition of Russian painting to Paris. which in their eyes was related to Cubism and Fauvism. the great Saison Russe of 1909 was a season of ballet and opera. truth to epoch and locale. music. and the Mir Iskustva painters did subsequently design various productions for the Imperial Theaters. The Observer (London). however. From then on it was the ballet to which Diaghilev devoted most of his energies. with occasional excursions into the baroque (Le Pavilion d'Armide) and 19th-century Romanticism (Les Sylphides. the spare wit and style of Rauschenberg's costumes and lighting. the influence of the Ballets Russes was fully established and indeed assimilated. however short-lived-the inversion of classic technique in Le Sacre du printemps. wheels. period of the Ballets Russes actually began in 1917 with the collaboration of Massine. but scores like Poulenc's Les Biches and Berners' The Triumph of Neptune are at least first-rate ballet music. and the totally new relation of dance to music in L'Apres-midi d'un faune. which all jiggled. one need only mention here that two of the most influential and revolutionary dance works of the 20th century were presented by Diaghilev in. Laurencin. however avant-garde the actual design. and an oilcloth floor covering. and whirred in the finale. and the decor also included light projections and even a movie. but no dancing) to accompany Stravinsky's Fireworks. ART JOURNAL. As for choreography. Even more remarkable than these. the finale was a collage of everybody in the cast repeating their movements at once. that after the commercial failure of Diaghilev's great production of the four-act Petipa-Tchaikovsky classic The Sleeping Beauty in London in 1921 (Bakst's last work for him). Usually the scenery was constructed of painted flats and cloths in the traditional way. in many ways. moving scenery. From today's perspective. Gris. Satie. postwar. Throughout the second decade of the Ballets Russes. de Chirico. but in some ballets experiment was carried further. The Soviet artist Georgy Yakulov designed a set for Le Pas d'acier that brought to the West the kinetic. and Cocteau in Parade. 1920. particularly in terms of decor.innovations were introduced in Nijinsky's own ballets. and costume-makers like Vera (Sudeikina) Stravinsky. Utrillo. The second. he turned to an ever more desperate pursuit of novelty at all costs. respectively. the costume worn by Nemchinova in Les Biches. where the steps for the first time were not tied to the meter of the music. would be very different. La Chatte was decorated with constructions by Gabo and Pevsner using materials that were quite new to the stage-clear plastic. was the decoration of another Massine ballet. and not only in Picasso's designs-Massine devised a choreographic equivalent of certain elements of Cubism in the passages of naturalistic but nonnarrative pantomime.34. which a little belatedly brought Cubism to the stage. Derain. Costume for one of the mourners in Diaghilev's Le Chant du Rossignol. these were not used. without which the history of contemporary ballet. and if Diaghilev were to maintain his position as arbiter of the most advanced and cultivated taste. Some of the music Diaghilev commissioned may have been trivial. not merely in experimental. In many of these cases the realization of the vaguest of sketches was entrusted to the scenic artists Vladimir Polunin and Prince Schervachidze (the prodigious Picasso very often painted his own sets). Ernst. constructivist style then current in the theater of Meyerhold and even in the State ballet theaters: the d6cor was made up of platforms. in recent years. by Pavel Tchelitchev. In the event. 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . Picasso. and it was Diaghilev's suggestion to Stravinsky that he base his score for Pulcinella on the music of Pergolesi that led to the transformation of the composer's aesthetic. Conservative critics might be horrified at ballets like Le Train bleu.234 on Mon. ladders. Ode. 1923 and 1928: Nijinska's Les Noces and Balanchine's Apollo. etc. signals. we might rather say that Diaghilev wished to make the ballet an expression of the contemporary spirit in life and art. Bauchant. but it is worth remembering that these and many other Henri Matisse.. Satie's score incorporated sirens. Diaghilev was getting more and more interested in avant-garde painting: he had already commissioned the Futurist Giacomo Balla to design a mixed-media theater event (lights. spun. it would be necessary for him to move ahead and leave behind the exoticism of the first period. made in collaboration with Pierre Charbonneau. bears little relation to Laurencin's sketch with its suggestion of a quite unmanageable train). pulleys. the contemporary subject matter of eux. pistol shots. or at least that part played in it by George Balanchine and his company. Diaghilev commissioned his decors from easel painters who might not otherwise have been drawn toward the theater: the Delaunays. On a similar principle. Mir6. executed by Mme Stravinsky. Nor were all the ballets of this period of ephemeral interest only. It has been customary to say that the last years of the Ballets Russes were a period of decadence. but in commercial theater as well. the composer's