Nijinsky's Faune

. . . towards the end of April 1912, Nijinsky had finished his Faune.  The preparation had taken ninety rehearsals -- which may seem a lot for a ten-minute ballet.  Yet the number of rehearsals was not excessive if one takes into account the ballet's completely new technique of presentation, and if one also remembers the marvelous level of execution finally achieved by the artists.

It was the first time that a ballet had been mounted and rehearsed in the same way that a musical score is performed by an orchestra.  In this new technique Nijinsky truly demonstrated his choreographic genius: he conducted his ballet, seeing each choreographic detail in the same way that the conductor of an orchestra hears each note in a musical score.

Up to then the ballet artist had been free to project his own individuality as he felt; he was even expected to embellish it according to his own taste, possibly neglecting the exactness of the choreographic execution.  The artists simply had to comply with the following rules; keep a line straight or a circle round; preserve the groupings; execute the basic pas.

Nijinsky was the first to demand that his whole choreographic material should be executed not only exactly as he saw it but also according to his artistic interpretation.  Never was a ballet performed with such musical and choreographic exactness as L'Après-Midi d'un Faune.  Each position of the dance, each position of the body down to the gesture of each finger, was mounted according to a strict choreographic plan.

Bonislava Nijinska: Early Memoirs.  1981.  Page 427.