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Collection Bronislava Nijinska Collection

Les Noces (ballet in 4 scenes)

groups of kneeling dancers rehearsing on a rooftop
Photograph of Felia Doubrovska (center) as The Bride in a rehearsal of Les Noces, taken on the rooftop of the Theatre de Monte-Carlo, 1923, no photographer. Music Div., Library of Congress.

Music by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by Natalia Goncharova; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on 13 June 1923, Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique, Paris.

Bronislava Nijinska insisted on simple scenery and dark colors for the costumes to emphasize the seriousness of the theme, which centers on a young peasant girl who leaves her family for the unknown world of marriage. The large cast of forty dancers was complimented by Stravinsky's orchestration that included four pianos, percussion, and a chorus.

Numerous dance companies have reconstructed Les Noces. In 1989, Nijinska's daughter, Irina Nijinska, supervised a reconstruction for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. One review noted that "66 years after its premiere, the ballet remains astonishingly experimental.”