The Magic of Coppelia for Bronislava Nijinska

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Photo Credit Bronislava Nijinska with her two brothers on left Stanislav and on right Vaslav Nijinsky from Bronislava Nijinska Early Memoirs


Bronislava Nijinska, sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, went to the same school as her brother at The Imperial Theatrical School in St. Petersburg, Russia, and she was given her first part in the ballet Coppelia. On stage for the first time where she was mesmerized by the Italian ballerina Carlotta Zambelli dancing in Coppelia. 

Nijinska talked about this experience in her own words when she was a child at eleven.

"The Italian dancer, Carlotta Zambelli, ballerina of the Paris Opera, was making her debut in St. Petersburg in her famous role in Coppelia. As I stood onstage in the first act in a group with the other pupils, I admired the brilliance of her technique. I was fascinated by her spectacular manege  she kept circling the stage at  a fast speed, her body remaining low during the quick turn, deboule en plie, and then thrusting forward, far and low, in an extended jete arabesque. I was seeing this pas  for the first time and it differed so much from the manege sur pointe with "straight backs" in the Cecchetti classes. To this day I can see Zambelli vividly, flashing like an arrow, circling the stage close to the ground in one continuous line en arabesque."- Quote from Bronislava Nijinska 


You feel in her words how moved she was by Zambelli's performance and how she describes it so vividly, and details of her movements on the stage. It might have played some part Nijinska being the daughter of ballet dancers that she noticed the exact ballet technique in french that was being used at such a young age. Still, I think too it was her embodying the very experience of dance, the artistry and feeling it so much with her her being that this memory was still so strong and fresh in her mind.


Photo Credit: Bronislava Nijinska in her white dress at the Krasnoe Selo Theatre, Summer, 1908 from Bronislava Nijinska Early Memoirs


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