widow (for instance. and the ballet was designed by Matisse.147. Braque. The hoopskirts worn by some of the women were duplicated in the dresses of puppets of diminishing size that formed the main element of the scenery. innovations were first seen in the productions of the Ballets Russes. Other dancers wore allover tights. XXXI V/2 136 This content downloaded from 90. to the detriment of choreography and music. etc. Rouault. and Fortunato Depero made designs for the ballet version of the composer's Le Rossignol. typewriters. but young people were excited to see ballets that bore a recognizable relation to their own times. Such things have become commonplace. By the time of the outbreak of the first World War. In any case. After Diaghilev's death the tradition of artistic collaborationwas continued by as any contemporarySoviet ballet.Derain. Decor for Diaghilev's Ode.147. But Diaghilevhad been interestedin recruitingnew painters not only to decorate his productions-he would let them change the nature of the stage space itself.and Tchelitchev from Les Ballets1933. the choreography. and we can only guess at what further experimentshe might promote if he were still with us. Thus. Diaghilev's Le Bal. many of which were conceived by his secretary Boris Kochno. say. one must deplore the state of affairs that makes marvelousballets like Liebeslieder Walzer or Who Cares? look as dismal and dowdy Giorgio de Chirico. some of them for Balanchine's new works for Les Ballets 1933 and the reconstituted Ballets Russes. 1974/75 137 This content downloaded from 90. 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions .is subjectto union regulations-few companies will dare to defy United Scenic Artists and commission a decor from a painterwho has not passed the union examination.As we know. Which bringsus to the other half of the presentexhibition. this practice. Diaghilev'sinterest in the ballet waned as his health began to fail. Massine. or even the human figure. 1929. and decor have WINTER. a remarkablenumberof contemporaryexperiments in stage design were foreshadowed in Diaghilev's productions. to look otherwise than it does. has largely been abandoned since the formation of the New York City Ballet. like other aspects of artisticendeavor. Merce Cunningham'smajor works over the last 20 years have been a series of distinguished collaborations: as in the Diaghilev ballets. stage design in this country. 1928. which also presentednew ballets by Fokine. if they wanted to.234 on Mon. and he was always ready to let his artists make theatrical use of what they were doing in their work as a whole. not only for the commercialtheater but for most ballet and opera companies.and Nijinska. Costume for a male guest. Toward the end.Pavel Tchelitchev. partly through economic necessity. and at first the new ballets he made in this country were often decorated by the last-namedor by Americanpainterschosen by Lincoln Kirstein. while no one would wish Agon. he turned again to music and his collection of rare books and no longer exercised total artistic control over his company's productions. partly as a matter of artistic policy. music. As we have seen.still the rule in the days of Ballet Society (1946-48).as well as much of the old Diaghilev repertory. the members of his company who went to work elsewhere: Kochno continued to devise libretti. When Balanchine came to the United States in 1934 he brought with him decors by Christian Berard.34. been of equal importance. who danced in Cunningham's original company. In Nocturnes. Cunningham's tail was made by Richard Lippold.) The earliest costume in the present exhibition was made for Cunningham to wear in Dromenon. For most of his early solos Cunningham designed his own costumes. The late Sonja Sekula painted the design directly onto the tights and leotard while Cunningham was wearing them. David Hare with a handsome but unfunctional costume for a solo. Two years later. which was Cunningham's first major work. with the significant difference that instead of the integrated spectacle of Diaghilev's time. 1954. In 1954 Rauschenberg designed a set for a Cunningham dance. in which the elements are independent of each other-and often are brought together only in the very last stage of the creation. Cunningham has said: "I had always been interested in working with artists: Isamu Noguchi with the ballet The Seasons for the Ballet Society. These were not collaborations so much as designs after the fact of the dance. as opposed to much of Cunningham's work. and it was there that Robert Rauschenberg became associated with it. Minutiae. a common procedure in the modern dance has been for music to be composed after the choreography is made. unfunctional in the sense that it was too heavy to wear to do anything. C. the relation of dance to music Robert Rauschenberg. meant the subservience of one or the other of the elements.234 on Mon." The logical conclusion of this idea has been that neither the music nor in recent years the dance has had to be the same at every repetition of a piece. Rauschenberg made a set and costumes that represented his idea of night-not darkness but the bright moonlight of a nuit blanche. 