Symmetry and its Disruption in Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces (1923)

Abstract

This article presents a new perspective for analysing the dance piece Les Noces (1923), created by Bronisláva Nižínskaja. This new perspective is based on analysis of the dance in regard to form and content, in terms of symmetry and its disruption. The analysis of Les Noces in terms of symmetry and its disruption demonstrates how the relationship between symmetry and asymmetry therein plays two central roles: The first is a central formal and compositional means, which creates tension, connects between the events, and serves as the inner logic for how the dance evolves. The second is related to form, which carries symbolic content. Both roles are intertwined, just as symmetry and its disruption are intertwined in the dance. The existence of each of them relies on the existence of the other. Both roles are combined into one whole, which is expressed in the dance’s unity of form and meaning.