Vaslav Nijinsky (1888-1950). Russian Dancer and choreographer

Vaslav Nijinsky was a legendary performer in the history of dance. Born in Kiev, both his parents were dancers, as was his sister, Bronislava. He was a brilliant graduate from the Imperial Ballet School, St Petersburg in 1907, studying under Nicholas Legat and Enrico Cecchetti. His powerful musculature and extraordinary elevation, as well as his powers of interpretation, were unique. He could transform himself completely in each of his roles.

In 1908 Serge Diaghilev became his mentor and lover, and in 1909, from the opening of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes season, Nijinsky took Paris by storm. He left Russia for good in 1911 following his dismissal from the Imperial Theatre over a scandal to do with his revealing costume for the role of Albrecht in Giselle.

Many of Nijinsky’s most famous roles were created for him by Mikhail Fokine and his partner was nearly always Tamara Karsavina (the couple danced together in Le Pavillon d’Armide, Cléopâtre, Les Sylphides, Schéhérazade, Le Spectre de la rose, Le Carnaval, Petrushka, Le Dieu bleu and Daphnis and Chloë). Diaghilev believed in him as a choreographer and Nijinsky created L’Après-midi d’un Faune, The Rite of Spring and Jeux for the Ballets Russes. These works were all innovative, although misunderstood. He built on the traditions of classical dance and laid foundations for dance as a significant branch of modern art.

Nijinsky married Romola de Pulsky on tour in South America in 1913 and was subsequently dismissed by Diaghilev from the Ballets Russes. He briefly formed his own company in 1914, but re-joined the Ballets Russes in 1916 during a tour in of the United States of America. He produced his ballet Til Eulenspeigel, but his behaviour became increasingly erratic and unpredictable. Nijinsky returned to Europe and then danced again in South America, where he gave his last performance in Buenos Ares in 1917.

In 1919, after one last terrifying recital, he was pronounced insane and spent most of the next 20 years in a sanatorium in Switzerland. After being interned in Budapest during World War Two, escaping to Vienna in 1945 and moving to England in 1947, he died in London in 1950. He was reburied in Paris in 1953.