choreography: Richard Alston
The choreography for Movements From Petrushka takes as its central idea that the suffering of the puppet Petrushka is extraordinarily prescient of the tragic mental collapse which overwhelmed the brilliant dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Nijinsky created the role of Petrushka in the original ballet.
DANSE RUSSE: A short and intensely energetic folk-dance to express the high spirits of the Carnival.
CHEZ PETROUCHKA: The Petrushka/Nijinsky figure enters and with his first gesture pushes away/rejects the raucous crowd.
LA SEMAINE GRASSE: The carnival crowd return and Petrushka makes a hasty escape - he wants no part in this revelry. They continue to celebrate, but intermittently Petrushka crashes through, rudely interrupting their enjoyment, although scarcely catching their attention. As Petrushka’s anguish intensifies, so the gulf deepens between this tortured soul and the extrovert company.
This new production of Movements From Petrushka was made possible by the generosity of the late Sir John Drummond CBE, an impassioned and widely informed champion for all the arts, as well as an expert on the Russian impresario, Serge Diaghilev. Diaghilev founded his own company, Les Ballets Russes exactly one hundred years ago this May and it was Diaghilevn who two years later commissioned the original ballet Petrushka.
This work was created for the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts and first performed on 11 June 1994. First performed by Richard Alston Dance Company at Warwick Arts Centre on 17 November 1994.