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . Willem and Elaine de Kooning did the set. XXXI V/2 138 This content downloaded from 90." in dancers' parlance). Set from Cunningham's Minutiae. in the opinion of Cage and Cunningham. but with strict adherence to its metrical structure (the "counts. whether or not specifically composed for that ballet. and many early group works were designed by Remy Charlip. a production that Diaghilev himself might not have disdained to present-the text was translated by M. This set. through. the year after The Seasons. and under which the dancers moved during the course of the piece. a Cunningham work is what one might call a disintegrated spectacle. While in the ballet the practice has always been to choreograph dances to music that exists.34. and a little of the design usually comes off onto his body every time the costume is worn. and was worn by him again in the Solo of 1973. It is three-dimensional and was used as a freestanding unit in center stage around. Richards. in fact. Cunningham choreographed The Monkey Dances for a production of Satie's play Le Piege de Meduse at Black Mountain College in 1948. Howard Bay with mediocre costumes and set for the Brandeis production of Les Noces. and their way of joining music and dance has always been unconventional. The Cunningham Dance Company formally came into being in 1953. having taken part in the John Cage Theater Piece in the summer of 1952. in 1947. Either method. ART JOURNAL. and they proposed instead a dance whose relation to the music would be simply that they both happened at the same time-the music would define the dance's duration but not its rhythmic structure or even its "mood. and the cast included Elaine de Kooning and Buckminster Fuller. also for Ballet Society. for the Satie Nocturnes.147. actually executed in collaboration with Jasper Johns. in 1948. also at Black Mountain. is related to the small collage also on exhibition." (Noguchi had already designed for Martha Graham and was to design Orpheus for Balanchine. From the time of his earliest solos Cunningham has had the musical collaboration of John Cage. hooped underskirts. sequence. the dancers being given freedom of choice among various possibilities in the choreography. stretched on movable frames. In the same year. His own company's programs are now almost always given over to what Cunningham calls Events-uninterrupted per139 WINTER. the shadowy outlines of the architecture of the stage's rear wall could be seen.147. and the decor and costumes were further extensions of the same imagery presented in the music and the choreography. divided into two areas by scrims. This piece used the whole enormous space of the Opera stage. bluish in color. assisted by Mark Lancaster. In the last few years. This dance and Field Dances of the same year introduced a greater element of indeterminancy into the performance itself. reprinted in Changes. by using such methods as tossing a coin to determine the choice. Set for Cunningham's Rainforest. in yellow this time. which he described in the same letter as "looking at part of an enormous landscape and you can only see the action in this particular portion of it. For the ballet of the Paris Opera last year Cunningham choreographed a work of epic proportions.34. a nightgown. 1968. for the costumes the dancers again wore basic leotards and tights. parachutes. tempo. Cunningham had already been experimenting with chance methods of composition. Jasper Johns has been the artistic advisor to the company. and a machine suspended from the flies that passed across above the dancers as they lay prone at the end of a section. Scramble (1967) Frank Stella made strips of canvas in primary colors." The end of the world tour also marked the close of the period of collaboration with Rauschenberg. there is just a costume or a set. and for Second Hand (1970) dressed the dancers in costumes that made a spectrum when they lined up across the stage in the final bows. Un Jour ou deux. behind the farther scrim. one down front. for which Cunningham had the idea. camouflaged like insects or animals whose protective coloring conceals them in their environment. Rauschenberg did not design his d6cors and costumes. Rauschenberg painted the famous pointillist backcloth and costumes for Summerspace." Rauschenberg carried the idea further in his decor-when the dancers were at rest they became almost invisible. in which he sought to free himself from the limitations of his own imagination and of a dancer's habitual way of moving from one position to another. 1958. designing some pieces himself and for others choosing an artist who has been free to decorate or define the space in whatever way he likes: for Andy Warhol. Cunningham has described this kind of activity as "a kind of anarchy where people may work freely together. Some consultation with the designer frequently took place. to which they could add various garments out of a large duffel bag whose contents were dumped in the wings. With all these pieces there is a difficulty as far as an exhibition is concerned: habitually. for obvious reasons-for an example. Rainforest (1968) was decorated with Andy Warhol's floating silver pillows. 