Nijinsky's Last Year At The Imperial Theatrical School Part 1

Photo Credit: Vaslav Nijinsky as a Greek slave in the ballet "Evnika", 1909, Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia from Bronislava Nijinska's Early Memoirs

 In 1906-1907, Vaslav Nijinsky was in the last year of the Imperial Theatrical School, and all he could do was wait until he could leave and become the artist he wanted to become. His sister Bronislava Nijinska describes this in her own words.

"For this year, which was to be Vaslav's last in the School, Mama decided to move into a smaller apartment, with only two rooms. This way she was able to save twenty-five rubles a month, which she put aside for Vaslav's graduation outfit."

"From the start of his graduation year, Vaslav seemed very grown-up; both at home and in the School he acted as though he were already an Artist. The company of adults began to attract him, and spent a good deal of time in discussions with one of the strictest teachers in the School- Grigori Grigorie Isaenko."

"With Father's absence while Vaslav was growing up, and no other male relatives at hand, Mama had turned to this teacher, Isaenko, asking him to associate with Nijinsky and pay attention to him, to be his mentor not only in the School but also in the life awaiting Vaslav as a man. Vaslav began to frequent the teacher's apartment and spoke about him truly inspiring teacher and influence."

"In the School Vaslav preferred the drama students, who were  also older than he was. He listened to stories about their studies, and their criticisms of this or that play. Ever since he had been promoted to the Upper Division of 1904, Vaslav has been moving away from his old friends. "

"He had told me that he no longer interested in playing pranks  or tricks. Some of the older ballet students began to pick on him and laugh at his new serious application to his studies."

"They taunted him, saying that he already imagined himself an Artist, until finally he was forced into a big fight to put an end to such treatment."

"The jealously of some of the students towards Nijinsky was enormous, in proportion to their recognition of his talent. This atmosphere of malicious envy poisoned Nijinsky's life in the School. "

"Vaslav told me then and later that living at the School was repugnant to him. He hated the School and couldn't wait to finish it and leave forever." 

"Only when I am dancing in the School or at the Maryinsky can I breathe..." He said.

How could anyone expect someone to feel anything but the pain from such an experience? He could not win against everyone's prejudice and judgment of himself because of their jealousy of Nijinsky being labeled a prodigy. Only his mother and his sister had his back. Can anyone blame him for holding the school in such disdain for their unkind treatment of him for all the years he was there? His only solace was when he danced. He felt free and happy. When he was at the school, I genuinely feel like he must have felt like a caged bird tormented by those who did not understand him, and only when he was let out of that cage to fly was when he danced.

Bronislava Nijinska talks about the other serious students during their last years at the School and Nijinsky teaching.  She talks about he enjoyed teaching and how that led him to meet a leading Russian composer who had Vaslav Nijinsky become a choreographer staging and mounting the dances for the children in the school while a student himself. This was the first time Nijinsky choreographed. She talks about this in her own words.

"But most of the boys in Vaslav's class for his last year in the School were serious students. Two of them, Leonid Gontcharov and Andrei Khristapson , were preparing to enter the Conservatory of St. Petersburg, in the piano division , while Alexei Erler was planning to enter the Institute of Civil Engineering. All were excellent students, but none of them was interested in dancing."

"The only other student in Vaslav's class who had dancing talent was Georgi  Rosai, who later proved to be  an excellent character dancer in several ballets by Fokine. Rosai ambition was to be a classical dancer and to dance leading roles, and for a long time he had been considered the student with the most promising career before him."

"But in 1905 Student Performance of Fokine's ballet Acts and Galatea, both Rosai and Nijinsky had danced their own solo in the "Dance of the Fauns." and Rosai had been jealous and resentful that only Vaslav had been mentioned in the press: "The most successful number in Acts and Galatea was 'The Fauns' in which a student, Nijinsky, distinguished himself."

"Rosai had also been disappointed that in the same Student Performance he had been given only one short semiclassical number, mounted by Fokine, a polka with Smirnova, whereas Vaslav, that same evening, had performed as a classical dancer in the ballet The Parisian Market and had also danced a classical pas de trois in the Divertissement."

"In the Upper Division Rosai had continued to associate with Bourman and Babitch, even though they had been promoted to a higher class, and possibly it was they who encouraged his hostility towards Vaslav."

 

 "I thought and hoped that now that both had graduated from the School and Rosai was on his own, he would not annoy Vaslav."

"During the year I saw very little of Vaslav. On Saturday evenings and midday Sunday, he gave social dancing lessons to children. By the time he came home there would be only an hour or two before it was time for us to return to the School. Vaslav liked the lessons he gave, and the families there he taught were delighted with him."

"During his visits to the Sechenova-Ivanova hime in the Circuit Court Building he met a young twenty-two- year old student from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Boris Vladimirovitch Asafiev, whose father was also an official of the Circuit Court and had a government apartment  in the Court Building. Asafiev had written children's opera, Cinderella, and planned to produce it that year at Christmas with the children of the employees of the Circuit Court  and their acquintances. He asked Vaslav to work with him both in staging and mounting the dancing for the children, and so Vaslav, still a student himself in the School, became a choreographer and staged the dances and the mises en scene for Asafiev's opera Cinderella."- 

"The performance took place in the hall of the Circuit Court Building and were a great success. Unfortunately I was still in the School and could not see the program, but at home Vaslav animatedly recalled for me all his own rehearsals and classes, and laughingly called himself the ballet master. His leading pupil, the little sister of Sechenova-Ivanova, distinguished herself in Cinderella."- Quote from Bronislava Nijinska on the other serious students in her brother's grade and  her brother Nijinsky first time choreographing.

You can hear in Nijinska's words how excited, and proud Nijinsky was to talk about the ballet he choreographed with his family. I would say this was just what Nijinsky needed to build his confidence back up, which the school had battered and bruised, his spirit was now restored, and he found another passion he had teaching and choreographing. This moment was just the beginning of the future for the Artist Nijinsky.