Vaslav Nijinsky

Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, born in Kiev of Polish parents, and educated at the Imperial Dancing Academy, St Petersburg. Nijinsky made his first public appearance in 1907 with the St Petersburg Imperial Ballet. He later went to Paris and danced as a leading member of the original Ballets Russes, in its first season, under the direction of the Russian ballet producer Sergei Diaghilev. Nijinsky soon attained the rank of premier danseur. Around the turn of the 20th century, he was the first to portray the leading roles in Schéhérazade, Le Spectre de la Rose, Petrushka, and Les Sylphides. Nijinsky’s unconventional choreography for The Afternoon of a Faun (1912) and The Rite of Spring (1913) aroused lively comment and many protests against the alleged obscenity of the former and the harsh subject matter of the latter, in which a maiden must sacrifice herself by dancing until she dies of exhaustion.

Ranking among the great male dancers of all time, Nijinsky had remarkable technical powers; his grands jetés, for example, created the illusion that he was suspended in mid-air. His spectacular career ended in 1918 when he became the victim of schizophrenia, from which he never fully recovered.