Bronislava Nijinska’s “Les Noces” - second scene: Nijinska’s 1966 staging for the Royal Ballet

3; 4; 5. These three photographs - by Houston Rogers and Anthony Crickmay - show the second scene of Bronislava Nijinska’s “Les Noces” (1923), in which the Bridegroom is among his male companions and his parents as he prepares for marriage. In this 1966 first Royal Ballet staging, the Bridegroom is the beautiful Robert Mead, a classical stylist who created roles in Frederick Ashton’s “Monotones” (1965) and “Enigma Variations” (1968).

I love all three images here. In the first, as the Bridegroom in pathos rests his head on his mother’s shoulder, his friends form a crouching collective image. (George Balanchine, whose choreography abounds in Nijinska-isms, was evidently inspired by this when he made the dances for the nine goons in “The Prodigal Son” (1929).

In the second, all the men kneel while hailing or blessing the Bridegroom. The semicircular collective gesture creates a dome. The Bridegroom alone faces out front, as if addressing his destiny as he placed his right hand on his heart in dedication.

The third is the most remarkable. The Bridegroom now stands, hand on heart the same way, while his comrades hurtle around him like bison. Those men’s jumps, bending at the waist and at knees, are far less like ballet than like post-1940 modern dance. The Bridegroom’s stillness ought to seem dignified; but instead it seems helpless, like a sober man amid a riotous stag night. They’re violent; he’s immobile - opposite poles.

Wednesday 3 February

3. Second scene of “Les Noces”. Robert Mead as the Bridegroom in the 1966 Royal Ballet production, with Romayne Grigorova as the Bridegroom’s Mother. Photo: Houston Rogers.

4. Robert Mead as the Bridegroom, in the second scene of “Les Noces”, Royal Ballet 1966 production. Photo: Anthony Crickmay.

5. Robert Mead as the Bridegroom in the Royal Ballet 1966 production of Bronislava Nijinska’s “Les Noces”. Photo: Reg Wilson.