Kyra Vaslavovna Nijinsky (19 June 1913 – 1 September 1998) was a ballet dancer of Polish and Hungarian ancestry, with a Russian dance and cultural heritage. She was the daughter of

Vaslav Nijinsky Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Nijinsky was celebrated for his virtuosity and f ...

and the niece of

Bronislava Nijinska Bronislava Nijinska (; ; ; ; – February 21, 1972) was a Russian ballet dancer of Polish origin, and an innovative choreographer. She came of age in a family of traveling, professional dancers. Her own career began in Saint Petersburg. Soon ...

. In the 1930s she appeared in ballets mounted by

Ida Rubinstein Ida Lvovna Rubinstein (; – 20 September 1960) was a dancer, actress, art patron and Belle Époque figure from the Russian Empire. She performed with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1911 and later formed her own company. ''Bolero (Rave ...

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...

, Marie Rambert,

Frederick Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositio ...

, Antony Tudor. Her father Vaslav (1889–1950) was a world-renowned dancer with the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

in Paris. Her aunt Bronia (1891–1972) also excelled in dance and was a leading choreographer, initially with Ballets Russes. Her mother Romola de Pulszky was a socialite and author. Romola's mother, Kyra's grandmother, was Emilia Márkus, a popular Hungarian actress. Kyra was born to Romola and Vaslav in Vienna.Nadine Meisner, Klaudia Zelazowska,

Life and career

During Kyra's earliest years she delighted in her father's love and affection. By 1917, his mental illness ended his career. Kyra's family became chaotic, unhappy, and distant. With her father living in institutions, her mother sent her and her younger sister Tamara to boarding schools. Kyra's resemblance to her father Vaslav was remarkable, 'uncanny'. After taking early dance lessons (both professional and from her father and her aunt), she chose it as her career. Her mother disapproved. An American woman volunteered her early support. While living alone in Berlin in 1931, Kyra began dancing in

's ballet company, directed by her aunt Bronia. She was next in a

production of Offenbach's '' Tales of Hoffmann'', choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. Backstage, she became a close friend of another dancer

Vera Zorina Vera Zorina (January 2, 1917 – April 9, 2003), born Eva Brigitta Hartwig, was a German-Norwegian ballerina, theatre and film actress, and choreographer, chiefly remembered for her films choreographed by her husband George Balanchine. They ...

, who later wrote about her, "Kyra came from an exotic, unhappy world." In London she appeared in a Cochran review, ''Streamline''. She studied with Nicolai Legat, a Russian

ballet master A ballet master (also balletmaster, ballet mistress, ''premier maître de ballet'' or ''premier maître de ballet en chef'') is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In mo ...

. Later in Paris she would study with Lubov Egorova, a former ballerina in Diaghilev's company. Kyra and her mother Romola, also then in London, were apparently incompatible. They disagreed about the choice of living situations. It prompted Kyra to pack up and leave for Sweden where she danced at a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

. "She had led a nomadic life." Marie Rambert latter recruited Kyra for her London company

Ballet Rambert Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

. There Kyra performed a central role in choreographer

's ''Mephisto Valse''. She also danced the part of the young girl in '' Le Spectre de la rose'' and of a nymph in '' L'Après-midi d'un faune'', ballets in which her father Vaslav had either famously danced, or both choreographed and danced. Antony Tudor, for his new ballet ''

The Planets ''The Planets'', Op. 32, is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is name ...

