1921 The Sleeping Princess was the focus at Ballets Russes, and her first assignment. She wrote later that Diaghilev's extravagant revival then "seemed to me an absurdity, a dropping into the past". No doubt Nijinska felt the stress resulting from the cultural-artistic dissonance: "I started my first work full of protest against myself." Over the course of her career, however, Nijinska neither remained a radical champion of rebel experiments, nor did she ever accept as timeless perfection the inherited balletic tradition. While strongly favoring new ideas about the art of movement, eventually she chose to take a middle path: traditional art reconciled with radical innovation, and vice versa. Aurora's Wedding, or Le Mariage de la Belle au bois dormant (1922) After a run of several months, mounting financial pressures had forced the closure of the lavish London production of The Sleeping Princess. In an attempt to recoup his investment Diaghilev then asked Stravinsky and Nijinsky to collaborate in creating from its three acts a shorter version. Together they reworked the dance and music to salvage "a one-act ballet, which he called Aurora's Wedding." It proved very popular and became an enduring commercial success, remaining in the repertory of Ballet Russes companies for decades. Aurora's Wedding premiered in Paris at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in May 1922. Since the costumes and decor for the London production had been impounded by creditors, those used were by Benoit from a 1909 production of another ballet, as well as new by Gontcharova. The principal dancers were Vera Trefilova as Princess Aurora and Pierre Vladimirov as Prince Charming. With Petipa Nijinska shared the choreographic credit. La Fête Merveilleuse [The Marvelous Festival] (1923) Itself largely excerpted from her Aurora's Wedding, the "gala benefit pageant" La Fête was performed by Ballets Russes in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The gala played to the post-war French taste for theatrical revivals from the 18th-century Ancien régime. The well-heeled audience of aristocrats and art patrons came from all over Europe and from America. Staged by Nijinska, Tchaikovsky's music was reorchestrated by Stravinsky, and the costumes were by Juan Gris. Les Contes de Fées [Stories of the fairies] (1925) Les Contes de Fées was another spin-off from The Sleeping Princess, drawn from fairy tales in Aurora's Wedding (originally in Act III of La Belle au bois dormant). It premiered at Monte Carlo in February 1925. That