(The sources have been abbreviated in this section and can be found in full in the Bibliography.)
6 ‘a woman … in the ballet’: Z. Fitzgerald, Save Me the Waltz (New York, 1968), p. 113.
7 ‘We were born’: Bronia Nijinska, Early Memoirs (Durham, NC, 1981), p. 1.
8 This is the date Bronia Nijinska gives (the night of 27–28 February, old time (Russian calendar before the Revolution); see Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 12); though Vaslav’s birth certificate has the date 10 January 1890, it is thought that Eleonora Nijinsky tried to buy him an extra year before he was required to perform his National Service by making him appear younger than he was.
9 ‘fairy-tale … so many directions’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 15.
9 ‘My parents considered’: V. Krasovskaya, Nijinsky (New York, 1979), p. 5, from an interview in Je sais tout magazine.
9 ‘wild, fierce … his body’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky (London, 1980), p. 280.
10 ‘With his … then again’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, pp. 20–21.
10 ‘How high he’: ibid., p. 26.
10 ‘first appearance’: ibid., p. 28; T.P.’s Magazine, London, May 1911.
10 ‘Throughout our childhood’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 25.
13 ‘It was as if’: ibid., p. 57.
14 ‘a charming little’: Isadora Duncan, My Life (New York, 1995), p. 119.
14 ‘Before leaving … to go’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 77.
15 ‘praised me very’: ibid., p. 78.
17 ‘The little devil’: T. Karsavina, Theatre Street (London, 1948), p. 151.
17 ‘Are you a’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 85.
17 ‘made to feel’: A. Bourman, The Tragedy of Nijinsky (London, 1937), p. 6. Though he is wildly unreliable about later parts of Nijinsky’s life, to the point of inserting himself into scenes where he is known not to have been present, Bourman was one of six boys in Nijinsky’s year at the Imperial Theatre School and therefore his account of their school-life must be worth something.
18 ‘anger and jealousy’: ibid., p. 20. Bourman accuses Georgy Rozai in particular of this jealousy (and this crime), but Nijinska’s account of the accident has Bourman and another boy, Grigory Babich, equally culpable.
18 ‘I played a’: V. Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary (New York, 1999), p. 116.
18 ‘unneccessary torment’: M. Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master (London, 1961), p. 16.
19 ‘That to me’: J. Kavanagh, Rudolf Nureyev: The Life (London, 2008), p. 21.
20 ‘The theatre in’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 190.
21 ‘felt a great’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 115.
21 ‘You have … your brother’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 127. Later in his career Fokine saw Nijinsky as a rival, and as a consequence his memoirs offer Nijinsky only the barest minimum of praise through evidently gritted teeth; it is interesting therefore to read Bronia’s account of his early response to her brother, whom Fokine’s choreography made a star and who in turn took Fokine’s ballets to new heights.
22 ‘exalted, vibrant, free’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 378, quoting Nadine (Nadia) Legat, Nikolay’s wife.
22 ‘to a plane’: ibid., p. 378, quoting Nikolay Legat.
22 ‘above all … and earth’: J. Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (London, 2010), p. xxii.
22 ‘convent-like’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 58.
29 ‘torture chamber’: Duncan, My Life, p. 121.
23 ‘tunic of cobweb’: ibid., p. 119.
23 ‘Like eager … and vividness’: Duchesse de Gramont, Years of Plenty (London, 1932), p. 339. She continues, ‘After that, she became Isadora Duncan.’
23 ‘reminded us … art form’: Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master, p. 256.
23 ‘soul wept with’: Duncan, My Life, p. 119.
24 ‘by talent’. S. Scheijen, Diaghilev (London, 2009), p. 143.
26 This ethnographic: L. Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (New York, 1989), p. 6 et seq.
26 ‘complete unity of’: Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, p. 293.
26 ‘to participate’: M. Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert (London, 1991), p. 61.
27 ‘for the audience’s … the dance’: Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master, p. 132.
27 ‘an articulate … slightest detail’: ibid., p. 132.
28 ‘As he extends’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 517.
28 ‘like a bashful’: Bourman, The Tragedy of Nijinsky, p. 77. Bourman doesn’t refer specifically to this performance, but more generally to Nijinsky’s early performances.
29 ‘not merely to be’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 157.
29 ‘Bronia, tell … doushka’: ibid., p. 159.
30 Ibid., pp. 190–2: I have disregarded the secondary account of Romola Nijinsky, who described this last meeting between Vaslav and Foma as a sentimental reunion.
31 ‘amongst the chosen’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 123.
