Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky was born on this day in 1890, in Kiev to Polish parents, but for his lifetime he considered himself a Pole. He grew up poor, but by the time he was in his late teens, he had already had heady affairs with several much older men: Prince Pavel Dimitrievitch, Lvov & Count Tishkievitch, who each lavished with him luxurious libations. Soon after, Nijinsky started his rapturous romantic & professional partnership with Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev, a renowned & highly innovative producer of art exhibits, ballet & opera, who concentrated on promoting Russian visual & musical art abroad, groomed the young Nijinsky to be known as the God of Dance.
Nijinsky was the rare male ballet stars to perform en pointe, & his fame in Russia & Paris grew with each new dancing role: Cleopatra, The Sleeping Beauty, & Giselle. Diaghilev advanced Nijinsky’s work as a choreographer of his own works & the radical results were remarkable. The dancer was just 22 years old when he created a piece set to Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun which ended with him masturbating. The next year his ballet collaboration with Igor Stravinsky- The Rite of Spring ended in riotous reaction at the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées when they premiered it in Paris. His work was judged as obscene, but was defended by such artists as Auguste Rodin & Marcel Proust.
While on tour in South America, Nijinsky, in an act rash, reckless & ruinous, he married a Romanian countess- Romola Pulsky, who had taken up ballet in order to pursue the young dancer across Europe & the Atlantic Ocean. The incensed & injurious Diaghilev fired him.
Nijinsky tried to start his own dance company. But, bad choices & ill-conceived projects, brought the celebrated star from luster, laurels, & lavish gifts, to needing to support a wife & child with no funds & no dance company.
Nijinsky went to Hungary to recover from nervous exhaustion. When WW I broke out, he was considered an enemy because he was a Russian citizen & he was jailed. In 1916, Diaghilev rescued him & took the family to NYC, so that Nijinsky could re-join his Ballets Russes. Diaghilev & Nijinsky rekindled their love affair, but the wife did all she could to come between the pair.
Nijinsky's mental state declined. The dancer became paranoid & obsessive, & worse; he was frightened of performing on stage. With Diaghilev back in Europe; Nijinsky was left in charge of the company. However, it was around this time in his life that signs of his schizophrenia were becoming apparent to members of the company. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1919, & his career effectively ended. The depressed Nijinsky was diagnosed with schizophrenia & taken to Switzerland by his wife. Later Diaghilev attempted to reconcile, & again his wife kept her husband from him, preventing any more reunions. Nijinsky he was just 29 years old. For the next 3 decades he was in & out of institutions until his death in London in 1950.
Nijinsky left a diary with appeals for compassion toward the less fortunate, & for vegetarianism & animal rights. He also wrote of his love for Diaghilev.
In 1970, a long planned film of his life was to start filming. With a screenplay by Edward Albee (with whom he shares a birthday today), The film was to be directed by Tony Richardson, starring Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky, & Paul Scofield as Diaghilev, but producers scrapped the project.
A decade later a film was finally made. Nijinski was directed by Herbert Ross, starring dancers- George de la Peña as Nijinsky & Leslie Browne as Romola, & with Alan Bates as Diaghilev. Romola Nijinsky had a writing credit for the film. The film makers got the attitude right, but the history wrong. The film is available on something called VHS, I have no idea what this is. I think the story is ripe for the right filmmaker to take another shot at it. My suggestion: John Cameron Mitchell writing & directing, with Daniel Radcliffe as Nijinsky, Natalie Portman as Romola & me as Diaghilev.
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