'', cast her as the Mortal, born under the sway of the mystic figure Neptune, so that she longed to unite herself with the Infinite. About Kyra critic Arnold Haskell wrote in 1935, "She is a dancer who understands, whether instinctively or otherwise, how to use dancing in order to express her emotions." She had a compelling presence. On 20 April 1936, at the Coronation Church in Budapest, Kyra married Igor Markevitch, a Ukrainian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and conductor who had been with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes during the late 1920s. He'd been compared to

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

to the latter's discomfort. Kyra discontinued dancing. She and Igor had one child, a son Vaslav (20 January 1937 – 12 January 2024), yet eventually they divorced. Igor, who remarried, raised the boy. Drawn to the arts, Vaslav Markevitch became a painter. Until 1958, Kyra lived in Rome where she worked as an interpreter in a fashion shop on

Via Condotti Via dei Condotti (named always ''Via Condotti'') is a busy and fashionable street of Rome, Italy. In Roman times it was one of the streets that crossed the ancient Via Flaminia and enabled people who transversed the Tiber to reach the Pincio h ...

. Then she moved to San Francisco. She had entered as a lay member the

Franciscan Order The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

. In the 1981 drama documentary ''She Dances Alone'', she played herself. The film, directed by Robert Dornhelm, offers a view of her life, her pursuit of a career in dance.

Description

Ballerina

Margot Fonteyn Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE ( Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn (), was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with th ...

described meeting Kyra in San Francisco in 1951.Fonteyn (1976), pp. 117-118.

We also met Nijinsky's daughter, Kyra, who is fascinating. Sturdily built and full of exuberance, she has the most engaging smile and what must be her father's eyes, of an unusual grey-green, or is it green-brown? She is an artist and uses bright colours. Her father is a frequent subject, but I noticed all her paintings show him in ballet roles, never as himself. When she was describing a Russian dance she made a momentary gesture of her right arm across her brow, and I could see Nijinsky exactly. There was something in her movement and her face that expressed all there is to say about dancing in that one instant, and I can never forget it.

Bibliography

*Nancy Van Norman Baer, ''Bronislava Nijinska. A dancer's legacy'' (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco 1986). *

, ''Autobiography'' (New York: Knopf 1976). *Vicente García Márquez, ''The Ballets Russes'' (New York: Knopt 1990). *Lucy Moore, ''Nijinsky'' (New York: Profile Books 2013, 2014). *

, ''Early Memoirs'' (New York: Holt Rinehart Winston 1981). * Romola Nijinsky, ''Nijinsky'' (New York: Simon and Schuster 1934; reprint Pocket Books 1972). *Tamara Nijinsky, ''Nijinsky and Romola'' (London: Bachman & Turner 1991). *Peter Ostwald, ''Nijinsky. A leap into madness'' (Secaucus: Lyle Stuart 1991). * Nancy Reynolds and Malcom McCormick, ''No Fixed Point. Dance in the twentieth century'' (Yale University 2003). **

Lynn Garafola Lynn Theresa Garafola (born December 12, 1946) is an American dance historian, linguist, critic, curator, lecturer, and educator. A prominent researcher and writer with broad interests in the field of dance history, she is acknowledged as the lea ...

and Nancy Van Norman Baer, editors, ''The Ballets Russes and its World'' (Yale University 1999). ** Horst Koegler, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet'' ( 972 Oxford University 1977). ;Articles, videos *Nadine Meisner
"Obituary: Kyra Nijinsky"
in ''The Independent'', Oct. 21, 1998. Accessed: 2016-09-10. *Klaudia Zelazowska
"Oswald Birley, Portrait of Kyra Nijinsky, a dancer who understands"
in ''Daily Art Magazine'', Mar. 11, 2018. Accessed: 2018-04-15. Includes: painting and photographs of Kyra, video of film ''She dances alone''.
''She Dances Alone'' (1981)
at ''IMDb'' website, Feb. 18, 1982. Accessed: 2017-06-13. See Zelazowska above.

at Dutch website: mijnstambomen. Accessed 2018.4.15. Her last name in Polish style (or Russian) would have the feminine ending 'ska'; the masculine is 'ski'. Includes photographs of Kyra in ballet costumes. *

, interviewer
"Kyra Nijinsky interviewed about her father"
''JRH Films'' at youtube.com. Accessed 2018-04-15.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nijinsky, Kyra 1913 births 1998 deaths Rambert Dance Company dancers Russian ballerinas White Russian emigrants to Germany