Talent and tragedy: the astonishing life of Vaslav Nijinsky

The Guardian

10-02-2025

It was 1912 in Paris when Vaslav Nijinsky nearly caused a riot.
The dancer and choreographer was about 22 (his date of birth is disputed) and was unveiling a bold new type of ballet at the city's Théâtre du Châtelet. He had choreographed a 12-minute work called L'Après-midi d'un Faune (Afternoon of a Faun), in which a young faun meets and flirts with several nymphs.
Robyn Hendricks and Callum Linnane. Photograph: Kate Longley
The choreography featured angular and somewhat strange movements a world away from the classical ballet style favoured at the time, but it was the production's final scene that hit the crowd like a popped bottle. In it, Nijinsky, starring as the Faun, seemingly simulated masturbation through a skin-tight costume, mimicking a release right before the curtain dropped.
Many members of the audience hissed, booed and gasped. Others applauded ferociously. Fights broke out between those who were either delighted or appalled by what they'd just seen. The following days, newspapers stoked moral outrage, and the artists of the French capital had to rally to Nijinsky's defence.
More than a century later, Faun is considered one the first modern ballets, a work that changed dance forever. And its creator is regarded as perhaps the greatest male dancer of all time, known for his almost superhuman abilities and grace on stage.
Faun should have been the breakthrough point of a glittering career, but just seven years later Nijinsky would dance for the final time in public. He spent much of the rest of his life institutionalised, and died in 1950, aged 60 or 61.
The life story of Vaslav Nijinsky has all the makings of a Hollywood epic. It's a tale of great talent and great tragedy; one that features war, scandal, brushes with death and a cruel demise. There is a love affair between two men in a time long before the acceptance of homosexuality, and a later doomed marriage to a daughter of high society.
Kevin Jackson and Adam Bull. Photograph: Kate Longley
The Australian Ballet is telling Nijinsky's story of genius, fame and madness in a production that takes to the stage in late February. The acclaimed narrative ballet choreographer John Neumeier will unfurl the tale of Nijinsky's troubled family, ill-fated romances and transcendent performances, all set amidst the bohemian glamour of early 20th-century Paris.
The production is a stirring, visually captivating and achingly beautiful look at Nijinsky's life.
There is much ground to cover in the two-and-a-half-hour production. At about 20, Nijinsky kickstarted his career by joining the Ballets Russes, a new ballet company founded by Sergei Diaghilev. Their relationship would soon go beyond the professional. As Nijinsky's star swiftly rose, the pair became lovers. This was probably not Nijinsky's first relationship with a man; he had been introduced to a Russian nobleman at about 18 with the blessing of his mother, and a sexual trade in ballet dancers was common at the time.
Yet four years later, Nijinsky married Hungarian woman Romola de Pulszky, the daughter of a politician – who had become spellbound after seeing Nijinsky perform, broke off her existing engagement and relentlessly pursued him, eventually securing a wedding in Buenos Aires in 1913.
Callum Linnane. Photograph: Kate Longley
But having parted ways with Diaghilev's dance company, Nijinsky found it increasingly stressful to try and manage his own tours, and his mental state began to deteriorate. In early 1919, he made what would be his final public performance, an improvised solo piece in Switzerland. The dance was, even for a dancer with a reputation for pushing the boundaries, a strange and perhaps unsettling one. On stage, Nijinsky stood still for a long while before performing a piece that seemed to traverse a rainbow of different emotions.
Later that year, aged 29 or 30, Nijinsky would be diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalised, spending much of the remainder of his life in and out of treatment centres. He is remembered as one of ballet's finest ever dancers, a visionary who changed the art form forever.
For Callum Linnane, who will dance as Nijinsky, this a deeply fulfilling ballet to perform. Linnane is reprising a role he played when the Australian Ballet first staged this production in 2016.
'I remember we performed it in three cities and it was a standing ovation in every show,' Linnane says. 'People were so transported by it. Ever since we finished, I've wanted the ballet to come back. It's just been nine years waiting for it, to be honest. So I can't wait.'
Let yourself be carried away by the passion and complexity of Nijinsky – at Melbourne's Regent Theatre for one week only this February.