Bronislava Nijinska

Early life

Bronislava Nijinska was the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz Nijinsky and Eleonora Nijinska (maiden name Bereda), who were then traveling performers in provincial Russia. Bronislava was born in Minsk, but all three children were baptized in Warsaw. She was the younger sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, the renowned ballet star.

A family of dancers

Each of their parents had begun dancing careers in Warsaw at the Teatr Wielki. When they later met each had already become a ballet professional with the Setov troupe based in Kiev. It performed at theaters in provincial capitals of the then Russian Empire. They were married in Baku. Tomasz, five years younger, had risen to be premier danseur and ballet master. His wife Eleonora, orphaned at seven, had followed her elder sister into ballet, and now danced as a first soloist.

Her father Tomasz Nijinsky, using his abilities as a ballet master, came to manage his own small troupe of a dozen dancers, plus students. For example, in 1896 he staged the Fountain of Bakhchisarai a ballet pantomime in Circus-Theaters, using Polish and Russian music. Her mother Eleonora danced the role of a captured princess. Tomasz choreographed "two very successful ballets" namely Fountains of Bakhchisara and Zaporozbeskaya Tcharovnitza. Nijinska implies that their small troupe made money, but that is disputed. In addition to renting out theaters, he contracted to perform at Café Chantants, popular nightspots where patrons dined while being entertained with music and dance. At work and at home, the family was surrounded by artists. Her father "loved to be with painters, writers, actors, and musicians."

In the past Tomasz had forgone opportunities, turning down dance offers because of his family. In 1897 near Sankt-Peterburg, Eleonora and Thomasz danced on stage together for the last time. He continued on the road as a dancer. On a prior trip to Finland, he had become involved with a fellow dancer. It led to separation from his wife, and the dissolution of his marriage. Eleonora soon established permanent residence in Sankt-Peterburg for her three children, after years of continual travel. Bronislava records that her brother Vaslav (or Vatsa) became bitter and years later turned against his father for the pain his mother endured.

Her brother Vatsa

"By nature Vaslav [Vatsa] was a very lively and adventurous boy." In her book Early Memoirs Nijinska writes about many of the adventures of young Vatsa, her older brother by 22 months. Living with a mother and father who regularly danced on stage, the children acquired an attitude that resulted in a physical prowess in everyday life. The parents basically encouraged their children's athletic progress, and while scolding misbehavior were not punitive. Curious, Vatsa was driven to explore his surroundings sometimes crossing parental lines. His bravery and daring on rooftops impressed Broni.

"How Vatsa loved to climb! Whenever he was at the top of a tree, on a high post, on the swing, or on the roof of our house, I noticed a rapturous delight on his face, a delight to feel his body high above the ground, suspended in midair."

Vatsa became fearless when investigating the strange streets of different towns and cities where the family's theatrical life took them. Along the way he trained his body which became an instrument of extraordinary strength and balance. He welcomed this freedom to explore. His mind grew innovative. Vatsa often invited Broni, who sometimes accompanied him. From Vatsa's daring adventures she acquired early skills useful for a dancer.

Childhood dance skills

Her parents not only were continually dancing in theatrical productions, they also taught ballroom dancing to adults and had special dance classes for children, including their own. From an early age they instructed their daughter in folk dances: Polish, Hungarian, Italian, and Russian. She learned ballet together with all kinds of dance steps. She picked up some acrobatic techniques from her father, who sometimes worked adjacent to circus performers. Later she was able to draw on this rich experience in her choreographic works.

Broni Nijinska was not quite four when she made her theatrical debut in a Christmas pageant with her brothers in Nizhny Novgorod. She would grow familiar with being on stage. Joining her brothers she trained to dance and act in children's dance productions, or to make brief appearances on the adult stage. Her aunt Stepha, her mother's elder sister, had retired from performance but was teaching dance in Vilno; she helped Broni. Dancers who knew her parents would give her lessons or tips, e.g., Louis Chalif, Maria Giuri, Vladimir Dourov, Mikhail Lentovsky. After their parents' separation, her brother Vaslav Nijinsky entered the Imperial Theatrical School. When about nine years old, Broni began ballet lessons with the famous Enrico Cecchetti who quickly recognized her skills.

Imperial Theatrical School

In 1900, two years behind Vaslav her brother, Bronislava Nijinska was accepted into the same state-sponsored school for performing arts. Located in Sankt Peterburg, it was a program meant to last many years. As with Vaslav's acceptance, her mother enlisted support from various people connected to ballet, including Stanilas Gillert and Cecchetti. There were 214 candidates who appeared at the entrance examination to demonstrate their dance abilities. Legendary ballet master Marius Petipa participated, as did Cecchetti and Legat. Twelve girls were accepted.

Bronislava graduated in 1908, taking 'First Award' for achievement both in dance and in academic subjects. Seven women graduated that year. In addition to her diploma she was enlisted as an 'Artist of the Imperial Theatre' which assured her financial security and the privileged life of a professional dancer.

Career as a dancer

About her qualities as a dancer generally, several professionals have commented. "She was a very strong dancer, and danced very athletically for a lady, and had a big jump," commented dancer and ballet master Frederic Franklin. "She had incredible endurance, and seemed never to be tired," recalled Anatole Vilzak, who worked with her in the 1920s and 1930s. Lydia Sokolova thought her "a most unfeminine woman, though there was nothing particularly masculine about her character. Thin but immensely strong, she had iron muscles in her arms and legs, and her highly developed calf muscles resembled Vaslav's; she had the same way of jumping and pausing in the air." Alicia Markova concluded that Nijinska "was a strange combination, this terrific strength, and yet there was a softness."

Mariinsky Theater in Sankt-Peterburg

In 1908, Nijinska was admitted to the Imperial Ballet (then also known as the Mariinsky Ballet and later known as the Kirov Ballet) following in her brother's footsteps. In the corps de ballet her first year, she performed in Fokine's Les Sylphides. Under his leadership, she was able to directly experienced Fokine's choreographic vision. Both she and Nijinsky, however, left Russia during the summers of 1909 and 1910 to perform for Diaghilev's company in Paris.

Nijinska danced with the Mariinsky Ballet for three years. Yet the growth and insights acquired at Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which was then revolutionizing the ballet world, clearly exceeded that at Mariinsky Theater. Then, unexpectedly, she felt compelled to resign after the Theater's dismissal of her brother Vaslav, chiefly regarding his star performances in Paris. As a result, Nijinska was deprived of her rights respecting the title 'Artist of the Imperial Theaters' and lost its associated privileges.

Diaghlev and 'Ballets Russes' 1909–1913

Nijinska appeared in the Sergei Pavlovitch Diaghilev's first two Paris seasons, 1909 and 1910. After leaving the Mariinsky, she became a permanent member of his newly-formed company, Ballets Russes.

When her brother married in 1913, Diaghilev terminated his position at Ballets Russes. In solidarity Nijinska then also left the company. Nijinska speculated that hidden manipulations had motivated events, whereby Diaghilev had secured financing and the return of Fokine by getting rid of her brother Nijinsky. The break left emotional scars, and a sense of betrayal. Yet Diaghilev continued to admire her and her work, and offered her opportunities in ballet.

Of her brother Vaslav Nijinsky

It is argued that Bronislava Nijinska's brother Vaslav Nijinsky had the greatest influence on her. In Nijinska’s memoir, she speaks of the overwhelming curiosity Vaslav possessed from a young age. His low performance in school is recorded; Nijinska attributes this to his disinterest and impatience. He instead wanted to explore the world and test his physical limits. He became an incredible dancer. At Mariinsky Theater and at Ballets Russes, too, Vaslav quickly rose. Soon Vaslav was performing as principal dancer.

"As his pupil she became the first person to know and be influenced by his radically new ideas regarding dance and his desire to substitute a rigorously stylized form of movement for the classical ballet tradition."

