Ballets 86

Stravinsky’s Le Chant du rossignol, premiered in 1920, is not merely a ballet; it’s a tapestry woven with music, dance, and profound symbolism. The narrative itself, a captivating retelling of a Chinese folktale, provides fertile ground for choreographic interpretation. In the original story, an Emperor’s obsession with a Nightingale leads to the Nightingale's departure. Only upon her absence, and the arrival of a mechanical Nightingale crafted by a European artisan, does the Emperor realise his true love for the real bird.

The piece is, in many ways, a quintessential example of Stravinsky’s “neoclassical” style – a deliberate break from his earlier, bombastic Russian Nationalist compositions, like The Rite of Spring. There’s a clear influence from French classical music and opera, particularly from Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc, giving the music a sense of restraint, even elegance, and highlighting an exquisite detail that contrasts vividly with the stark, driving force of the earlier works.

Yet, within the “neoclassical” structure, Stravinsky reveals the underlying themes of the ballet in an extraordinarily visceral and deeply emotional way, making the audience truly understand the emperor's vulnerability, his love, his sadness and despair and finally, his yearning to reconnect with the lost Nightingale. The stark beauty of Stravinsky’s musical language - the shifting harmonies, the soaring melodic lines, the stark dissonance, the hauntingly melancholic sequences, all weave a captivatingly emotive tapestry.

However, Le Chant du rossignol isn't just about the music, although the music is undeniably its cornerstone. It is the music, that dictates the direction for choreographic interpretation and creates the evocative scenery for dancers to move within, creating visual interpretation and dramatic expression. This duality between musical direction and expressive dance, makes Le Chant du rossignol, a perfect piece for a skilled ballerina.

Stravinsky conceived the ballet as two parts. In the first, the vibrant colours of the Chinese court and its decadent yet sensitive culture, become alive through dance and choreography. This vibrant life explodes in front of us, showcasing the exquisite technique, dramatic presence and emotional range required of the performers.

• The Emperor's Court is, as the title suggests, the stage for exquisite precision, yet vibrant expression. This is the section that gives the ballerinas a platform to showcase their impeccable technique, grace and artistic understanding of the nuanced dance, so reminiscent of classic ballets, and perfectly suited to a “neoclassical” score. Here, in the beauty of a traditional classical dance vocabulary, the dancers communicate through exquisitely refined and expressive movements the cultural norms, and the refined elegance, yet the delicate power, of the Chinese Court.
• However, with the Nightingale’s departure, we shift to the stark starkness of reality, of despair, and this demands a powerful, yet vulnerable style of movement from the performers, pushing them away from the elegant vocabulary, towards a more dramatic and forceful language.
• The introduction of the “Mechanical Nightingale,” introduces a new style, starkly contrasting with the elegant precision of the previous court scene. The robotic nature of the machine, is mirrored through movement in this section and its angular, disjointed and controlled manner of motion brings an unsettling but very human drama into focus, as we question what our human emotions are, in this machine’s robotic form.

A crucial element in Le Chant du rossignol lies in the contrast between the Emperor's pursuit of beauty, through mechanical means, and the pure, raw power of the true Nightingale’s voice. Through this contrast, Stravinsky creates a parallel between art, artifice and nature. This conflict can be fully explored through a highly skilled dancer, able to bring to life, this inherent tension between beauty and true expression. The dancers embody the conflicting narratives within the ballet. The contrast in style becomes an incredibly evocative tool for portraying not just different characters and moods, but also a commentary on human behaviour itself.

These contrast within the story and within the musical score and dance choreography make Le Chant du Rossignol, a fascinating work that challenges both performer and audience alike. There are some aspects of the piece that haven’t dated particularly well, such as the Orientalist undertones, the inherent exoticization of Chinese culture and the emphasis on an idealised image of the Orient, which reflects the dominant narrative at the time of composition.

While we must be aware of this cultural sensitivity, when interpreting Le Chant du Rossignol, in the broader scope, it stands as a key piece of 20th-century ballet. It captures the zeitgeist of its era - the world’s interest in the East and, for audiences at the time, an exciting new way of exploring an exoticized East. This “exotic” sensibility, however, makes it more difficult for a dancer of today to portray the narrative without the sensitivity of an Orientalist representation.

Yet, within that cultural sensitivity, there’s a captivating narrative, where Stravinsky pushes the boundaries of classical form, with a focus on capturing emotion in stark and unexpected ways. He also creates a profound visual and auditory narrative for the dance choreography, where a talented ballerina must delve deep, beyond the technical intricacies of classic dance, and explore a very intimate and emotionally driven form of expression.

