GIRATION

Choreographic Entertainment (1934)

Two motionless figures inhabit the dance studio: the Spinning Top and the Ballerina. One, inert and rigid, leans against a piece of furniture like a toy. The allure of a mirror prompts the other to put her customary graces to the test.
Enter the Dancer, aroused by the young woman’s coquettishness and the desire for a new game. He embraces the Ballerina and draws her in to the rhythm of a waltz, slow at first but gradually gathering pace. Soon the frenzy of the whirling separates them. But whilst he continues the dizzying spin alone, she, inexperienced, slows down, loses her bearings and lets herself fall.
The Dancer catches her and pretends to start spinning again, but with every attempt the Ballerina, overcome by dizziness, loses her balance and falls. In vain does she offer the disappointed Dancer a few displays of her traditional skill: that is not what he expects of her. Annoyed, she turns her back on him.
The Dancer then spots the Spinning Top in the corner. How can he keep this strange partner on her feet? He needs a strap to hold her in place: he steals the Ballerina’s waist ribbon and tries to tie it round the Spinning Top. The exasperated Ballerina tries to reclaim her property, and it is she herself, by abruptly snatching the disputed ribbon, who sets her rival spinning.
The delighted Dancer, with sweeping strokes of the ribbon—much as a child might do with a clog—continues to breathe a whirling spirit into his docile captive. He flees with her, heedless of the pleading entreaties of the jilted Ballerina.
Then the Ballerina takes up the challenge. With jealous patience, she tries her hand at the fateful move. At last she spins! Resentment, wounded vanity and the desire to be admired in turn have taught her the secrets of balance.
When the Dancer reappears, still whipping his unresponsive partner, he admires the living Toupire, herself intoxicated by the spinning, even more beautiful than the other. And amidst the excitement of a general whirlwind, a new pleasure has just been born.

Transcription: Pierre Rémondière

Instrumentation: flute, oboe, B♭ clarinet, horn, bassoon

Score and separate parts

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