She describes his innovations in creating a new Blue Bird role for the ballet The Sleeping Princess in 1907: how he changed the restrictive costume and energized the movements. When Nijinsky created "L'Après-midi d'un Faune" [Afternoon of the Faun] in 1912 he used Nijinska to rehearse it in secret, to follow with her body his description of the steps one by one. She similarly assisted him in creating Le Sacre du Printemps [Rite of Spring]. Due to her pregnancy, Nijinska withdrew from the part of the Chosen Maiden. It was during a 1913 South American tour that Nijinsky controversially married Romola de Pulszky. If Nijinska had been on tour, it might have been different. She explains in her memoirs that Vaslav was very reserved and, other than herself, had few close colleagues or collaborators in the dance world.

"Although Bronislave Nijinska is often identified as the sister of the celebrated Vaslav Nijinsky, she was a major artist in her own right and a key figure in the development of twentieth-century ballet.

Her early roles as a dancer

Nijinska danced initially in the corps de ballet of Ballets Russes. As she developed, her early roles included Papillon in “Carnaval” and the Ballerina Doll in “Petruchka”. Her brother helped her create the role of Papillon in Fokine's Carnaval. The role of the Ballerina Doll in Petruchka she transformed, modernizing it by a realistic approach. She changed the demeanor to be more street normal, and kept in character rather than resuming the classical ballet look. In Cleopatra, at first she danced the Bacchanale, then she was given the role of Ta-Hor. As she followed his dancing instructions, she assisted her brother Vaslav in his creation of the Chosen Maiden role in Rites of Spring. Yet her pregnancy required that she withdraw before the opening performance. She danced the Hummingbird Fairy and Pierette in 1921 London production of The Sleeping Princess.

'Saison Nijinsky' in London 1914

Nijinska had left the Ballet Russes. She elected to follow her brother Vaslav after Diaghilev dismissed him from the company over artistic quarrels, his military draft status, his September, 1913, marriage in Buenos Aires, and his demand for payments in arrears.

In early 1914 Vaslav, with Bronislava's assistance, started a new ballet company in London: Saison Nijinsky. Only a short time was allowed for the preparations required for its first theatrical production to open in March. Nijinska traveled to Russia to recruit dancers, and herself performed leading roles in the show. Its anticipated premiere was well received, with Vaslav's brilliant dancing drawing prolonged applause. After two weeks of performances, however, a business dispute with the theater owner led to the cancellation of the company's season. Some attributed the downfall of the company to Vaslav’s erratic emotional tendencies.

Her later appearances on stage

In the 1922 Paris restaging by Ballets Russes, she danced the title role in L'Après-midi d'un Faune following a request made by Diaghilev. Earlier she had helped her brother create the choreography for its 1912 premier.

She took prominent roles in several of her own choreographies, e.g., for Ballet Russes: the Fox in Le Renard (1922), the Hostess in Les Biches (1924), Lysandre in Les Fâcheux (1924), the Tennis Player in Le Train Bleu (1924). She did likewise for her own companies, e.g., in Holy Etudes, Touring, and Le Guignol (all in 1925), in Capricio Espagnole (1931), and the title role in Hamlet (1934).

These appearance were auxiliary to her new, 'second career' as choreographer, to which she transitioned after her first leave of Diaghilev and Ballets Russes.

As Nijinska reached 42, her performance career was nearing its end. What caused her to contemplate quitting was an injury to her Achilles tendon suffered in 1933 while in Buenos Aires for Teatro Colón.

Choreographer

"In her lifetime Nijinska choreographed over seventy ballets, as well as dance sequences for numerous films, operas, and other stage productions." An annotated, chronological catalogue of her choreographies is presented by Nancy Van Norman Baer in her book on Nijinska. Her early experiences in choreographic arts involved the assistance given her brother Vaslav Nijinsky in his choreographic works for Ballets Russes. She had then tried out the initial stages of various steps created by him.

Petrograd, her first choreographies 1915

At the start of World War I, Nijinska, her husband Aleksandr Kochtovsky ('Sasha', married in 1912), and their infant daughter Nina returned to Petrograd (the Russian capital's new name). They both became leading dancers at the Petrograd Private Opera Theatre. In 1915 Nijinska produced her first choreographies: Le Poupée [The Doll], and Autumn Song. These creations were for her solo performances at the Narodny Dom Theatre.

She was twenty-five. The 1915 program described her as "the celebrated prima ballerina-artist of the State Ballet". The music for her creation Autumn Song was by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and for The Doll by Anatoly Liadov. On that program at the Narodny Dom [People's House] were also ballets choreographed by Michel Fokine of Ballets Russes, danced by Nijinska and her husband. Her choreography for Autumn Song, "the more important" of her two solos, "owed a debt to Fokine". In the 1930s Nijinska taught it to Alicia Markova who in 1953 for television performed Autumn Song.

Kiev, her 'Ecole du Mouvement' 1916–1920

In 1916 her young family moved to Kiev. Her husband 'Sasha' Kochtovsky became ballet master at the State Opera Theater. There they both worked staging divertissements and ballets. In 1917 Nijinska began teaching at several institutions: the State Conservatory of Music, Central State Ballet Studio, the Yiddish Cultural Center Drama Studio, and the Ukrainian Drama School.

She met the visual artist Alexandra Exter, whose designs employed new constructivist ideas. The two discussed their art which would begin a fruitful collaboration on various theatrical projects. This working relationship would continue later, after both independently moved from Kiev to Paris.

Alexandra Exter had spent some pre-war years in Western Europe, where she joined the "cubist and futurist circles" of well-known innovators. Returning to Russia at the war's start (1914), she lived in Moscow, in Petrograd, then in Kiev. With Alexander Tairov at his Kamerny [Chamber] Theater in Moscow she had "aspired to create a dynamic fusion of drama, movement, and design known as 'synthetic theater'." In 1918, having relocated to Kiev, Exter opened an art studio, which functioned also as a salon for Kiev's many rising artists.

Exter joined the evening art discussions held at Nijinska's dance school. Their ideas were mutually reinforcing and compatible. Curator/author Nancy Van Norman Baer writes that they became "close artistic associates" and "fast friends".

Nijinska's "theoretical speculations" about modern ballet apparently began to crystallize. During a brief trip to Moscow shortly after the 1917 October Revolution, Nijinska started her treatise: The School of Movement (Theory of Choreography). It was published in 1920 but has become lost to posterity, like much of the dance designs she created in Kiev. A 1930 essay, however, recapitulates her key ideas: "On movement and the school of movement".

"It is in this essay that she documents her search for a new means of expression based on the extension of the classical vocabulary of dance steps."

In February 1919 in[Kiev, she opened her dance school called L'Ecole de Mouvement [School of Movement]. This was shortly after giving birth to her son Léon. Her training philosophy focused on preparing dancers to work with innovative choreographers such as her brother Vaslav. She asked for flowing movement, free use of the torso, and a quickness in linking steps.

Under the aegis of this school she gave solo dance concerts. They included "her first plotless ballet compositions": Mephisto Valse (1919), and Twelfth Rhapsody (1920). These may be "the first abstract ballets" of the 20th century. Nijinska at her school also produced a full theatrical production of Swan Lake, employing the classical Petipa choreography.

Diaghilev's 'Ballets Russes' 1921–1925

Throughout the duration of his control of his company Diaghilev, who died in 1929, chiefly worked with five choreographers: Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, Nijinska, Balanchine. 1921 until 1925 was Nijinska's time at the helm.

Initial choreographies for the company

In 1921, Nijinska was asked by Diaghilev to return to Ballet Russes, this time as a choreographer. Following the war, Diaghilev learned that Nijinska in Kiev in 1919 had staged Marius Petipa's classic Swan Lake, music by Tchaikovsky. She was in line to be the Company's first and only female choreographer, as well as principal dancer, and ballet mistress. Diaghilev being cautious remained a little uncertain of her work; he decided to first assign her specific tasks to test her ability.

As theatrical events had unfolded, Ballets Russes was then faced with a severe financial problem. It arose out of its lavish London production of the celebrated 1890s ballet The Sleeping Princess originally staged by Petipa, to music by Tchaikovsky. In consequence Nijinska, sometimes working directly with Diaghilev, reworked parts of the ballet, turning the traditional, but unprofitable, three-act version into a viable one-act affair, entitled Aurora's Wedding.

