Dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, who performed with the Balles Russes, was celebrated for his gravity–defying leaps and onstage intensity. He began dancing at the age of three, and was admitted to St Petersburg’s Imperial School of Ballet only six years later. He met ballet impresario Serge Diaghileff in 1908, and joined the company, with his sensual choreography sparking outrage in theatres across Europe.
In 2000, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Polish-Russian dancer’s death, John Neumeier, the director of Hamburg Ballet, choreographed a full–length ballet that charted the dancer’s rise and fall.
The ballet plays out in the dancer’s memory, during his last performance in Switzerland. It narrates his troubled family life and the bitter love triangle which forced him to split with his ballet company, before it traces his distressing final years in and out of mental asylums.
Type of Event: Dance
Venue: State Theatre
Arts Centre Melbourne
100 St Kilda Rd
Melbourne VIC 3004
Date: from 7 to 17 September 2016
Price: to be confirmed
Website: The Australian Ballet
Telephone: (03) 9281 8000
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