11 questions · Music
Vaslav Nijinsky was born around 1889 in Kyiv, the son of Polish dancers who toured the Russian Empire with a travelling troupe. In that family everyone danced; his younger sister Bronislava later became an important choreographer herself. At the imperial ballet school in Saint Petersburg the quiet, withdrawn boy soon stood out for something nobody could explain: he leapt, and for a moment he seemed to hang in the air. From 1909 the impresario Sergei Diaghilev made him the star of his Ballets Russes in Paris, and the two also became lovers. Nijinsky danced the spirit of the rose, who vanishes at the end with a single huge leap through a window, and in 1911 the sad fairground puppet Petrushka to music by Igor Stravinsky. Soon he wanted to create work of his own. His first ballet, “L’Après-midi d’un faune” of 1912, was angular, flat like an ancient relief and ended with a gesture that outraged half of Paris. A year later came “The Rite of Spring”. At the premiere the audience whistled and shouted so loudly that Nijinsky stood on a chair in the wings, calling out the counts to the dancers. That same year he married Romola de Pulszky on a voyage to South America, and Diaghilev threw him out of the company. It was the beginning of the end. In 1919 doctors diagnosed schizophrenia, and Nijinsky spent most of the following decades in clinics. He never danced in public again. He died in London in 1950. Three years later his remains were moved to Paris, to Montmartre Cemetery, where a bronze figure still shows him as Petrushka.
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The Rite of Spring
The premiere on 29 May 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris drowned in whistles and shouting.
💡 Did you know? Nijinsky stood on a chair in the wings, calling out the counts to the dancers.
L’Après-midi d’un faune
To music by Claude Debussy, the dancers moved in profile like figures on an ancient frieze.
💡 Did you know? The faun’s final gesture was considered obscene, and the newspaper “Le Figaro” attacked him sharply.
Le Spectre de la rose
In 1911 he danced the rose that appears to a girl in a dream after a ball; his partner was Tamara Karsavina.
💡 Did you know? His costume was covered with silk rose petals that had to be sewn back on after every performance.
Petrushka
The choreography was by Michel Fokine; Nijinsky played the puppet with dangling arms and a fixed stare.
💡 Did you know? Stravinsky first wrote the music as a concert piece for piano and orchestra.
Kyiv
His parents were Polish dancers who toured the Russian Empire with a travelling troupe.
💡 Did you know? His younger sister Bronislava Nijinska became an important choreographer in her own right.
Sergei Diaghilev
Diaghilev brought him to the first Paris season of the Ballets Russes; the two were also lovers.
💡 Did you know? When Nijinsky married in 1913, Diaghilev dismissed him from the company.
Romola de Pulszky
The young Hungarian had followed him onto the ship; the wedding took place in Buenos Aires.
💡 Did you know? She later published his diary and a biography of him.
Schizophrenia
From 1919 he lived mostly in clinics and sanatoriums, including in Switzerland.
💡 Did you know? His last public performance was in 1919 at a hotel in St. Moritz.
London
He died on 8 April 1950 and was at first buried there too.
💡 Did you know? In 1953 his remains were moved to Paris.
Montmartre Cemetery
The dancer Serge Lifar had his remains brought there in 1953.
💡 Did you know? A bronze figure on the grave shows him as Petrushka.
Foto: Herman Mishkin · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Vaslav Nijinsky
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