In addition, Les Contes de Fées is another spinoff from The Sleeping Princess, and is also known as fairy tales from Aurora's Wedding. It premiered in February 1925. In these three Nijinska has minor choreography credit after Marius Petipa: The Sleeping Princess (1921 London), and its one-act spin off Aurora's Wedding (1922 Paris). [under construction]

La Belle au bois dormant, then called The Sleeping Princess (1921)

This ballet, most often called now The Sleeping Beauty, was "one of the great Petipa classics from the old Imperial Russian repertory, La Belle au bois dormant [The beauty in woods asleep]." Based on a French fairy tale of that name by Charles Perrault, its music was by Tchaikovsky. In 1921 Diaghilev had revived the Petipa choreography in three acts. "Additional choreography was provided by Bronislava Nijinska," e.g., the rousing hopak for the Three Ivans. Leon Bakst designed the sets which "were of surpassing grandeur and magnificence and no expense was spared... ."

Yet Nijinska was arriving in London from "Russia in revolution". She wrote that the Diaghilev's revival of The Sleeping Princess "seemed to me an absurdity, a dropping into the past," and many of the Ballet Russes audience members held the same opinion. Despite the extravagant production value of the ballet, the attendees were missing the more “current” aspect of dance that they had come to associate with the Ballet Russes, and it was deemed an overall failure.

Instead, she preferred the pre-war Diaghilev who had been "searching for the creation of a new ballet... ." Hence she recalled that "I started my first work full of protest against myself."

Aurora's Wedding, or Le Marriage d'Aurore (1922)

A ballet in one act that Nijinska assisted in creating, a miniature of the longer, three-act ballet The Sleeping Beauty. Its 1921 London production, after running three months, was not making a profit. To rescue his investment in costumes and sets Diaghilev, with the collaboration of Stravinsky and Nijinska, "salvaged only a one-act ballet, which he called Aurora's Wedding." Yet it proved very popular. For decades the shorter ballet remained in the repertory.

Les Contes de Fées [Stories of the fairies] (1925)

Les Contes de Fées is a ballet drawn from the fairy tales in Aurora's Wedding and originally seen in Act III of La Belle au bois dormant. It premiered February, 1925, in Monte Carlo.

Her ballet creations

Nijinska earned her credits as the sole choreographer for nine works at Ballets Russes during the 1920s. Eight are discussed here in this section. For Romeo and Juliet (1926) see below. All but one were set to modern musical compositions: three by Igor Stravinsky (two ballets, Renard, Noces, and an opera, Mavra), one each by Francis Poulenc (Biches), Georges Auric (Fâcheux), Modest Mussorgsky (Nuit, an opera), and Darius Milhaus (Train Bleu). One work employed baroque music (Tentations). Music for the Shakespeare play was by Constant Lambert.

Le Renard [The Fox] [Baika] (1922)

Nijinska's first ballet in her tentative new position as choreographer for Ballets Russes was Le Renard, described as a "burlesque ballet with song". Igor Stravinsky composed the music, which was for small orchestra and four singers. Stravinsky also wrote the libretto, i.e., the lyrics. Originally commissioned by a friend of Diaghilev in 1915, it was not publicly performed until 1922.

The principal dancers were: Nijinska (as the Fox), Stanislas Idzikowski (as the Cock), Jean Jazvinsky and Micel Federov (as the Cat, and the Goat). Costumes and sets by Michel Larionov were in a type of radical, modernist style with a "primitive quality".

The plot comes from "Russian preliterary theater" sourced in "a tradition of itinerant folk entertainers" impersonating buffoons and animals. The Fox (a con-artist) works to trick the Cock (a wealthy peasant) in order to literally eat him, but the Cock is saved by the Cat and Goat. "Disguised first as a nun, then as a beggar, the fox embodies criticism of both social and clerical orders." Baika was the original Russian title of Le Renard.

Nijinska's choreography tended modern. She "juxtaposed movements of animal grace with odd gestures and grotesque postures." The ballet was narrated by singers off stage. Larionov's visual design included simple animal masks for the dancers; the name of each character, e.g., "Goat", was written in large letters on the dance costume.

In her memoirs, Nijinska discusses Fokine's innovative "Dance of the Fauns" (1905). There in the background the many "fauns looked like animals". The young boys who danced them once "tumbled head over heels" which was not in keeping with 'classical ballet' techniques. Yet Fokine claimed the result conformed to the "animal characteristics of the dance." Nijinska then comments:

"I, who always spoke against the use of acrobatics in the ballet, made use of somersaults in my very first ballet, Stravinsky's Le Renard (1922). But there was no contradiction. I did not use those steps as a trick but to achieve an artistic aim."

Although Le Renard was ill-received and seldom performed, Stravinsky's harsh music and the childlike costumes were suspected. Yet the ballet had "impeccable avant-garde credentials." "Diaghilev was pleased with Nijinska's work and engaged her as the permanent choreographer for his company." Stravinsky, too, was pleased. He wrote in his 1936 Chronicles of my life:

"I still deeply regret that the production [Le Renard] which gave me the greatest satisfaction... has never been revived. Nijinska had admirably siezed the spirit of mountebank buffoonery. She displayed such a wealth of ingenuity, so many fine points, so much satirical verve, that the effect was irresistible."

The premiere of this burlesque ballet also inspired an interesting social event. It was "a first night supper party for Le Renard", planned by Sydney Schiff as a kind of "modernist summit". Invited were "Proust and Joyce in literature, Stravinsky in music, Picasso in painting." Garafola comments that only in these years of Diaghilev "would ballet stand so close to the avant-garde."

Mavra (1922)

An "opéra bouffe" with music by Stravinsky, it was first performed at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in Paris, June 1922. The lyric book by Boris Kochno followed a poem by Pushkin, 'A small house in Kolomna'. "The one-act opera did not require any dances, but Diaghilev did ask Nijinska to stage the movement of the four singers."

Les Noces [The Wedding] (1923)

Nijinska created the ballet Les Noces ['The Wedding' [original title Les Noces Villageoise, in Russian Svadebka]) from the music and libretto by Igor Stravinsky, music commissioned ten years earlier by Diaghilev. The 24-minute ballet depicts the rural marriage ceremony of Russian peasants. Dancers first learning the steps often meet some difficulty with the intense group movements of the choreography. "When you are truly moving together your individuality is really evident." The light-hearted sense of folk dance was abandoned. A realism of revolution has seasoned Nijinska's sober observations of tradition and society, yet there slumbers a vision. The collective mood of predestination is countered by hints at a peasant's wit of survival. After first seeing it, H. G. Wells wrote:

The ballet Les Noces is "a rendering in sound and vision of the peasant soul, in its gravity, in its deliberate and simple-minded intricacy, in its subtly varied rhythms, in its deep undercurrents of excitement... ."

Stravinsky's idea for the score evolved during war, revolution, and exile. His libretto conveys ancient and set patterns, yet his music uses staccato rhythms and a vocal overlay of upheaval. Left little expressed is the wedding as a reassuring joy. The tone of the work is darker, more anxious, conjuring a "deeply moving evocation" of the ceremony. Although his lyrics were taken from folk songs of Russian weddings, the vocals are almost chanted. Stravinsky’s composition, while fluid and layered, at times becomes overtly jarring. In form it's a cantata for chorus, solo voices, and "an orchestra of percussion, dominated by four pianos." The minimalist visual designs were by Natalia Goncharova, the color scheme being "earthen gold, blue-grey, and black." Strains of feminism can be seen throughout the work, according to Greskovic, as Les Noces dramatizes the obligation of marriage, and a bride who appears devoid of emotion.

Nijinska researched ethnological studies of peasant customs in Russia. Yet in boldly translating to the ballet stage, she seems to follow Stravinsky's modern score. She directed the women to dance en pointe, in order to elongate their silhouettes and resemble Russian icons. The beating sound of pointe shoes jabbing the boards gives power to the dancing (far from the wispy, ethereal effect previously associated with dancing en pointe). Nijinska's groupings of women move largely in unison. The corps often faces square to the audience, a departure from the “epaulement” found in classical works, which softens the look by angling the shoulders. Toward the end of scene one, the women handle extremely long braids of the bride’s hair, greatly exaggerated in thickness, as if the women were "sailors taking up the mooring lines of a boat." According to critic Robert Greskovic the whole piece, tethered to an ancient folk tradition, has an overwhelming sense of control and conformity.

