body movement tuesday :: le train bleu

Front Stage Curtain






Le Train Bleu
A ballet in one act with choreography by Nijinska, libretto by Cocteau, 
music by Milhaud, curtain by Picasso, set by Henri Laurens, and 
costumes by Chanel.
Premiered 20 June 1924, by the Ballets Russes de Diaghilev at the 
Théâtre de Champs-Elysées, Paris.
A ballet with a sporting theme, it features a group of fashionable and 
rich friends amusing themselves on the Mediterranean coast.  
Cocteau's scenario was influenced by the Olympic Games, silent films, 
and jazz music, while Nijinska's choreography had a strong gymnastic 
element to it.  The Train Bleu itself, an express train between Paris and 
the Côte d'Azur, does not appear in the ballet.
Le Train Bleu takes place amidst the French Riviera circa 1920s, an era 
where populist visions of a modernist utopia gave rise to the cult of the 
body beautiful.  Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska satirised this shift 
towards shallower lifestyles using Chanel’s sporting ensembles as a 
fashion conduit.

kay nielson

Kay Nielsen (pronounced "kigh")(1886-1957)
was a Danish illustrator who was popular in the early 20th century,
the "golden age of illustration" which lasted from when Daniel Vierge 
and other pioneers developed printing technology to the point that 
drawings and paintings could be reproduced with reasonable facility.
He joined the ranks of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac in 
enjoying the success of the gift books of the early 20th century.  
This fad lasted until roughly the end of World War II when economic 
changes made it more difficult to make a profit from elaborately 
illustrated books.