For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Jane Turnis
(719) 659-5821
JTurnis@ColoradoCollege.edu
Leslie Weddell
(719) 389-6038
Leslie.Weddell@ColoradoCollege.edu
RECONSTRUCTION OF VASLAV NIJINSKY’S FAMOUS
‘AFTERNOON OF A FAUN’ TO BRING HISTORY TO LIFE
Daughter, granddaughter of celebrated dancer will see performance as he intended it
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Feb. 28, 2006 – An authentic reconstruction of Vaslav Nijinsky’s famous dance “The Afternoon of a Faun” will bridge 94 years and three generations when it is performed at Colorado 
College March 9-11, with Nijinsky’s daughter and granddaughter in the audience.
In an historic event that will allow the direct descendants of a world-renowned dancer to experience one of his most famous works just as he intended it, the Colorado College drama/dance department will present the reconstruction of the 1912 Nijinsky choreography. The authentic version from Nijinsky’s own dance notation score has been coached by authority Ann Hutchinson Guest. The piece will be performed by CC dance students and guest artist Andy Wong of Hong Kong.
The reconstruction will be performed at 8 p.m. on March 9, 10 and 11 in Armstrong Hall, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., on the Colorado College campus. A free reception with the Nijinskys will follow the March 9 performance. The events are part of the college’s annual Faculty Dance Concert titled “Memories of Movement: Past and Present.” Tickets are $5, available at the Worner Campus Center Information Desk, 902 N. Cascade Ave., at Colorado College, (719) 389-6607.
Making the dance events even more notable, Nijinsky's daughter, Tamara Nijinsky, and granddaughter, Kinga Nijinsky Gaspers, will attend. They will offer talks at 2:45 p.m. on Friday, March 10 in the WES Room, lower level of the Worner Campus Center, 902 N. Cascade Ave. Tamara Nijinsky will present "Nijinsky, the God of Dance - My Father." Her daughter, Kinga Nijinsky Gaspers, will present "The Genius of Nijinsky, A Granddaughter's Perspective." The lectures are open to the public.
Colorado College Professor of Dance Yunyu Wang is using Labanotation, a system originated by European dancer and dance theorist Rudolf Laban, for this production of Nijinsky’s masterpiece.
Ann Hutchinson Guest, a world authority on dance notation, is advising and consulting with Wang on the reconstruction, and also will certify its authenticity. Guest, who is director of the Language of Dance Center in London, the leading world center for revival of historic dance pieces, discovered Nijinsky's handwritten choreography notes and translated them into Labanotation. She consults with renowned dance companies throughout the world, assuring the historical accuracy of dances of the past.
Vaslav Nijinsky, a Polish-born Russian dancer considered to be one of the greatest dancers of all time, premiered this dance, “L’Apres-midi d’un Faune,” with the Ballets Russes on May 19, 1912 in Paris. Nijinsky performed the lead, and shared the stage with dancer Lydia Nelidova.
Tamara Nijinsky and Kinga Nijinsky Gaspers have worked extensively promoting the memory of Vaslav Nijinsky and his wife, Romola. They founded the Vaslav & Romola Nijinsky Foundation in 1991, and travel worldwide for the foundation’s work. Gaspers, now a music teacher, also served as artistic adviser for the Paul Cox film “Nijinsky” produced by Illumination Films. Nijinsky, Gaspers and Wang became friends through the dance reconstruction project.
Wang produced Asia’s first restaging of “The Afternoon of a Faun” in December in Taiwan while teaching as a visiting professor at Taipei National University of the Arts.
She was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs to lead a software development project using Laban Movement Analysis and Labanotation . With the grant, Wang will lead a group of 20 computer programmers, 10 artists, 10 dance students and five administrators in a three-year project to decode human movement and systemize it into a computer software program that can be used by animators, rehabilitation and fitness therapists, choreographers, and other performing arts workers to analyze and consider all possible human movements. The project team will present its discoveries from the software development project at a conference for performing arts, animation and rehabilitation therapy workers at Colorado College in 2007.
Wang has been certified in Laban Movement Analysis since 1996. She applies the theory in her teaching at Colorado College in classes such as Beginning Choreography Form and Movement Analysis. She is also certified in Labanotation as a teacher and reconstructor.
For more information, directions or disability accommodation for the performances, members of the public should call (719) 389-6607.
About Colorado College
Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts and sciences college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on the innovative Block Plan, in which its 1,960 students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week blocks. For more information, visit www.ColoradoCollege.edu <http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu>.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos of Wang’s recent Taiwan production of “Afternoon of a Faun” and of Wang working on the piece with Colorado College dance students are available upon request.