An iconic pose from Les Noces has the heads of the women dancers, i.e., the bridesmaids, as if stacked up. Author Jennifer Homans, in defining the ballet's tragedy, comments:

"In one of the ballet's most poignant and telling images, the women dutifully pile their faces like bricks on top of one another, forming an abstract, pyramid structure... . The bride sets her face on the top and rests her head despondently in her hands. We see both the individuals (those faces) and their submission to authority and the group..."

"Les Noces was Nijinska's answer to Sacre," as Homans understands it, "a reenactment of a Russian peasant wedding." It was "not a joyous occasion but a foreboding social ritual in which feelings were strictly contained and limited by ceremonial forms." Nijinska, however, escaped from her brother's nihilism by following Stravinsky's lead "through the formal beauty and discipline of the Orthodox liturgy." Nonetheless the ballet was "a modern tragedy, a complicated and very Russian drama that celebrated authority" yet showed its "brutal effect on the lives of individuals."

Dance academic and critic Lynn Garafola, in discussing ballet in the early 1920s, describes Diaghilev's competition. She notes that Ballets suédois (Swedish ballet) led by Rolf de Maré had "largely succeeded in edging Diaghilev to the sidelines of avant-garde Paris." Garafola mentions her admiration for the 1922 ballet Le Renard (see above) created by Nijinska for Ballets Russes. She continues:

"[I]t was only in 1923 that Diaghilev staged a modernist masterpiece that transcended the best of his rival's offerings. Les Noces, probably the greatest dance work of the decade, teamed three of his closest Russian collaborators: Stravinsky, his 'first son', as composer; Natalia Goncharova, as designer; and Bronislava Nijinska, as choreographer."

"Bronislava Nijinska's Les noces [grew] out of boldness of conception without regard for precedent or consequences," wrote John Martin, dance critic for The New York Times. Nijinska herself wrote about Noces: "I was informed as a choreographer [by my brother's ballets] Jeux and Le Sacre du Printemps. The unconscious art of those ballets inspired my initial work."

Les Tentations de la Bergère [Temptations of the shepherdess] (1924)

This one-act ballet featured baroque music composed by Michel de Montéclair (1667–1737), which was recently orchestrated by Henri Casadesus. The sets, costumes, and curtain were by Juan Gris. An alternative title is L'Amour Vainqueur [Love Victorious]. It opened in Monte Carlo.

In the mid-1920s "a significant part of the Ballet Russes repertory turned away from modernism and themes of contemporary life." This included Les Tentations de la Bergère and the ballet Les Fâcheux, also choreographed by Nijinska. These were "two works produced by the Ballets Russes during the 1920s that focused on themes related to eighteenth-century France. These productions were rooted in France’s post-World War I fascination with bygone monarchies and court life."

Les Biches [The Does, or The Hinds] (1924), also called The House Party

A one-act ballet with songs, Les Biches [original title 'Les Demoiselles'] depicts a house party, with music for 'entertainment' by Francis Poulenc. The scenery and costumes were by the 'fashionable' cubist painter Marie Laurencin. Poulenc's music, which originally included singing of lyrics, was a "wonderful chameleon of a score", that was "mischievous, mysterious, now sentimental, now jazzy, now Mozartian... ."

Its January 1924 opening at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo featured a cast of "La Nijinska herself" and, among others, a minor role for Ninette de Valois who later became director at Sadler's Wells Ballet. Latter several English-speaking ballet companies changed the title, e.g., The House Party or The Gazelles. The French title Les Biches signifies female deer (the plural of doe), which was "1920s terminology for young women; [it] celebrates ballet women as chic young ladies."

"Although Diaghilev to Poulenc praised Nijinska to the heavens... [he] feared she might be unresponsive to the Latin charm of the Poulenc score." Her first three choreographies for Ballet Russe had been composed by Stravinsky (Renard, Mavra, Noces). Yet "Poulenc and Nijinska had taken to each other enormously... ." During rehearsals, Poulenc remarked that "Nijinska is really a genius" and her choreography's "pas de deux is so beautiful that all the dancers insist on watching it. I am enchanted." Diaghilev concluded:

"Poulenc is enthusiastic about Bronya's (Nijinska's) choreography, and they get along excellently together. The choreography has delighted and astonished me. But then, this good woman, intemperate and antisocial as she is, does belong to the Nijinsky family."

Nijinska took the role of the hostess of the house party. The ballet's libretto has "a romantic theme rather than a specific plot; the characters are dancers." The hostess is "a lady no longer young, but very wealthy and elegant." Her guests are younger: twelve girls and three boys. The ballet has eight parts, each with a different dance music. The young guests flirt, appear to take no notice, or play dance games in a setting filled with social satire and ambiguous sexuality. The hostess, dressed in yellow, brandishes a cigarette holder as if posing for an advertisement. Balanchine comments that she seems driven to remain in motion, her hands, her desperate dance: she is unable to image herself alone and still. Nijinska "was 'powerful' and 'strange,' a dancer 'intoxicated with rhythm, ...racing against the most breathless 'prestos' of the orchestra." In this role of the yellow-clad hostess, Nijinska

"flew round the stage, performing amazing contortions of her body, beating her feet, sliding backwards and forwards, screwing her face into an abandoned attitude on the sofa. She danced as the mood took her and was brilliant."

Dance writer Richard Shead appraised Les Biches as "a perfect synthesis of music, dance, and design... ." He situated it in the aftermath of the radical experimentalism of her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, whose innovations had challenged the classical ballet canons:

"The great strength of Nijinska's choreography was its inventiveness, together with the fact that it remained essentially classical. It is easier to see now than it can have been in the 1920s that the future of choreography lay in classicism but in a classicism which was capable of being extended, varied, distorted even, without departing in any fundamental sense from the mainstream vocabulary of classical dance. Nijinska achieved this in Les Biches; Balanchine was to do so latter... ."

In Les Biches, writes Lynn Garafola, Nijinska's choreography "cracked open the gender codes of classical style, transforming a piece of twenties chic into a critique of sexual mores." Marie Laurencin's decor had "the same ambiguous blend of innocence and corruption" as the ballet. It opens in a flood of pink light that is "voluptuously feminine". A host of taboos are explored: "narcissism, voyeurism, female sexual power, castration, sapphism". Granola comments that Diaghilev disapproved of the ballet's pessimism, its sour look at gender relations. Portrayed was a femininity "only skin-deep, a subterfuge applied like make-up, a construction elaborated over time by men, not an innate female property." The customary "male bravura dance" is here exposed as pretentious. The ballet "divorces the appearance of love from its reality." Les Biches, surmises Garafola, may be interpreted as disclosing Nijinska's "unease with traditional representations of femininity."

Balanchine, Nijinska's successor as choreographer at Ballets Russes, states that her Les Biches was a "popular ballet of the Diaghilev era". It was revived several times, meeting with "critical and popular approval". "Monte Carlo and Paris audiences... loved it." "Les Biches was very much liked." "Strangely perhaps, Nijinska never approached such heights again."

Les Fâcheux [The Mad, or The Bores] (1924)

fr:Les Fâcheux was originally a three-act ballet comedy, written by the French playwright, librettist, and actor, known by his stage name Molière (1622–1673). It opened in 1661, with baroque music by Pierre Beauchamp and Jean-Baptiste Lully. Without a plot, characters appear, do a monologue, then exit never to return. "Molière's hero Éraste [is] continually hindered by well-meaning bores while on his way to visit his lady love." Adopted for Ballets Russes, the music was by Georges Auric, with scenery designed by Georges Braque, libretto by Jean Cocteau after Molière, choreography by Nijinska.

