Vaslav Nijinsky (redirected from Waslaw Fomich Nijinsky)

Nijinsky, Vaslav 

(full Russian name, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinskii). Born Feb. 28 (Mar. 12), 1889, in Kiev; died Apr. 11, 1950, in London. Russian ballet dancer and choreographer.

Nijinsky attended the St. Petersburg Theatrical School until 1907, at which time he was accepted as a soloist at the Mariinskii Theater. He was dismissed by the theater in 1911. From 1909 to 1913 and again in 1916 and 1917, Nijinsky was a principal dancer and choreographer with the Russian Seasons and the ballet company organized by S. P. Diaghilev.

Nijinsky danced the lead roles in M. M. Fokine’s productions of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, N. Cherepnin’s Le Pavilion d’Armide and Narcissus, Arenskii’s Egyptian Nights, Schumann’s Chopinana (Les Sylphides) and Le Carnaval, and Weber’s Le Spectre de la rose. In Paris he staged Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun in 1912 and Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps and Debussy’s Jeux in 1913. Nijinsky staged R. Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel in New York in 1916.

As a dancer, Nijinsky revived the art of the male dancer, combining extraordinary jumps and pirouettes with expressive plasticity and pantomime. An innovative choreographer, he expanded the vocabulary of the ballet.

REFERENCES

Lunacharskii, A. V. V mire muzyki: Stat’i i rechi, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1971.
Fokine, M. M. Protiv techeniia: Vospominaniia baletmeistera. Leningrad-Moscow, 1962.

V. M. KRASOVSKAIA