Costume design for Les Noces (The Wedding)

Les Noces is viewed by many to be the first—and perhaps only—overtly feminist work in the classical ballet canon. Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska collaborated successfully with several female visual artists during her career and found a particularly fruitful partnership with Russian avant-garde painter Natalia Goncharova. The impresario of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, originally directed Goncharova to create a vibrant series of peasant costumes and sets similar to his earlier commissions from her. But Nijinska dismissed the initial renderings and began a dialogue with Goncharova that shifted the ballet from rural Russian pastiche to a critique of patriarchy, similarly reflected in the ballet’s choreography. The costumes were ultimately realized in brown; these designs were rendered mid-collaboration and offer an insight into the two women’s merging visions.