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . Rauschenberg was given and exercised total freedom to decorate and clothe the piece: the dancers wore basic black tights and leotards.was a fairly traditional one. Cunningham's notes on choreography (edited by Frances Starr for the Something Else Press. and Bruce Nauman's row of standing industrial fans for Tread (1970) both placed the decor between dancers and audience. burlap sacks. Rauschenberg also devised certain events such as small explosions that occurred at the front of the stage as the curtain rose. Johns made a decor based on Marcel Duchamp's The Large Glass for Walkaround Time (1968). for TV Rerun (1972) Johns' "decor" consisted of a group of photographers who moved around the perimeter of the performing area shooting the action with still or movie cameras. crossing and recrossing the stage and throwing light onto the backcloth. Rauschenberg's contribution consisted of making a painting on stage. Even Nocturnes was choreographed in this way. there was the idea of using basic leotards and tights. one halfway back. trousers made of feathers for the men. 1974/75 This content downloaded from 90. 1968). Robert Morris' vertical beam for Canfield. performed all over the world in the tour of 1964. but never in New York: for this ballet Rauschenberg constructed a set out of whatever materials were at hand in each theater the company visited (at one series of four consecutive performances in London. during most of which the painter had functioned also as stage manager and lighting designer. see Cunningham's letter to Rauschenberg on his ideas for Antic Meet. to which different elements could be added: long sleeves for the women. Again in Aeon (1961). he made them-there is no sketch. All the same. and frequency of the movements in a dance. to which were added 35 ready-made garments and objects-overalls. with music by John Cage and decor by Johns. shading from very dark to very light gray. which grew night after night).234 on Mon. This practice was carried to its logical conclusion in Story (1963). .. formances of pieces from the repertory.. By the same token. Thus in his Scenes de ballet (1948) Ashton had the idea "that you could make the front anywhere. whole or in part. is center for him. where the public sit and see.34. merely that their discoveries. become part of what is available to any choreographer.. .. 1968.. A choreographer like Cunningham does not deliberately work in an experimental way. Set after Marcel Duchamp's The Large Glass for Cunningham's Walkaround Time. That point in space . just as Cunningham in his turn has come across new ways of moving and new ways of putting movements together." Cunningham has worked on a similar principle at least since Suite by Chance (1953)-"The dancer is at a given point in the dancing area. His newest choreography. his experiments and innovations are rarely made for the sake of doing something new.Jasper Johns. Reldche. the sculptural groupings of Apollo. of the music in Faune (and also the shapes made in space between the dancers). such as loss of dancers through permanent departure or temporary disability. and the results may seem to some people surprisingly "classic" in a Cunningham work (as in the Paris Opera piece) and innovative in one of Ashton's. once made. including Changing Steps of 1973. presented by the Ballets Suedois in 1924. and thus made them available to U those who come after him. This piece originally appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition at Hofstra University's Emily Lowe Gallery.234 on Mon. or whatever-Cunningham feels that in the face of this kind of unpredictability.147. are essentially practical ones: an Event can be arranged to fit any kind of performing area. has been seen only in this way. the collage elements of Parade and the Dadaism of another Satie ballet." We are accustomed by now to the fact that such ideas are "in the air" and can occur to different artists who may not be aware of each other's work. except in a negative sense)-Nijinsky's use. the dislocations of the stage area of Les Noces. Cunningham's reasons for doing this. David Vaughn has written on dance for many American and foreign periodicals. XXXIV/2 140 This content downloaded from 90. and can accommodate itself to any of the circumstances that may occur. whether proscenium stage or gymnasium or studio. He has been an associate of Merce Cunningham's for 15 years. most of which he cannot have seen. it is better to be flexible than rigid. As with any artist. unsuitability of stage surface. like most of his decisions. or nonuse. Cunningham was not influenced by Martha Graham in his choreography or even in his technique. but because that is the direction in which his way of working takes him. 28 Apr 2014 04:09:41 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . I am not suggesting that Cunningham is "influenced" by these ballets. the abstract designs made by the dancers in gray tights in Massine's Ode. ART JOURNAL. we can trace Cunningham's lineage back to various works of the Diaghilev period (contrary to what many people have said. not necessarily. any more than one like Frederick Ashton works in a consciously traditional way-they do what they do. put together in an arrangement for the particular occasion and rarely repeated more than two or three times.