Revising the Riot: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

I am reading Igor Stravinsky’s autobiography. It is a sparse and unadorned account of his life. Of great interest so far is his recollection of the famed premier of The Rite of Spring, the ballet that caused a well-known riot. In his autobiography he claims that it was not the music that created the ruckus but a very specific element in the choreography. Here is a quote from page 36 of An Autobiography by Igor Stravinsky:

The scandal which it produced is a matter of history, but that scandal was in nowise due to the so-called novelty of the performance, but to a gesture, too audacious and too intimate, which Nijinsky made, doubtless thinking that anything was permissable with an erotic subject and perhaps wishing thereby to enhance the effect of the production.

This realization comes as a great shock to me. According to both popular legend and the teachings of music school it was the brutality of the music and the general ritualistic nature of the choreography that created the uprising. Here Stravinsky suggests that it was a single offensive gesture or movement.