Ballet West to Present at the Guggenheim Museum

Ballet West will be a part of The Guggenheim Museum’s renowned and exclusive lecture series Works & Process in New York on March 26, 2023.

The program will focus on Ballet West’s 100^th anniversary revival of Polish choreographer Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces (French for The Wedding). This Diaghilev-era masterpiece is rarely performed because of its massive size and scope. Set to a breathtaking and complex score by Igor Stravinsky for a 40-member chorus, four soloists, four grand pianos, and percussion, the ballet for 40 dancers unfolds in 4 tableaux and depicts a Slavic peasant wedding. This work was a collaboration between a woman choreographer and a woman designer, the expressionist artist Natalia Goncharova, making it groundbreaking and unique when it was created in 1923.

Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute and Nijinksa scholar Lynn Garafola will participate in a discussion of the work, moderated by Linda Murray, Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and six Ballet West artists will perform excerpts from the ballet highlighting the stylistic details that keep it as Avant-garde and spellbinding as when it first premiered.

“Bronislava Nijinska is perhaps one of the most instrumental and powerful figures in the development of classical ballet throughout early 20^th century,” said Sklute. “She is an often-overlooked link between 19^th Century classics and how we look at ballet now in the 21^st Century.” Sklute adds, “Performing Nijinska’s monumental Les Noces is a challenge for any company, with all its intricate architectural patterns and complex musicality.  It demands a level of focus and sophistication from every dancer on the stage. Our Ballet West artists are such a team that they can conquer this work. The whole ballet is mesmerizing and I am honored to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of its creation. 

This will be Ballet West’s second return to The Guggenheim Museum. In 2019, the company was invited to do a lecture demonstration around the reconstruction of Balanchine’s 1925 Le Chant du Rossignol (the Song of the Nightingale) with sets and costumes by artist Henri Matisse. The topic at that time was addressing racial appropriation in the performing arts and how to approach and update antiquated racist representation with a 21^st century outlook and sensibility.

Following the trip to New York, Ballet West will present Les Noces  back in Utah from April 14 – 22 at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets can be purchased at balletwest.org.

Tickets for the Guggenheim Museum performance on March 26 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. can be purchased at https://www.guggenheim.org/event/works-process-ballet-west-les-noces-by-bronislava-nijinska.