00 Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the "God of Dance," was on the verge of a mental breakdown when he wrote this diary as an outlet for his views on religion, art, love, and life. The diary provides unique insight into the inner life of a highly gifted but mentally disturbed creative genius. Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the "God of Dance," was on the verge of a mental breakdown when he wrote this diary as an outlet for his views on religion, art, love, and life. The diary provides unique insight into the inner life of a highly gifted but mentally disturbed creative genius.

Traces the Russian ballet dancer's descent into psychosis over six weeks in the winter of 1917-1918

The intoxicating story of one of the greatest dancers in the history of ballet?and the paradox of his profound genius and descent into madness. Vaslav Nijinsky was unique as a dancer, interpretive artist, and choreographic pioneer. His breathtaking performances with the Ballet Russe from 1909 to 1913 took Western Europe by storm. His avant-garde choreography for The Afternoon of the Faune and The Rite of Spring provoked riots when performed and are now regarded as the foundation of modern dance. Through his liaison with the great impresario Diaghilev, he worked with the artistic elite of the time. During the fabulous Diaghilev years he lived in an atmosphere of perpetual hysteria, glamor, and intrigue. Then, in 1913, he married a Hungarian aristocrat, Romola de Pulszky, and was abruptly dismissed from the Ballet Russe. Five years later, he was declared insane. The fabulous career as the greatest dancer who ever lived was over. Drawing on countless people who knew and worked with Nijinsky, Richard Buckle has written the definitive biography of the legendary dancer.

'He achieves the miraculous,' the sculptor Auguste Rodin wrote of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. 'He embodies all the beauty of classical frescoes and statues'. Like so many since, Rodin recognised that in Nijinsky classical ballet had one of the greatest and most original artists of the twentieth century, in any genre. Immersed in the world of dance from his childhood, he found his natural home in the Imperial Theatre and the Ballets Russes, he had a powerful sponsor in Sergei Diaghilev - until a dramatic and public failure ended his career and set him on a route to madness. As a dancer, he was acclaimed as godlike for his extraordinary grace and elevation, but the opening of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring saw furious brawls between admirers of his radically unballetic choreography and horrified traditionalists. Nijinsky's story has lost none of its power to shock, fascinate and move. Adored and reviled in his lifetime, his phenomenal talent was shadowed by schizophrenia and an intense but destructive relationship with his lover, Diaghilev. 'I am alive' he wrote in his diary, 'and so I suffer'. In the first biography for forty years, Lucy Moore examines a career defined by two forces - inspired performance and an equally headline-grabbing talent for controversy, which tells us much about both genius and madness. This is the full story of one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century, comparable to the work of Rosamund Bartlett or Sjeng Scheijen.