Background
Vaslav Nijinsky was born on 12 March 1889 at Kiev in Ukraine, as the second son of celebrated Polish dancers Thomas Laurentiyevich Nijinsky and Eleonora Bereda. He had a brother Stanislav Fomitch and sister Bronislava Fominitchna.
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky, 1910's
Nijinsky, Vaslav no. 2016 From New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Nijinsky in Siamese Dance
Nijinsky and Pavlova in "Le Pavillon d'Armide"
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky
Tombstone of Vaslav Nijinsky in Montmartre Cemetery in Paris, showing year of birth as 1889. The statue, donated by dancer Serge Lifar, shows Nijinsky in character as the puppet Petrushka.
The Emilia Markus villa in Budapest; Vaslav Nijinsky lived here with his wife Romola Pulszky and children for a period. After 1920 he was mostly confined to asylums.
Nijinsky and daughter Kyra, 1916.
(With an Introduction by Joan Acocella The astonishing d...)
With an Introduction by Joan Acocella The astonishing diaries of the great dancer, at last available in their complete form. In December 1917, Vaslav Nijinsky, the most famous male dancer in the Western world, moved into a Swiss villa with his wife and three-year-old daughter and began to go mad. This diary, which he kept in four notebooks over six weeks, is the only sustained, on-the-spot written account we have by a major artist of the experience of entering psychosis. A prodigy from his youth in Russia, Nijinsky came to international fame as a principal dancer in Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. After a falling-out between the two great men--who had lived openly as lovers for some time--Nijinsky struggled to build a career on his own. When psychosis struck, he began to imagine himself as married to God, indeed as God, signing his entries "God Nijinsky." Although he lived another thirty years, he never regained his sanity. Already a classic in its earlier, bowdlerized edition, the diary now appears uncut for the first time in English, together with its previously unavailable fourth notebook. It is Nijinsky's confession and his prophecy. At the same time, it reads like a novel, portraying the terror in the Nijinsky household as the dancer plunged into madness. In her Introduction, the noted dance writer Joan Acocella explains the context of the diary and its significance in the history of modernism.
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Vaslav Nijinsky was born on 12 March 1889 at Kiev in Ukraine, as the second son of celebrated Polish dancers Thomas Laurentiyevich Nijinsky and Eleonora Bereda. He had a brother Stanislav Fomitch and sister Bronislava Fominitchna.
In 1900, he joined the Imperial Ballet School and learnt ballet under celebrated ballet dancers Sergei Legat, Nicholas Legat and Enrico Cecchetti. He spent much of his school life away from classrooms as he was chosen to play roles in ballet performances with several productions. This impacted his academic grades negatively. He graduated in 1907 and was subsequently offered a career offer with Imperial Ballet Company in a mid-level rank of coryphée unlike the corps de ballet.
Vaslav Nijinsky began his career as coryphée with the Mariinsky theatre in 1907. Though his roles in ballet performances were predominantly minor, he focused on showcasing his skill and technical abilities. In the years that followed, he was given the opportunity to perform solo roles as well.
In 1908, he met Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian art critic and producer of opera, ballet and art exhibitions. This was a turning point in his life. He gradually became good friends with Sergei Diaghilev and his work and career was later managed by Sergei Diaghilev to a large extent.
The following year Sergei Diaghilev organized a tour of Paris with his ballet and dance companies and painters. Vaslav Nijinsky was assigned one of the lead roles and the tour ended as a huge success. His partnership with dancer Tamara Karsavina was well acclaimed.
He performed several acts, which went on to be regarded as his signature performances, such as "Cleopatra", "The Feast" and “Le Pavillon d'Armide”. Between 1907 and 1911, he was also a guest performer at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
In 1910, a fellow ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska opted for him to perform in the revival of Marius Petipa's "Le Talisman". His role as Wind God Vayou earned him much appreciation and popularity.
Upon his return to Mariinsky Theatre, he was dismissed, as he made a stage appearance during his performance in "Giselle" without following the company dress code. However, there were multiple ballet projects arranged by Sergei Diaghilev that were centered on Vaslav Nijinsky.
He portrayed the lead roles of ballet performances in Fokine’s "Le Spectre de la Rose" and Igor Stravinsky's "Petrouchka". His impression of a puppet in the latter earned him much appreciation.
Other than performing ballet, he began choreographing ballet acts that transcended the boundaries of traditional ballet. He attempted to bring in modern elements that were regarded as controversial.
