{"id":354,"date":"2020-07-14T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robiky.com\/?p=354"},"modified":"2023-10-17T00:33:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T00:33:01","slug":"its-time-to-overhaul-the-blackface-or-blueface-puppet-in-petrouchka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/robiky.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/14\/its-time-to-overhaul-the-blackface-or-blueface-puppet-in-petrouchka\/","title":{"rendered":"It's Time to Overhaul the Blackface (or Blueface) Puppet in Petrouchka"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tWhen Michel Fokine’s ballet Petrouchka<\/em> premiered in 1911, none of the (largely white) audience members in Paris objected to the big, dumb puppet being portrayed as a Moor in blackface. Stravinsky’s music was stirring, Fokine’s choreography was ground-breaking, and Alexandre <\/strong>Benois’ sets and costumes were transporting. Nijinsky’s portrayal of Petrouchka, the puppet with a human soul, tugged at the heart.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThis was during the third season of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and the ballet was a hit. Bronislava Nijinska, sister of Nijinsky, described the impact in her book Bronislava Nijinska, Early Memoirs<\/em>:\n<\/p>\n
\n\t“Petrouchka,<\/em> \n\t Stravinsky’s musical masterpiece, took Paris by storm. Thunderous applause. Triumph for Stravinsky, for Benois, for Fokine. Triumph for Nijinsky, for Karsavina, and for the ballet ensemble. Triumph of course for Sergei Pavlovitch Diaghilev. An unforgettable performance. The magic, the creative imagination, the artistry. . . . The enraptured public poured behind the wings, into the dressing rooms of the artists, onto the stage.”\n<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tNo mention of the Moor puppet being offensive. Nor was there any hint of mainstream controversy 31 years later when Petrouchka<\/em> became the standout ballet of the 1942 season of Ballet Theatre (later ABT), giving a young Jerome Robbins the part of Petrouchka, a deeply meaningful role for him. Nor in 1970 when the Joffrey Ballet took it on. For decades, Petrouchka<\/em> was a beloved addition to the ballet canon.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\tBut times change and audiences change. White people are now more aware of how odious the practice of blackface was. Blackface minstrelsy was developed specifically to ridicule Black people for the entertainment of white people. We look back at those traditions as cruel and racist. In Petrouchka,<\/em> the Moor is not only mean and aggressive, but prodigiously stupid. He worships a coconut when he can’t crack it open with his sword.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n