Nijinsky's War

Vaslav Nijinsky (1890?–1950) in Les Orientales, 1911

 By Asst. Editor Kimball Worcester

The legendary Russian dancer epitomized the shocking modernity of the 20th century in the decade preceding the guns of August 1914 before sinking into irremediable schizophrenia in the 1920s. Nijinsky's sensual fire and unprecedented talent blazed through Russia, Europe, South America, and the United States. He revitalized ballet both as an extraordinary male dancer and as a choreographer. His career was short but profound, and he is remembered for truly important milestones in the history of ballet: Le Sacre du printemps (Rite of Spring), Petrushka, L'Après-midi d'un faune, Schéhérazade, and Le Spectre de la rose.

Report of the May 1913 Debut of Rite of Spring

In June 1914, Nijinsky and his new wife, Romola, a Hungarian, were living in Vienna, where their daughter Kyra was born on the 18th of that month. With the outbreak of war some weeks later, the family was interned as non-combatant prisoners of war (in effect, enemy aliens) in Budapest, at the house of Kyra's mother. Nijinsky's Russian citizenship kept them there for two years.

In the meantime, Nijinsky's former impresario, Serge Diaghilev, was in the United States, trying to arrange the dancer's extrication from Budapest so he could tour the then neutral U.S. Such prominent international figures as King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Queen Alexandra of Great Britain, and Pope Benedict XV are said to have interceded on Nijinsky's behalf. By 1916 a prisoner exchange was arranged through the United States, and Nijinsky, his wife, and daughter were released to join Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in the States.

 A Young Nijinsky with Sergei Diaghilev

The tour was not a success. Nijinsky and Diaghilev could not resurrect their previous partnership (which had been severed upon Nijinsky's marriage in September 1913), and American audiences were as yet insufficiently "modern" to withstand the force and genius of Nijinsky's dance and choreography. The horrors of the Great War and of Nijinsky's enforced peregrinations during it have been cited as just some of the contributors to his mental descent. He ultimately spent the last 30-odd years of his life largely in institutions. Nijinsky died in 1950 in London.