A few of the acts he worked on are "L'après-midi d'un faune" (1912), "Jeux" (1913), "Le Sacre du Printemps" (1913) and "Till Eulenspiegel" (1916). The acts were premiered at the Théâtre de Champs-Elysées in Paris and were met with a huge uproar.
In 1913, upon the instructions of Sergei Diaghilev, he went on a tour of South America with the Ballets Russes (an itinerant ballet company based in Paris) troupe. During the journey he met Hungarian countess Romola Pulszky and they became involved in a romantic relationship.
Upon his return to Europe, Vaslav Nijinsky was dismissed from the company by an enraged Sergei Diaghilev. He later attempted to form his own ballet group, but lack of proper administration led to its failure.
In 1914, with the onset of the World War I he was confined to house arrest in Budapest as he was termed as Enemy Russian Citizen. Sergei Diaghilev, who was facing issues with his ballet company post the dismissal of his crowd-pulling artist tried to procure the release of Vaslav Nijinsky and succeeded in 1916.
Vaslav travelled to New York for the American tour of the Ballet Russes in 1916. While on tour he choreographed and performed the main role of the act "Till Eulenspiegel". However, the tour met with several issues with regard to play content and payment.
The American tour of 1916 was followed by an additional tour of the US later that year. However, the organizer Otto Kahn insisted on Vaslav Nijinsky’s involvement as manager and this led to Sergei Diaghilev’s return to Europe leaving his troupe in the United States Though Vaslav Nijinsky’s individual performances were praised, his haphazard management resulted in heavy financial loss.
His last performance was in 1917 during a South American tour for the Red Cross with pianist Arthur Rubinstein. In 1919, at the age of 29, he retired from the stage, owing to a nervous breakdown, which was diagnosed as schizophrenia. He lived from 1919 until 1950 in Switzerland, France, and England, and died on 8 April 1950, due to kidney failure at London. Nijinsky is buried next to Auguste Vestris in the cemetery of Montmartre in Paris.
His wife published the first biography of Vaslav Nijinsky in 1934. The book contained information about his early career and life. Two years later she released a censored version of his diary that he maintained before being committed to asylums. In 1952, his wife published a biography of him that shared details of his later life and career.
(With an Introduction by Joan Acocella The astonishing d...)
Nijinsky had come under the influence of two members of the company, Dmitri Kostrovsky and Nicholas Zverev, who were followers of the religious philosophy of Leo Tolstoy. He became a vegetarian, he preached nonviolence, he tried to practice “marital chastity. ” He took to wearing peasant shirts and told Romola that he wanted to give up dancing and return to Russia, to plow the land. He tried to run the company in accordance with his new beliefs. For example, he began to practice democratic casting, giving lesser-known dancers leading roles, including his own roles, often without announcing the cast changes to the public.
Quotations:
"I do not like eating meat because I have seen lambs and pigs killed. I saw and felt their pain. They felt the approaching death. I could not bear it. I cried like a child. I ran up a hill and could not breathe. I felt that I was choking. I felt the death of the lamb. "
"I am not an ape, I am a man. The world has been created by God. Man has been created by God. It is not possible for man to understand God - God understands God. Man is God and therefore understands God. I am God. I am a man. I am good and not a beast. I am an animal with reason. I have flesh, I *am* flesh, I am not descended from flesh. Flesh is created by God. I am God. I am God. I am God. "
"I am afraid of people because they want me to lead the same kind of life as they do. They want me to dance jolly and cheerful things. I do not like jollity. I love life. "
In 1919, he suffered from nervous breakdown and later was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was then committed to Burghölzli and was later transferred to Bellevue Sanatorium. He spent the last 30 years of his life in and out of asylums and psychiatric hospitals.
Vaslav's sister Bronislava in her book, Early Memoirs (1981), describes the young Vaslav as lively, mischievous, and adventurous.
Quotes from others about the person
"A short, rather thick-set little fellow with the most ordinary colourless face", "He would stand on the knobs of a door and swing side to side with it, and could bounce just as high and forcefully as a rubber ball, and would sneak off to a nearby gypsy camp to enjoy and imitate the action he saw there", ". .. One is often asked whether his jump was really as high as it is always described. To that I answer: I don't know how far from the ground it was, but I know it was near the stars. Who would watch the floor when he danced? He transported you at once into higher spheres with the sheer ecstacy of his flight".
He was married to Hungraian aristocrat Romola de Pulszky in 1913. The couple had two daughters Kyra Nijinsky (born in 1914) and Tamara (born in 1920).