Nijinska danced the male role of Lysandre, wearing a wig and clothes of the seventeenth-century. Anton Dolin as L'Elégant danced on point to approximate the baroque era and his performance created a sensation. "Her choreography incorporates mannerisms and poses from the period that she modernized by stylization." Braque's costumes were 'Louis XIV'. The original music, however, had been lost, so that Auric was free to evoke the past with a modern composition.

Georges Auric was associated with fellow French composers Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, and Arthur Honegger, part of a group called Les Six. French writer Jean Cocteau courted the group as representing a new approach to the arts, including poetry and painting. Ballets suédois in the early 1920s commissioned members of Les Six to compose music for its dance productions. Ballets Russes followed suit. Some 1920s music critics dismissed Les Six compositions as musiquette. But current critic Lynn Garafola sees in ballet revivals like Les Fâcheux that employ their music a "gaiety and freshness" in their "unpretentious tunes and depiction of everyday life". Garafola appreciates "the independence of the music in relation to the choreography."

Ballets Russes dancer Lydia Lopokova, however, about Nijinska's ballet Les Fâcheux and similar works, commented that it was smooth and professional, but nothing or no one moved her. She longed for very old-fashioned ballets without abstract ideas, with simplicity and poetry. "Massine and Nijinska choreography clever as it is have too much intellect," she felt.

La Nuit sur le Mont chauve [Night on Bald Mountain] (1924)

The ballet premiered in April, 1924, in Monte Carlo, with principal dancers Lydia Sokolova and Michel Fedorov. Nijinska's choreography was set to the music of Modest Mussorgsky. Some designs for ballet then experimented "with costumes that 'reconstructed' the body, transforming its natural shape." For Night on Bald Mountain, Nijinska's sketches "show elongated, arc-like forms." The costumes designed Alexandra Exter "played with shape" and "played with gender".

Exter also "depersonalized the dancers, clothing them in identical gray costumes." Yet it was "the architectural poses of Nijinska's choreography that gave the costumes their distinctive shape". Nijinska emphasized the ensemble rather than the individual dancer, i.e., "her inventive use of the corps de ballet as the central figure" rather than a soloist as was the norm. The total effect allowed the "movement of the dancers to blend... they became a sculpted entity capable of expressing the whole ballet action."

For his 1867 'symphonic poem' La Nuit sur le Mont chauve Mussorgsky was inspired by the witches sabbath as told by Nikolai Gogol in his St. John's Eve story. The composer, however, repeatedly revised and eventually incorporated the music of this 'symphonic poem' into Act III of his unfinished opera, Sorochintsy yarmarka [The Fair at Sorochintsy]. He labored on it for years prior to his death in 1881. Mussorgsky himself wrote the opera's libretto, based on a Gogol story of the same name. Its ballet scenes thus contained the 'night on bald mountain'. The music was later orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Le Train Bleu [The Blue Train] (1924)

The ballet Le train blue has been called a 'danced operetta'. Darius Milhaud composed the music, with the ballet libretto by poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Costumes, including "bathing costumes of the period", were by 'Coco' Chanel, with scenery by Henri Laurens. The cast: a handsome kid (Anton Dolin), a bathing belle (Lydia Sokolova), a golfer (Leon Woizikowski), and a tennis player (Nijinska).

The Cocteau libretto has a thin plot. Its title refers to the actual Train Bleu, whose destination was Côte d'Azur, a fashionable resort area, specifically Monte Carlo. "The Blue Train used to bring the beau monde down to the south from Paris... ." Diaghilev remarked, "The first point about Le train bleu is that there is no Blue Train in it." The scenario "took place on a beach, where pleasure-seekers disported themselves." Inspired in part by youth "showing off" with "acrobatic stunts", the ballet "was a smart piece about a fashionable plage" [beach].

"Nijinska created a special ambiance through the language of dance, she introduced angular and geometrical movements and organized dancers on stage as interactive groups, that alluded to images of sports activities, such as golf, tennis and recreational games on a beach."

Popular passion for sport caused Cocteau to first conceive of a 'beach ballet'. The work also provided a prize role for the athletic Anton Dolin, whose "acrobatics astonished and delighted the audience." When he left the company, however, no one as capable could be found for the role, causing the ballet to be dropped.

Probably the ballet suffered when collaboration between Nijinska and librettist Cocteau collapsed. Garafola writes that contested issues included gender (Cocteau said to entertain a "dim view of women" versus Nijinska's unease with traditional femininity), a story and gesture approach verses 'abstract ballet' (Cocteau favored substituting out dance for pantomime, Nijinska satisfied with a plotless ballet), and the changing aesthetics of dance (Cocteau favoring acrobatics over dance, but which for Nijinska constituted a delicate series of judgments). Last minute changes were made. Nijinska's choreography managed to impart a sophistication of view to the beach ballet. Garafola further opines that "Only Nijinska had the technical wherewithal... to wrest irony from the language and traditions of [classical dance]."

Le train bleu anticipated the 1933 ballet Beach. "Massine's choreography, like Nijinska's, was a stylization of sport motifs and different dance idioms within a structured balletic framework." The athletic dance scenes incorporated jazz movements. More recently Nijinska's 1924 choreography was revived.

Her own ballet companies 1925, 1931–1932, 1932–1934

1925 marked Nijinska's departure from Ballet Russes. George Balanchine then filled the choreographer position. During the twenties and thirties, Nijinska formed and directed several ballet companies of her own. Then in 1934 misfortune involving her innocent entanglement in another's civil law dispute caused the loss of essential trade property. This led her to accept offers from other dance companies. Her work in choreography continued, but with a variety of other companies and theaters, sometimes in a 'freelance' capacity.

'Théâtre Chorégraphiques', England & Paris: 6 short ballets, e.g., Holy Etudes

In 1925 Nijinska formed her own ballet company: Théâtre Chorégraphiques Nijinska. It was a chamber ensemble that employed eleven dancers. The Russian avant-garde visual artist Alexandra Exter designed the costumes and sets. Nijinska had first met Exter in Kiev during war and revolution. It was a professional relationship that had continued as Nijinska choreographed for Ballets Russes. For the 1925 summer season (August–October), her ballet company toured fifteen English resort towns and provincial cities. It then performed selections in Paris, at an international exhibition and for a gala program.

For her company, Nijinska choreographed six short ballets, and danced in five.

Her first abstract ballet seen outside Russia, to J. S. Bach's First and Fifth Brandenberg Concertos, was also the first ballet mounted to his music. The dancers wore identical silk tunics and capes, with halo-like headgear. "Exter's 'uni-sex' costumes were revolutionary in their day." Yet, according to accounts, their simple and severe design "added immeasurably to the broad flowing movement and stately rhythms of the choreography, suggesting androgynous beings moving in heavenly harmony."

Silk "enhanced the ethereal quality of the ballet. The brilliant pink and bright orange capes hung straight from bamboo rods placed across the dancers' shoulders... ." Author Nancy Baer further observes, "By varying the levels, groupings, and facings of the dancers, Nijinska created a pictorial composition made up of moving and intersecting planes of color." An unusual feature, used before in Les Noces, was her later call for dancing en pointe "to elongate and stylize the line of the body".

Her abstract Bach ballet was one of those creations "she cared most about." She continued to rework the choreography, and presented it in different versions: for Teatro Colón in 1926; for Ballets Nijinska in 1931, which was staged throughout the 1930s; and another in 1940 at the Hollywood Bowl.

Nijinska "took contemporary forms of locomotion as her theme", with music by Francis Poulenc, costumes and set by Exter. "Cycling, flying, horse-riding, carriage driving... were all reduced to dancing." It further illustrated ballet's reach to modern life, following her brother Vaslav Nijinsky's Jeux of 1913, and her Les Biches and Le Train Bleu of 1924.

The music was Igor Stravinsky's 1918 composition Ragtime, costumes by Exter.

Based on a Kabuki story, with music by Leighton Lucas, and costumes by Exter.

The title role is a character in a French puppet show, which became also a name for puppet shows. Music by Joseph Lanner. It was latter performed in 1926 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

'Ballets Nijinska' in Paris: Etude-Bach, choreography for operas

In 1931 while staging dance productions for 'Opera Russe à Paris' (see below), Nijinska also operated under her name: 'Ballets Nijinska'. She independently choreographed ballet pieces for operas performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, or at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris under the auspices of the 'Opera Russe' yet autonomously as 'Ballets Nijinska'.

