Nijinsky: The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (NR)

synopsis

In late 1917, Vaslav Nijinsky was in St. Moritz awaiting the end of World War I with his wife Romola and their daughter Kyra. The famous dancer had split with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and found it virtually impossible to secure other engagements. One year later, Nijinsky suffered a mental breakdown, and recorded his struggles in his notebooks. Nijinksy reveals himself most forcefully through the words which flow like a stream from his pen. Apolitical, Nijinsky is naive and yet a profound thinker ("I am thinking in the flesh"), who feels God as a presence in him and in his work, but in the most pantheistic manner. Thoughts about Diaghilev and Stravinsky, Nietzsche and Christ alternate with his views on meat-eating and masturbation, his wife and daughter.