From the moment the curtain rises, Le Chant du rossignol grabs our attention. The dance unfolds with breathtaking beauty and raw emotion, highlighting the exquisite skills of dancers that can not only interpret complex choreography, but create a compelling narrative. The contrasting styles – the starkness and delicacy, the mechanical precision of artifice, against the visceral truth of nature, all interweaving in the ballet – all provide the opportunity to create an engaging performance. However, to fully express the complexity of the story, an incredible amount of nuance, control and emotive expression are required.

This complexity means that there are two perspectives with which the dancers, the musicians and the choreographer must contend: The contemporary world and a world of more sensitive understanding of culture, and the cultural sensitivities, inherent in the original script from which the ballet was conceived. The challenge for the modern day performance is in reconciling this. While the ballet provides opportunities for remarkable dance sequences, for the performer there are constant tensions - tensions with interpretation, tensions between a dance language which relies on a specific period for authenticity, and contemporary values that would dictate against a sensitive portrayal of “Orientalism.”

For the choreographer of a production of Le Chant du rossignol, the piece poses exciting challenges – it demands that they draw out the inherent beauty and technicality within the dance choreography. The choreographic process is essentially one of translation: A musical score and an underlying narrative that both requires expression.

• Exploring Classical Choreography: As the dancers in the Imperial court, in their meticulously crafted, flowing gowns, there’s a beauty, a technical prowess required that is inherent in classical choreography. The dancer in this role, must display the classical ideal – but, without resorting to a simple interpretation that simply executes movement in a highly proficient and technical way. They have to infuse these classical moves, with character, emotion, personality.
• Expanding The Ballet Vocabulary: Yet, as the story shifts, so must the dancers. We shift from a scene of elegance and precision to something much more dramatic and more evocative. As the mechanical Nightingale, dancers must adopt an entirely different vocabulary of motion. This stark contrast is critical for understanding the full meaning of the narrative. The contrasts are deliberate and must be explored to create an impact.

Le Chant du Rossignol offers exciting choreographic possibilities, providing dancers, who embrace a classical language and a technical dance, an incredible opportunity to explore nuance, contrast, and emotion, and a way to understand both the narrative and the music in more meaningful and artistic ways. However, with those possibilities come the immense task of dealing with both the context of the piece’s composition and contemporary sensitivities.

When discussing the Le Chant du Rossignol dancers, it is important to emphasize that every dancer who interprets the work is given an opportunity to portray complex characters, intricate narrative details and the symbolic imagery, through their dance movements.

• The Imperial Court Dancers must be masters of refined beauty. In their classical dance, they need to imbue their movements with an aristocratic grace and subtle emotions, highlighting the cultural refinement and power of the Chinese court. This can only be achieved by truly understanding the nuance of the classical form, the inherent language and symbolism. Their performance must reflect the balance and discipline of a courtly lifestyle, with elegance and grace. This, requires understanding not only the traditional classical technique, but also the subtleties of an era and the beauty of its culture and refinement, within that.
• As the “Nightingale”, the dancer must show strength, fragility, freedom and vulnerability all within the delicate lines and flowing beauty of the movement.
• However, the true strength of the dancer’s performance rests in how they interpret and convey the story’s message – the true power of the Nightingale, a living breathing creature versus a mechanically driven, perfect but emotionless machine.
• The role of the “Emperor” – is challenging in its subtlety. This role demands an interpretation, where a performer must convey inner conflict and turmoil through both movements and facial expression. His transition from passion, to disappointment and disillusionment with the Mechanical Nightingale must be shown in the nuanced expressions and technical language of the performer’s movements, making the narrative compelling.

Despite its beauty and captivating narrative, Le Chant du Rossignol does require the dancer and choreographer, in their interpretation, to make difficult choices to balance the needs of the piece and the artistic freedom required for an impactful performance. These are necessary, when considering how we choose to address sensitive narratives, through an artistic lens, and to deal with both its strengths and weaknesses. This is, perhaps the real essence of performing a piece that has dated a little.

There are moments that rely on an interpretation of Chinese culture, that, as an audience in 2023, we must be aware of. However, it’s crucial to approach the work with the knowledge that there is an underlying artistic purpose within this framework.

The task is, to understand the core message within the “exoticized” framework – how Stravinsky through his “neoclassical” interpretation was using this framework as a canvas to address the tension between art, artifice and the pure nature of authentic emotion. Le Chant du rossignol remains a powerful work; its music is stunning. The visual nature of the piece and its possibilities for choreography are plentiful. The opportunities to bring out the raw emotions and contrasting narratives offer exciting opportunities to dancers.

Today, we might bring the performance of the ballet into the 21st Century, not only in our awareness of cultural sensitivity but also in finding fresh perspectives to convey a timeless story in an artistic way that embraces current understanding, but allows the dancer to fully embody the inherent potential within the work itself.

In conclusion, Le Chant du rossignol, with its evocative score, the intricate dance possibilities, and the captivating story allows dancers the opportunity to showcase their technique and explore the complex themes of art, love and deception through movement.