Bronislava Nijinska

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Nijinska, Bronislava (b Minsk, 8 Jan. 1891, d Pacific Palisades, Calif., 21 Feb. 1972). Russian dancer, choreographer, ballet mistress, and teacher. The daughter of Polish dancers Eleonora Bereda and Foma Nijinsky, and the younger sister of Vaslav Nijinsky. She studied with Cecchetti and at the St Petersburg Imperial Theatre School (1900-8), graduating into the company at the Maryinsky Theatre, where she spent the next three years. In 1909 she went to Paris with Diaghilev, and again in 1910, a member of the Ballets Russes corps de ballet. When Nijinsky was dismissed from the Maryinsky in 1911, she resigned and joined Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She created roles in Fokine's Carnaval (1910) and Petrushka (1911) and was one of the original Nymphs in Nijinsky's L'Après-midi d'un faune (1912). She returned to Russia during the First World War (after her brother had again been dismissed, this time by Diaghilev), where she danced at the Petrograd Private Opera Theatre and choreographed her first ballets. In 1916 she moved to Kiev, where she danced at the opera house and taught (one of her students was Lifar). In 1921 she left Russia and rejoined Diaghilev, back on board as a producer and choreographer for his London production of The Sleeping Princess, for which she staged several dances. The next few years with Diaghilev saw several important creations from Nijinska, including Le Renard (mus. Stravinsky, 1922), Les Noces (mus. Stravinsky, 1923), Les Biches (mus. Poulenc, 1924), Les Fâcheux (mus. Auric, 1924), and Le Train bleu (mus. Milhaud, 1924). After a disagreement with Diaghilev, she resigned in 1925, taking a chamber group of dancers on tour in England and working as a freelance choreographer for the Paris Opera, the Buenos Aires Teatro Colón, and the Ida Rubinstein company. It was for the last that she made Le Baiser de la fée (mus. Stravinsky, 1928), Bolero (mus. Ravel, 1928), and La Valse (mus. Ravel, 1929). In 1932 she founded her own company, Ballets Nijinska, Théâtre de la Danse, for which she choreographed Variations (mus. Beethoven, 1932) and Hamlet (mus. Liszt, 1934), with herself in the title role. In 1935 she staged the dance sequences in Max Reinhardt's Hollywood film of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1935 she also created Les Cent Baisers (mus. d'Erlanger) for de Basil's Ballets Russes, the first Nijinska ballet to be shown in the US. In 1937 she served as artistic director of the short-lived Polish Ballet for whom she made five ballets, including Chopin Concerto, Palester's Le Chant de la terre, and Kondracki's La Légende de Cracovie. In 1941 she opened a school in Los Angeles, which became her base, although she continued to stage ballets for companies elsewhere. Her productions included La Fille mal gardée (mus. Hertel, Ballet Theatre, 1940), The Snow Maiden (mus. Glazunov, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 1942), Brahms Variations, and Pictures at an Exhibition (mus. Mussorgsky, Ballet International, 1944). After 1945 she worked as ballet mistress for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, for whom she mounted The Sleeping Beauty in 1960. Despite her substantial output of ballets, she was in danger of being forgotten as a choreographer when Ashton invited her to Covent Garden to revive Les Biches for the Royal Ballet in 1964 and Les Noces two years later. The success of these stagings confirmed Nijinska as one of the most important dancemakers of the 20th century, a stunning modernist whose daring and energy gave the world some of the most powerful and stylish ballets ever written. Author of Bronislava Nijinska: Early Memoirs (New York, 1981).

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Bronislava Nijinska.

Bronislava Nijinska (Polish: Bronisława Niżyńska; Russian: Бронислава Фоминична Нижинская, Bronislava Fominichna Nizhinskaya; January 8, 1891 (old style 27 December 1890) - February 22, 1972)) was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent.

Niżyńska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Niżyńska (née Bereda). Her brother was Vaslav Nijinsky. She was just 4 years old when she made her theatrical debut in a Christmas pageant with her brothers in Nizhny Novgorod.

Niżyńska played a leading role in the pioneering venture that turned against 19th-century Classicism. A breakthrough came in 1910, when she created her first solo, the role Papillon in Le Carnival.

Niżynska was a member of the Imperial Ballet and then the Ballets Russes, for whom she choreographed her best known works, Les Noces (1923), The Blue Train (1924) and Les Biches (1924). She also choreographed the dances (to Felix Mendelssohn's music) for Max Reinhardt's 1935 film version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Bronisława Niżyńska died in Pacific Palisades, California.

She was twice married. Her first husband was Alexandre Kochetovsky, a fellow Ballet Russes dancer by whom she had two children-a son, Leo Kochetovsky, who was tragically killed in a car accident and a daughter, Irina Nijinska, a ballet dancer in her own right who subsequently carried on her work, including editing and publishing her mother's memoirs in 1972. The true love of her life, but to whom she was never married, was the great Russian bass singer Feodor Chaliapin.

She was the subject of an album The Nijinska Chamber by Kate Westbrook[1] and Mike Westbrook.

Her students included the prima ballerina Maria Tallchief and the dancer Cyd Charisse.

See also

• Category:Ballets by Bronislava Nijinska

External links

• Timeline of Life and Work
• NY Times obituary by Anna Kisselgoff, February 23, 1972

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