Le Sacre du Printemps (ballet in 2 acts)

Music by Igor Stravinsky; libretto by Igor Stravinsky and Nikolai Roerich; sets and costumes by Nikolai Roerich; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; premiere on 29 May 1913, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris. [The ballet was restaged with choreography by Léonide Massine in 1920.]

In her diary, Bronislava Nijinska relates the events surrounding the appointment of Marie Rambert as an assistant to Nijinsky for Le Sacreem>. After visiting the studio of Jacques-Dalcroze, Diaghilev claimed that “he was concerned that our artists would not be able to master the difficult rhythms…and that he had invited Dalcroze's best pupil…to teach us eurhythmics. I was burning with indignation and protested loudly, "I cannot see what a Dalcroze pupil can teach our artists. We are already familiar with Stravinsky's music, having danced in two ballets, Petrouchka and The Firebird, where we had no trouble with the rhythms of his complicated scores.” In 1913, Nijinsky's assistant, Marie Rambert (1888-1982), asked Igor Stravinsky for a copy of the piano score so that she might write down Nijinsky's choreography for Le Sacre du Printemps.