In 1931 her company staged Etude-Bach with Boris Belinsky's decor and costumes, after Alexandra Exter. This was a new version of her 1925 Holy Etudes and her 1926 Un Estudio Religioso.

'Théâtre de la Danse' in Paris: Hamlet, Variations

From 1932 to 1934 Nijinska directed her own Paris-based company, Théâtre de la Danse. A new ballet Variations was staged in 1932, inspired by the music by Ludwig van Beethoven (a selection of his compositions). The dancers followed a difficult theme: the flux in the fate of nations (classical Greece, Russia under Alexander I, France during the early Second Empire). The choreography was primarily ensemble dances and pantomime, with costume and decor by Georges Annenkov.

In 1934 she choreographed Hamlet, based on Shakespeare's play, performed to music by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. Nijinska played the title role. "Her choreography, however, instead of retelling Shakespeare's plot, emphasized the feelings of the tragedy's tormented characters." Nijinska conceived "three aspects for each of the protagonists". In addition to "the real character" there were "characters representing his soul and his fate" played "by separate groups of dancers" like "a Greek chorus". Eight years later another Hamlet ballet, created by Robert Helpmann to music by Tchaikovsky, was staged in London, also not following the original plot.

There were also performances of two of her remarkable ballets from the mid-1920s, Les Biches (a.k.a. The House Party) in 1932 and in 1933 Les Noces [The Wedding]. Nijinska's Théâtre de la Danse spent ballet seasons in Paris and Barcelona, and toured France and Italy.

In 1934 Nijinska joined her dance company to Wassily de Basil's company Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. For the 1934 Opera and Ballet seasons, she directed the Monte Carlo productions of the combined companies in performances of her repertoire. Later in 1934 her 'Théâtre de la Danse' company lost its costumes and sets when, for the benefit of unpaid artists of the 'Opera Russe à Paris', they were mistakenly seized in this legal dispute. Not until 1937 was Nijinska able to recover them.

Other companies and exemplary ballets 1926–1938

Nijinska continued to choreograph, dance, and direct, working for ballet companies and institutions in Europe, South America, and the United States.

'Théâtre de l'Opéra' in Paris: Bien Aimée [Beloved]

A one-act ballet, music by Schubert and Liszt, libretto and decor by Benois, with Rubinstein and Vilzak dancing the Nijinska choreography, staged in 1928. The thin plot has a poet reminiscing at the piano about his departed Muse, and his youth. The ballet was revived by the Markova-Dolan company in 1937. The Ballet Theatre in New York City had Nijinska stage its American premier in 1941/1942.

Also at the Paris Opera, in 1924 Nijinska choreographed the ballet La Rencontres [The Encounters], libretto by Kochno, music by Sauguet. Oedipus meets the Sphinx in a circus.

Diaghilev's 'Ballets Russes' in Monte Carlo: Romeo and Juliet

A new version of Romeo and Juliet with music by Constant Lambert premiered in 1926. The ballet impressed Massine, who saw it later in London. "Nijinska's choreography was an admirable attempt to express the poignancy of Shakespeare's play in the most modern terms." At the end, the leading dancers Karsavina and Lifar, lovers in real life, "eloped in an aeroplane". Max Ernst did design work, Balanchine an entr'acte. "It seemed to me that this ballet was far in advance of its time," Massine later wrote.

'Teatro Colón' in Buenos Aires: Estudio Religioso, choreography for operas

Nijinska became choreographic director and principal dancer with Teatro Colón (Columbus Theater) in 1926. Her active association with the Buenos Aires company would endure until 1946. In 1913 the Ballets Russes had toured Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rio de Janeiro, but Nijinska with child did not go. Her brother Nijinsky did. In 1926 she found "an inexperienced but enthusiastic group of dancers," thirty in number, in a ballet organization newly founded by Adolph Bolm.

Nijinska staged Un Estudio Religioso to music by Bach in 1926, which she developed from her choreography Holy Etudes of 1925. At Teatro Colón she was able to expand the work into a presentation by a full company. She drew on innovative ideas she'd first developed in Kiev during the war and the revolution. In both these Bach ballets, there was no libretto, no plot.

"This abstract ballet, inspired by the spirituality of the music, was choreographed to an arrangement of the six Brandenburg Concertos and was the first ballet to be mounted to the music of J. S. Bach."

In 1926 and 1927 for the Buenos Aires theater, Nijinska created dance scenes for fifteen operas, including Bizet's Carmen, Wagner's Tannhäuser, Verdi's Aïda and La Traviata, Stravinsky's Le Rossignol, Rimsky-Korsakov's Tsar Saltan, Massenet's Thaïs, and Gounod's Faust. In 1927 for Teatro Colón, Nijinska directed ballet choreography created by Fokine for Ballets Russes: Ravel's Daphnis et Chloë, and Stravinsky's Petrouchka.

'Ida Rubinstein Ballet' in Paris: Boléro, La Valse, Le Baiser de la Fée

Ida Rubinstein formed a ballet company in 1928, with Bronislava Nijinska named as the choreographer. Rubinstein quickly arranged for Maurice Ravel to compose music for her new dance enterprise. By luck or genius, one of Ravel's pieces became popular immediately and famous. It has remained so to this day: his Boléro. For Rubinstein, Nijinska choreographed the original Boléro ballet. In it she created an ambient scene where a large circular platform, center stage, is surrounded by various individual dancers. At times attention may be drawn to the side where several begin to dance. The movements inspired by Spanish dance are yet abbreviated, stylized.

Rubinstein herself had danced for Diaghilev in the early years of his company Ballets Russes. In the 1910 ballet Shéhérazade (music also by Ravel) she and Vaslav Nijinsky (Nijinska's brother) both had leading roles. They danced together in a scene Nijinska called "breathtaking". Rubinstein and Nijinsky also had partnered in the ballet Cléopâtre a year before in Paris for Ballets Russes. Rubinstein played the title role. The ballet was "the runaway success of the 1909 season that made her an overnight star".

Rubinstein, now resident in Paris, directed then her company to perform the Nijinska-created ballet for Maurice Ravel's La valse.

A version of the ballet Le Baiser de la Fée [Kiss of the Fairy] originated when Ida Rubinstein asked Igor Stravinsky to compose music to be choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. It would be staged in 1928. "The idea was that I should compose something inspired by the music of Tchaikovsky," wrote Stravinsky. For a theme he chose Hans Christian Andersen's 'eerie' tale of The Ice-Maiden, to which he put a positive spin: "A fairy imprints her magic kiss on a child at birth... . Twenty years later... she repeats the fatal kiss and carries him off to live in supreme happiness with her... ." Stravinsky understood the story's fairy to be the Muse whose kiss branded Tchaikovsky with a 'magic imprint' inspiring his music. Nijinska created the choreography.

The composer Stravinsky conducted the orchestra for the ballet's first performance at the Opéra in Paris in 1928. Le Baiser de la Fée played at other European capitals, and in 1933 at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires. In 1935 Ashton choreographed a new version that played in London, and in 1937 Balanchine did so for a version that played in New York.

'Opéra Russe à Paris': Capriccio Espagnol

This ballet company was founded in 1925 by a Russian singer and her husband, a nephew of French composer Massenet. A company director was Wassily de Basil (the former Vassily Voskresensky, a Russian entrepreneur, and perhaps Cossack officer). Since Sergei Diaghilev's death in 1929, an discomforting void existed in the world of European ballet. René Blum (brother of the French politician Léon Blum) was then "organizing the ballet seasons at the Casino de Monte Carlo." He began talks with de Basil about combining ballet operations, i.e., the naissant company 'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo'. From de Basil would come "dancers, repertory, scenery, and costumes" and from Blum "the theater and its facilities and financial support". A contract was signed in January 1932. "From the beginning de Basil acted as impresario," In 1936 Blum and de Basil split, each with his own company.

