A Feminist Study of Les Noces, a Work by Bronislava Nijinska

Abstract

The field of ballet choreography has been dominated by men, but at the beginning of the 20th century, Bronislava Nijinska was a choreographer at Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, creating pieces of great importance for the subsequent development of ballet due to their creative approaches. However, only two of her more than seventy works have survived, and her work has hardly been studied in the literature on ballet in the 20th century. This research aims to analyze, from a feminist perspective, the conditions of development of the field of ballet and its studies, which prevented the preservation of Nijinska's works. To understand the mismatch between the importance of Nijinska's artwork and the scarce studies that exist on her work, Nijinska's main contributions are examined, and one of her most emblematic choreographies is analyzed. In addition, a review of the development of studies on Nijinska's work is carried out, as well as the relationships that other choreographers have had with Nijinska's work. This study allows us to understand how the structural conditions of the ballet field hinder the development and validation of women's choreographic work.