Teaching Disclosure Support Terpsichorean Art
Vaslav Nijinsky
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Myth and legend of classical ballet,
he is remembered as one of the great
Kiev, 1890 - London, 1950
Nijinsky grew up in a family dedicated to ballet from several generations ago. And surrounded by a great love for dance, at the age of ten he entered the Imperial School of Saint Petersburg. There his qualities and progress were immediate, and he soon stood out as one of the best, despite the mental problems he suffered and who would accompany him throughout his life. At just 17 years old, he made his professional debut at the Marinski Theater performing the ballet for Mozart's opera Don Juan. A first performance that preceded many others in which he stood out notably, also for Tsar Kchessinskaia's dancer who chose him as a dance partner. A triumphant career for Nijinsky at the Imperial Theater was beginning at this time. However, it was Sergei Diaguilev, as for other dancers of the time, who marked his professional career, for better and for worse. In 1909, the Russian businessman offered him to dance in his Ballets where he was the protagonist until 1914, the year in which Diaguilev kicked him out because he married a dancer, a companion of the company. The dancer Serge Lifar, would take his place in The Russian Ballets as a result of his departure. Remembered performer for his jumps, athletic conditions, and eccentricities too, his legacy as a choreographer did not leave indifferent either. The play Le sacre du printemps (1913) unleashed fierce criticism, and Jeux, created the same year, a great stupor at the departure of the dancer on stage, raised on some points, reserved only for women. After his admission to a sanatorium in Switzerland, Nijinsky died in London in a deteriorated mental situation.
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