Nijinska had joined the company 'Opèra Russe à Paris' in 1930 "to choreograph the ballet sequences" in several operas, and "to create works for the all-ballet evenings that alternated with evenings of opera." Consequently, she created the ballet for Capriccio Espagnol by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. She also staged several of her previous ballet creations (Les Noces and Les Biches) and other Ballets Russes fare of the Diaghilev era. She then turned down an "unusually generous" offer from de Basil's 'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo' in order to start her own company, 'Ballets Nijinska'.

de Basil's 'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo': Les Cent Baisers

Nijinska choreographed Les Cent Baisers [The hundred kisses] in 1935 for de Basil's company. This one-act ballet, with music by d'Erlanger, opened in London. The libretto by Boris Kochno followed the fairy tale "The swineherd and the princess" by Hans Christian Andersen. Nijinska's choreography is here considered one of her more classical. Yet she incorporated subtle variations from the usual academic steps, according to Baranova who danced the role of the princess. It gave the piece a special feeling of the East.

Max Reinhardt's Hollywood film: A Midsummer Night's Dream

In 1934 Max Reinhardt requested that Nijinska travel to Los Angeles to choreograph the dances for his 1935 film A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a Hollywood recreation of the William Shakespeare's comedy, with music by Felix Mendelssohn. The music was probably taken from his two compositions about that very Shakespearean play. The first was his 1826 concert overture, the second his 1842 incidental music, which incorporated the overture.

The Midsummer Night's Dream film was not Nijinska's first time in the employ of Max Reinhardt. The well-known impresario had staged many and various types of performance art in theaters across Europe. In 1931 in Berlin she had staged the ballet scenes for Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann.

Apparently Los Angeles agreed with Nijinska, who would make it her permanent residence a few years later.

Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires: Le Baiser de la Fée, Opera choreographies

Nijinska had presented at Teatro Colón in 1933 her ballet Le Baiser de la Fée [Kiss of the fairy], which she had first staged for Ida Rubinstein's Company in 1928. It was based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Ice-Maiden. Yet, in recreating the tale, music composer Igor Stravinsky had changed the eerie maiden into a fruitful Muse, inverting Andersen's original story in which the ice-maiden, disguised as a beautiful woman, attracts young men who are led to their death. In 1937 Nijinska returned to Buenos Aires for a reprise performance of Le Baiser de la Fée at the Stravinsky Festival.

Ballet choreography for dance scenes in operas was also created for Teatro Colón. Nijinska worked with compositions, e.g., by Mussorgsky, Verdi, de Falla, and Wagner.

'Markova-Dolin Ballet' in London: Les Biches

Nijinska staged her Les Biches in a reprise performance by the Markova-Dolin Ballet in 1937. In 1935 Alicia Markova had left the Vic-Wells ballet company of Ninette de Valois in order to "help form the Markova-Dolin Company (1935–1938), with Bronislava Nijinsky as chief choreographer." Anton Dolin, once a dance partner of Markova in Diaghilev's company, later became a choreographer for the American Ballet Theatre.

Previously Nijinska had given Markova 'creative sessions' in ballet, including instructions in her choreographed dances. In particular she taught Markova her early work from Kiev Autumn Song. In 1953 Markova danced this ballet for television.

'Ballet Polonais' in Warsaw: Concerto de Chopin

In 1937 Nijinska became the artistic director and choreographer for the Ballet Polonais (Polish Ballet). She created five new ballets for the company, including Concerto de Chopin. Its opening performance was in Paris, at the Exposition Internationale, where the Ballet Polonais was awarded the Grand Prix and Nijinska the Grand Prix for choreography. The company then performed in London, Berlin, and Warsaw; also it toured many cities in Germany and Poland.

About her Chopin Concerto (as later performed in 1944), critic Edward Denby wrote:

The structure of the piece—like that of much of Mme Nijinska's work—is based on a formal contrast: in the background, rigid impersonal groups or clusters of dancers, which seem to have the weight of statues; in the foreground, rapid arrowy flights performed by individual soloists. One appreciates their flashes of lightness and freedom because of the weight they seem to rise over, as if the constraints of the group were the springboard for the soloist's release."

Other companies and exemplary ballets 1940–1970

Nijinska and her family were in London when World War II started with the combined Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland (September 1939). She had a contract to "co-direct the dance sequences on a new film, Bullet in the Ballet," but it was cancelled due to war. Fortunately, an offer from promoter de Basil allowed them to make their way back to the United States. She eventually established a new residence in Los Angeles.

'Ballet Theatre' in New York: La Fille Mal Guardée, Schumann Concerto

Nijinska in 1939 started to choreograph a "rustic and comic" two-act ballet of the 18th century, La Fille Mal Guardée ['The ill-watched Daughter' or 'The unchaperoned Daughter']. For the inaugural season of the Ballet Theatre (ABT), it opened in January 1940 at the old Center Theatre in Rockefeller Plaza, New York City.

La Fille Mal Gardée is perhaps "the oldest ballet in the contemporary repertory" whose "comic situations are no doubt responsible for its survival." Jean Dauberval wrote the libretto and first choreography, the original music being a mix of popular French songs. Premiering in Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in 1789, the comedy "quickly made the circuit of European stages." Later in 1864 Taglioni's production in Berlin first adopted composite music scored by Hertel, which was in 1885 adopted by Petipa and Ivanov for the Maryinski Theater in Sankt-Peterburg.

The Dauberval's plot follows a lively rural romance, the lovers being "the mind-of-her-own Lise and the hard-to-resist Colas". They are challenged by Lise's mother the widow Simone, who prefers Allain, a wealthy but dull suitor.

"In America the most important production was Nijinska's". Lucia Chase of ABT had invited her to mount her own version, which incorporated decor from Mordkin (whose company ABT had absorbed). Her 1940 staging of La Fille Mal Gardée was revived by Alexandra Balashova, and then entered the repertory of the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. Twenty years later in London, Nijinska's former student Frederick Ashton of The Royal Ballet staged it. He refashioned the Dauberval libretto, wrote choreography to Hertel's music (newly rearranged), and arranged for revised decor, resulting in "a substantial work".

In 1951 Nijinska choreographed the Schumann Concerto, music by Robert Schumann, with Alicia Alonso as a principal dancer. In 1945 Nijinska had choreographed Rendezvous with music by Sergei Rachmaninoff; a principal dancer was Lucia Chase. Both were staged for Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

'The Hollywood Bowl' in Los Angeles: Boléro, Chopin Concerto, Etude-Bach

Later in 1940 she staged three short ballets for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl. For the program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra she selected favorites from among her prior choreographies: Ravel's Boléro (premiered with Rubinstein in 1932, revised), the Chopin Concerto (from 1937 with the Polish Ballet), and Etude-Bach (originally 'Holy Etudes' done for her own company in 1925, revisions). The event drew an audience of 22,000.

'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo' in New York: Snow Maiden, Ancient Russia

Nijinska choreographed Snow Maiden (1942) with music by Glazunov, for 'Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo' (Serge Denham as Artistic Director). Snow Maiden drew on Russian folklore. The maiden, the Frost King's daughter, would melt in the heat of the sun if she fell in love with a mortal man. The choreography "did not open any new avenues of artistic exploration." Critic Edwin Denby notes that "by preserving just enough independence of rhythm in relation to the sugary Glazounoff score [her groupings and dance phrases] keep a certain acid edge." Opening with Snow Maiden was a revision of the Chopin Concerto, originally written in 1937 for the award-winning Polish Ballet. John Martin ranked it highly, but Chopin (and Tchaikovsky) as no longer current. In 1943 she choreographed Ancient Russia, music by Tchaikovsky, with memorable visual designs by her colleague Nathalie Gontcharova.

For Denham's company Nijinska and Balanchine "were well-known choreographers on whom he could call." Yet it was "not Nijinska but another woman-an American-who revitalized the Ballets Russes in 1942. Agnes de Mille [with] Rodeo... ."

'Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas' in New York: The Sleeping Beauty

During the 1940s and into the 1950s, Nijinska served as the ballet mistress for the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet (also called International Ballet). In 1944 she choreographed Pictures at an Exhibition, music by Mussorgsky.

