Uncredited photographer. Nijinsky photographed at Krasnoe Selo, summer 1907. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Vaslav Nijinsky was born in Kiev, probably in 1889. His parents were Polish dancers who traveled around the Polish and Russian empires. He, and later his sister Bronislava, entered the Imperial Theatrical School in St. Petersburg for training in ballet. His ability was recognized quickly and he joined the Imperial Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre on graduation.

Serge Pavlovich Diaghilev was a prominent member of St. Petersburg’s intellectual and artistic life, dedicated to presenting Russian creativity to Western Europe. He had curated a successful exhibition of Russian art in 1906 and presented concert music and opera in 1907 and 1908 seasons in Paris. In 1909, he brought a company from the Imperial Ballets to Paris, led by Nijinsky with Anna Pavlova. Their dancing, designs by Russian artists, and the new repertory won enormous acclaim and established Diaghilev and Nijinsky, an openly gay couple, as the centers of the Western Europe’s artistic elite. Pavlova left to pursue her own touring career, but the creative core of the Ballets Russes remained with Diaghilev in Paris.

Pages from Vaslav Nijinsky's Diary, Switzerland, 1919. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

After the tour, Nijinsky performed with the Ballets Russes in Europe and South America. He ended his professional ballet career in Uruguay at twenty-eight. He and his family moved to Switzerland, where he created the art works and diary that are on display here. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of his remaining 30 years in treatment.