Piece-Info

What better way to celebrate the 200th birthday of the Semperoper Ballett than with a tribute to the genius of Vaslav Nijinsky? His name and that of the Ballets Russes are closely associated with the history of dance in Dresden.

As biographer Richard Buckle once put it: „Nijinsky’s life can be simply summarized: ten years of growing; ten years of learning; ten years of dancing; thirty years in eclipse.” The work and life of this unparalleled performer has proved an inexhaustible theme for John Neumeier since his youth. The ballet he created in 2000 about the luminous dancer deals with the biography of a soul, interwoven with memories and associations, feelings and states. Neumeier’s choreographic explorations aim to create something living out of the past, with newly defined power relations and fields of tension that capture Nijinsky’s on-stage magic as well as the dangers he encountered outside the theatre.