Afternoon of a Faun (Robbins)

Background and development#

Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune was inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem L’après-midi d’un faune, about a faun’s encounter with nymphs. The first ballet set to the score was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and premiered in 1912. This ballet was scandalous due to its overtly sexual nature. In 1948, Robbins joined the New York City Ballet soon after it was founded, as both a dancer and choreographer. For New York City Ballet’s 1953 season, Robbins decided to choreograph to the Debussy score. He was inspired by watching Edward Villella, then a seventeen-year-old student at the School of American Ballet, Robbins also considered Johnson, who attended the School of American Ballet, and had previously danced in Robbins’ Ballade as a guest artist. Jowitt also noted that perhaps Robbins was just experimenting with Johnson. Robbins ultimately chose the Dominican-born Francisco Moncion, for his “animal” quality. Robbins was unsure whether the mirror of the dance studio should be straight front, where the audience would be at, or at the side, right-angled to the audience. He made both versions, and chose to use the straight front version. He explained, “When the dancers’ attention is to the side, it’s easier for the audience to watch - they are sort of looking in - but when it’s straight front, I think something more arresting happens.” Le Clercq recalled that Robbins completed the ballet quicker than his other works she was familiar with. She also said that she was given very few acting notes from Robbins. The costumes were designed by Irene Sharaff, with the woman in a practice tunic and the man in tights and bare-chested. The set and lighting was by Jean Rosenthal. Robbins showed Rosenthal a drawing of dancers in a studio by Paul Cadmus. She then conceived the idea of using white silk as the wall. Instead of the French title used in both the poem and the score, Robbins gave the ballet a stripped-down English title, Afternoon of a Faun.

Choreography and interpretation#

The ballet is set on a summer day, in a dance studio. Le Clercq noted that many of her natural gestures were incorporated to the choreography. Author Nancy Reynolds noted that different ballerinas interpret the role differently, some “do it very literally, very realistically” and some “are totally, eerily removed.” Le Clercq stated that her interpretation “was removed.” Robbins said of the woman, “I always thought the girl had just washed her hair and just had on new toe shoes and a new clean practice dress and came into the studio to preen and practice. Moncion noted that Le Clercq’s version of the character “was never innocent”, while some later interpretations are. While the ballet had also been interpreted as a commentary on dancers’ narcissism, Robbins was resistant with this idea as “The mirror is the dancers’ work tool.” Despite the various interpretations, the performance by Le Clercq and Moncion is generally deemed closest to Robbins’ ideas.

Performances#

Afternoon of a Faun premiered on May 14, 1953, at the City Center of Music and Drama. Since the 1970s, Afternoon of a Faun has been performed by other ballet companies. The Royal Ballet first performed the ballet in 1971, featuring Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. The Norwegian National Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and San Francisco Ballet had their respective company premieres of the ballet in 1991, 2000 and 2006 respectively. Robbins also allowed Valery Panov to perform the ballet without paying royalty fees.

Videography#

The only footage of Le Clercq and Moncion in Afternoon of a Faun is an amateur silent black-and-white film that was shot from the side. In 2016, Afternoon of a Faun was included on a Royal Ballet DVD, danced by Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov. In 2020, during the New York City Ballet’s digital spring season, which replaced the canceled repertory season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company released an archival video of Sterling Hyltin and Joseph Gordon performing the ballet in 2018.

External links#

• Afternoon of A Faun on the New York City Ballet website