Nijinsky: A Life

Image of Nijinsky
Release Date: 
July 29, 2014
Publisher/Imprint: 
Profile Books
Pages: 
288
Reviewed by: 

“Lucy Moore had not written about dance until this book, but her research and notations are meticulous, and beyond that, her command and authority of describing performance, historical context and Nijinsky’s life of triumph and defeat.”

Last year in concert halls and on dance stages performing artists found ways to commemorate the centenary of Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) with the earth shattering score by Igor Stravinsky and the equally seismic choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky.

Nijinsky‘s turbulent life continues to fascinate and among the most comprehensive bio about him is Lucy Moore’s Nijinsky: A Life, published in Britain last year and now available in the U.S.  

As famous as Nijinsky was in his lifetime, he was as mysterious as his characters on the dance stage. Nijinsky spent much his life a recluse, overwhelmed with his legend as a dance god and coping with ranges of emotional distress; he was eventually treated for schizophrenia.   
 
Moore begins the book backstage at that riotous premiere of “Le Sacre” in 1913 and conjures the nail-biting moments before the curtain goes up, with backstage doom impending and Nijinsky jumping out of his skin waiting for the curtain to rise on one of the boldest artistic statements in history, so far ahead of its time. Moore leaves us there, cinematically, to flash back to Nijinsky’s birth.

Nijinsky’s parents were dancers madly in love. They were tramping around on what would be the equivalent of a Russian vaudeville circuit, moving from town to town, raising a family, and outside the privileges and strictures of the Imperial Ballet world of tsar, the world that their son Vaslav would be part of before long. The backdrops of Moscow and St. Petersburg and Moore’s specificity of the architecture, streets, interiors, clothing and trappings of tsarist Russia, its opulence and poverty, are vividly drawn by Moore.
 
Vaslav was recognized from the start as a dance prodigy, and he soon was a student at the Imperial Ballet housed in the Mariinsky School. The other boys bullied him because of his poverty and femininity, but were soon enough impressed by his artistry on stage, where he was quickly becoming a ballet star. Nijinksy came with developed talents such as character pantomime that he learned being around the circus with his parents. He also incorporated modernist concepts of innovators like Isadora Duncan, whom he saw perform he was still a student.     

Nijinsky’s classical technique and luminous stage presence catapulted him to Imperial Ballet fame, and he soon was lavished with gifts and hierarchal ballet patronage from Prince Lvov, his first lover. The prince also encouraged his relationship with impresario Sergey Diaghilev. Diaghilev was about to present his first Ballets Russes season in Paris and he presented Nijinsky with equal import as his prima ballerinas.

Up until that time male dancers were little more than supporting players. Nijinsky himself realized himself his rarefied talent and changed the status of men in dance, for one, by completely sexualizing the male dancer on stage.

Later Nijinsky was also introducing groundbreaking concepts in choreography, backed tentatively by Diaghilev but mostly to the scorn of colleagues, including choreographer Mikhail Folkine. With his first ballet L’apres-midi d’un Faune, which Diaghilev delayed premiering for a year. With Faune, Nijinsky forged abstract expression in dance and dismantled conventions of classicism.   

Moore fills in so many vague areas of Nijinsky’s private life without judgment. The fluid nature of male sexuality of this era, for instance, is saliently examined vis-à-vis the complicated mores of the time. While Nijinsky willingly entered into a full relationship with Diaghilev, the author makes a plausible case that he pimped himself out, like many before and after, to continue to help his family financially.

Of course, the backstage drama of Nijinsky’s life was just as intense. He intimated to a friend that he most identified with one of his most famous dance characters, the doomed puppet Petrushka, always being manipulated and threatened by others. He had love-hate relationships with Diaghilev and later, his wife, Romola, a dance dilettante, that were integral to his emotional deterioration. Nijinsky eventually rebelled against the controlling Diaghilev, whose love for the dancer was as real as it was toxic and conditional.  

Romola is portrayed throughout the book as having a delusional, possessive nature and a clear agenda, initially making a career of first getting Nijinsky away from Diaghilev. After they married in South America, virtual strangers, Vaslav was shocked that Diaghilev dismissed him from the company.

Further complications ensued with Romola acting as his agent led to career ruin. They tried to make the marriage work, raising two daughters, who Nijinsky adored, meanwhile he was increasingly exhibiting signs of emotional strain and erratic behavior that it was impossible for him to continue his career.    

Lucy Moore had not written about dance until this book, but her research and notations are meticulous, and beyond that, her command and authority of describing performance, historical context and Nijinsky’s life of triumph and defeat.