In 1960 a revision of The Sleeping Beauty, music by Tchaikovsky, was staged. Nijinska was familiar with The Sleeping Beauty. In 1921 for Diaghilev she had worked on Petipa's traditional 1890 version, a three-act ballet The Sleeping Princess. She had augmented the famous ballet with several new choreographed dances. With Stravinsky she had then abbreviated it into a one-act ballet, Aurora's Wedding. See Diaghilev 1921 section above.

'The Royal Ballet' of London: Les Biches and Les Noces

In 1964 Nijinska was asked by choreographer Frederick Ashton to stage a revival of her ballet Les Biches (1924) at Covent Gardens for The Royal Ballet. Ashton had become resident choreographer there in 1935. An associate director of the London company since 1952, he was appointed director in 1963.

As a young ballet student, Nijinska had mentored his career. In 1928 when she was the choreographer for Ida Rubenstein, he'd been a dancer in the company and performed in several of her choreographed works. Ashton consider her influential in the development of ballet, and specifically that her choreography had informed his own progress in that art. The staging of the revived Les Biches went well. Two years later, Ashton asked her to return to London and stage her Les Noces (1923) on his company.

These London productions, according to dance critic Horst Koegler, "confirmed her reputation as one of the formative choreographers of the 20th century." In 1934 Ashton had written:

“Her achievements have proved to me time and again that through the medium of classical ballet any emotion may be expressed. She might be called the architect of dancing, building her work brick by brick into the amazing structures that result in masterpieces like Les Noces.“

Following these London events, Nijinska "was repeatedly invited to revive several of her ballets". She staged Les Biches in Rome in 1969, and in Florence and Washington in 1970. Also Les Noces in 1971 in Venice where, during a rehearsal at the Teatro Fenice, she celebrated her eightieth birthday onstage.

Ballet based in Los Angeles, from 1940

After the start in 1939 of World War II in Europe, Nijinska and her family moved to New York in that October, then to Los Angeles in 1940. "Bronislava Nijinska did not understand Americans, or they her. She was almost deaf by the time she reached the United States, and life (exile, her brother's madness, her son's death) had let her down badly."

Yet she continued as a ballet mistress and guest choreographer, work that continued into the 1960s (see section above). In Los Angeles she began to teach ballet in a private studio, and she opened her own school in 1941. Her daughter Irina would run the school in her absence. She became a citizen of the United States in 1949.

Teaching dance

Throughout her career, Nijinska had taught dance, whether it was a ballet role to colleagues or her newly created choreographies. Several of her earlier students: Serge Lifar in Kiev, Frederick Ashton and Alicia Markova in Paris, Lucia Chase in New York. Later at her studio in Los Angeles, students included the prima ballerinas Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief (sisters), as well as Cyd Charisse, and later Allegra Kent.

Maria Tallchief (1925-2013) studied with Nijinska, "all through my high school years". Everyone was in awe of her. "She jumped and flashed around the studio. I was under her spell." Despite "luminous green eyes" she dressed plainly. "Madame Nijinska rarely spoke. She didn't have to. She had incredible personal magnetism". Her husband translated. "Madame say when you sleep, sleep like a ballerina. Even on street waiting for bus, stand like a ballerina." From her "I first learned that the dancer's soul is in the middle of the body". When Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo came to perform in Los Angeles, the ballet dancers took lessons from Madame. "And the biggest star of all, Alexandra Danilova, gave Nijinska roses when she entered the studio".

Allegra Kent (born 1937) recalls starting lessons in 1949 when she was twelve. Madame Nijinska was a "nice-looking woman in black lounge pajamas with a long cigarette holder" who counted time "ras, va, tri" in Russian. "Her husband was simultaneously translating everything she said into English." Because of her great authority and presence in her classes, "The world began and ended right there in that moment." After a year with her daughter Irina Nijinska, Allegra studied with 'Madame' herself. She learned "not to fear competing with men" and that "the light look of dance was merely the surface of a sculpture-there was a mixture of steel and quicksilver at the heart."

Work on her Memoirs

A manuscript of about 180,000 words about her early life was left completed. Following her death in 1972, Bronislava Nijinska's daughter Irina Nijinska and Jean Rawlingson edited and translated the Russian text into English. The book Early Memoirs was published in 1981. These writings describe in detail her early years traveling in provincial Russia with her dancer parents, her brother Vaslav's development as a dancer, her schooling and first years as a professional in the Diaghilev era of Russian ballet, and her work assisting her brother in his choreography. During her life, she had published a book and several articles on ballet.

"The full autobiographical story of her own career, however, is contained in another set of her memoirs, continuing from the 1914 close of [her Early Memoirs]." She also left a set of notebooks on ballet and other writings, which remain unpublished. Dance historian and critic Lynn Garafola is said to be currently working on a biography of Nijinska.

Bronislava Nijinska died from a heart attack suffered on February 21, 1972 in the Pacific Palisades, California.

Personal, family life

During her early years and into her mid-twenties, Bronislava Nijinsky was under the strong influence of her older brother Vaslav Nijinsky, whose brilliance became widely celebrated. Both Vatsa and Broni were trained from the start by their dancer parents. She learned from her brother's example, as he preceded her in childhood adventures, in ballet school, and then on the stage. When Nijinsky came to design his first choreographies, Nijinska as a ballet dancer assisted, following his detailed instructions as he tried out new steps and innovative poses. Her 1912 marriage, however, shook the artistic "bond between the brother and sister" although she supported his 1914 Season Nijinsky in London.

Nijinska married twice. Her first husband, Alexandre Kochetovsky, was a fellow dancer for Ballet Busses. She calls him 'Sasha' in her Early Memoirs. Married in 1912, she bore two children: their daughter Irina Nijinska in 1913, and Leon Kochetovsky, their son in 1919. That year Bronislava separated from Alexandre. During their marriage in Petrograd and in Kiev, they worked together through years of war and revolution. Two year later Nijinska left Soviet Russia with her children and her mother. They were divorced in 1924. Their son Leon was killed in a traffic accident in 1935. Their daughter Irina had become a ballet dancer in her own right, yet she also was seriously injured in the same traffic collision. Alexandre died of a heart attack in Houston, Texas, at the age of 63.

A true love of her life, but whom she did not marry, was also a theatrical personality. They last met in 1912. He remained a source of her artistic inspiration. Their career paths had crossed several times, but for romance circumstances worked against them: the Russian opera singer, the renowned basso, Feodor Chaliapin (1873–1938).

Nijinska's second marriage in 1924 was to Nicholas Singaevsky, also a dancer with Ballets Russes. During their four decades together, he often worked in production and management, serving as her partner in staging her various ballet productions. In America he also helped in translation. He died in Los Angeles, California, in 1968, four years before her.

Her estranged father Tomasz [Foma] Nijinsky, whom she had continued to revere, died in Russia in 1912. Her oldest brother Stanislav (Stassik), placed in a sanitariums since 1902, also died in Russia in 1918. In 1921 with her mother Eleanora Bereda Nijinska and her two children, Nijinska left Russia. They made their way to Austria, to meet her brother, his wife, and children. Nijinska then worked with Ballets Russes, chiefly in Paris and Monte Carlo, until 1925, and thereafter independently, often on tour. Bronislava remained close to her mother, until her passing in 1932.

Her older brother Vaslav, who married in 1913 and whose ballet career ended in 1917, lived for many years in Switzerland, but died in Sussex, UK, in 1950. Vaslav was survived by his wife and their two daughters, Kyra and Tamara, additionally, by Tamara's daughter and Kyra's son Vaslav Markevitch. Kyra had danced for her aunt Bronia in 1931.

Upon the passing of Nicholas Singaevsky, Nijinska's husband, her daughter Irina Nijinsky continued to assist her with the art world of ballet. After her death in 1972, Irina carried on her mother's work which included editing and translating the Early Memoirs, and then seeing the work to publication. Irina Nijinska had been her mother's rehearsal assistant. For many years following her death, the stagings of her early ballet choreographies was advanced by Irina.