Maliphant, Clarke and Dior Honour Iconic Dancer

The Charleston Festival in Lewes, Sussex, is a veritable jamboree of cultural events, billing itself as 'a festival of arts and ideas' in the setting of what was once the residence of the famed Bloomsbury Group. Its 35th edition takes place from 16-27 May this year – full programme here – and features one very special event which Culture Whisper is delighted to highlight: a re-imagined dance performance of Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun.

The mythical Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky was the undisputed star of the innovative, glamorous Ballets Russes, which dazzled early 20th century Europe and beyond. As well as dancing, Nijinsky tried his hand at choreography, but his two most famous works, Afternoon of a Faun and The Rite of Spring, experimental choreographies set to the modernist music of Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky, scandalised well-heeled Paris society, before being reassessed and classed as landmark dance pieces, which outlived their detractors.

Now Charleston Festival has commissioned a reimagining of Afternoon of a Faun from the choreographer Russell Maliphant, in collaboration with Royal Ballet principal dancer Reece Clarke and Christian Dior Couture.

Nijinsky had already provided the inspiration for one of Maliphant's most hypnotic works, his 2009 Afterlight. Now the choreographer brings his inimitable style to bear on Afternoon of a Faun, reimagining Nijinsky's brief ballet, where a group of dancing nymphs piqued the interest of a bored forest faun.

Tall, supremely elegant and a great dancer, Reece Clarke offers the perfect focus for the choreographer, who describes him as 'very talented'; and, as both dancer and part-time fashion model, for Kim Jones, Artistic Director of Dior Man a self-confessed ballet fan, who dressed him for this piece.

At approximately nine minutes the new commission is short and features in an evening entitled Music + Word:The Rite of Spring and Afternoon of a Faun. The two musical pieces will be performed on piano by Melvyn Tan and Cherun Liu, and the programme also features readings by the actor David Morissey.