Who is Who?

Vaslav Nijinsky (1889–1950), the star of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, presented an image of the male dancer that audiences had never seen before: highly virtuosic, androgynous, and seductive. His lightness and sensuality, which had previously been associated with the figure of the ballerina, challenged traditional gender roles. Nijinsky was also a revolutionary choreographer: the premiere of his Sacre du printemps (1913) to Igor Stravinsky’s score and his erotically charged L’Après-midi d’un faune (1912) caused scandals. After Nijinsky’s marriage to Romola de Pulszky, which led to a break with his lover Diaghilev, he spent most of the last three decades of his life in mental institutions.

Neumeier’s ballet depicts Nijinsky’s memories of his family, his dancing career, his incipient madness, and the First World War.

In 1911, Michel Fokine’s ballet Le Spectre de la Rose (The Spirit of the Rose) premiered with the Ballets Russes. The music was by Carl Maria von Weber, and Vaslav Nijinsky danced the title role. Covered entirely in petals, he embodied the spirit of a rose that appears to a girl in a dream. Nijinsky’s exit, in which he seemed to fly through the open window with a leap, caused a sensation. Nijinsky was known for his ability to appear to remain suspended in the air during a jump.

In Neumeier’s ballet, the androgynous spirit of the rose first appears as a figure of longing for Nijinsky’s patron and lover Diaghilev who takes the place of the dreaming girl and dances several passages from Fokine’s choreography with the spirit of the rose. He then reappears several times as a memory of Nijinsky’s illustrious career.

Nijinsky created several innovative choreographies: Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) caused a scandal due to its primitive plot, radical break with classical ballet aesthetics, and archaic-sounding music by Igor Stravinsky. Jeux depicted romances in a park between young tennis players, which had not previously been considered a suitable theme for ballet. In L’Après-Midi d’un Faune, in which Nijinsky danced the role of a horned faun surrounded by three nymphs, a “two-dimensional” aesthetic inspired by Greek vase painting met with a highly erotic theme – its premiere in 1912 also ended in a scandal.

In Neumeier’s ballet, a young tennis player from Jeux appears several times, and in the second act, we see an excerpt from Le Sacre du Printemps, with Nijinsky standing on a chair counting the rhythm. Memories of the chaos of the premiere are mixed with images of soldiers in World War I. The figure of the faun, who stands for Nijinsky’s erotic appeal, is particularly present: during the journey which marks the beginning of Nijinsky’s relationship with his future wife Romola de Pulszky, she has a vision of the attractive faun rather than the real man.

The Hungarian noblewoman Romola de Pulszky saw Nijinsky in 1912 during a performance of the Ballets Russes and was immediately deeply impressed by him. She tried to get closer to the dancer, for instance by taking dance lessons with the Ballets Russes, and accompanied the company on tour. The two became engaged during a journey by boat to South America in 1913 and married shortly afterwards in Buenos Aires. When Diaghilev found out about the wedding, he expelled Nijinsky from the company, which led to a serious setback in Nijinsky’s career. He was replaced as a dancer and choreographer of the Ballets Russes by Léonide Massine.

In Neumeier’s ballet, Romola first appears as a central figure in Nijinsky’s last public appearance at the Suvretta House. A series of flashbacks then shows the development of her love story with Nijinsky, from Romola’s infatuated first glances at the dancer to the beginning of their relationship on the ship up to their marriage, as well as her later struggle with Nijinsky’s mental illness.