31 ‘a charming boy’: M. Kshesinskaya, Dancing in St. Petersburg (Alton, Hants, 2005), p. 110. 31 ‘what secrets Nijinsky’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 248.
31 ‘like some exotic’: A. Oliveroff, Flight of the Swan: A Memory of Anna Pavlova (New York, 1935), p. 23.
32 ‘unworthy of her genius’: S. Lifar, Serge Diaghilev: His Life, His Work, His Legend (London, 1940), p. 139.
32 ‘sought more success’: A. L. Haskell, Balletomania: The story of an Obsession (London, 1977), p. 56.
32 ‘If a dancer’: A. Pavlova, Pages of My Life (New York, 1947), p. 10.
32 ‘the quiet joys’: Oliveroff, Flight of the Swan: A Memory of Anna Pavlova, p. 61.
32 ‘shows onstage. You watch’: Kavanagh, Rudolf Nureyev: The Life, p. 645.
33 ‘I had my arms’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 196.
33 ‘I started to dance … about me’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 118.
33 Nijinska says Vaslav was recovering in the spring of 1908, nursed by Prince Lvov’s (see below) valet. She speculates that Bourman’s taunts about his relationship with Lvov prompted Vaslav to go with him to the prostitute where he could prove that he was a man.
34 Prince Nikolay Yusupov: Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, p. 53.
34 ‘Ballet is’: Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master, p. 52.
34 1,000 roubles: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 426. She says this sum was given at his introduction to Diaghilev, but since Lvov wouldn’t have wanted money and Diaghilev wouldn’t have paid it, I think it more likely that she got her facts slightly wrong (not uncommon) and it was paid by Lvov for his initial introduction to Nijinsky. See also Bourman, The Tragedy of Nijinsky, p. 122. R. Buckle names the pander as Boris Alexandrov.
34 ‘He loved me’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 163.
35 ‘marvellously … stupefied’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 217.
36 ‘it was a bad sign’: M. Keynes (ed.), Lydia Lopokova (London, 1983), p. 46.
36 ‘perfection in the’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 248.
37 I have paraphrased Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 231.
37 ‘for the rest of my life’: ibid., p. 218.
38 ‘Before, he had only known school … innocence’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 60. To be taken with the usual pinch of salt required for Romola’s stories.
38 ‘that very rare feeling … hero’: A. S. Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London (London, 1941), p. 251 (phrases cited in different order from original source).
39 ‘dying of curiosity’: ibid., p. 256.
39 ‘a magnificent bear’: Serge Lifar in J. Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev (London, 1997), p. 292.
39 ‘one tooth on the edge’: J. Cocteau, Journals (London, 1957), p. 55.
39 ‘looked one through’: A. Dolin, Autobiography (London, 1960), p. 28.
39 I know he smoked, but I am only guessing that he smoked Sobranie; it is such a peculiarly Russian smelling cigarette. The company was founded in 1879.
40 ‘his bluelit nights’: quoted in Lifar, Serge Diaghilev, p. 19.
40 ‘peculiar lazy grace’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 352.
40 ‘looked up to him’: C. W. Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London (London, 1940), p. 8.
40 ‘It is the Seryozhas’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 82.
40 ‘the only one’: quoted in Scheijen, ibid., p. 78.
41 ‘The dream and’: to Leo Tolstoy, quoted in J. Pritchard (ed.), Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929 (London, 2009), p. 40.
41 ‘Everything is here’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 58.
41 ‘part of history’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 109.
41 ‘We are a generation’: quoted in L. Garafola and N. V. N Baer (eds), The Ballets Russes and its World (New Haven, CT, 1999), p. 92.
41 ‘sly dandified primness’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 201.
41 ‘one think of champagne’: J. Melville, Diaghilev and Friends (London, 2009), p. 11, quoting (I assume) Diaghilev.
42 ‘an individual gift’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 101.
42 ‘there could be’: ibid., p. 6.
42 ‘for all his’: Mstislav Dobuzhinsky quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 132.
42 ‘The end … the Resurrection!’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 134.
43 ‘my greatest’: P. Stoneley, A Queer History of the Ballet (London, 2007), p. 58.
43 ‘elegant but unremarkable’: L. Massine, My Life in Ballet (London, 1928), p. 47.
43 ‘wicked’: Stoneley, A Queer History of the Ballet, pp. 68–9.
44 ‘made me see’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 283.
44 ‘the clamorous demands … sensual demands’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, pp. 114–15 (phrases cited in different order from original source).
46 ‘uninteresting’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 289.
46 ‘to lose its human’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 210.
46 ‘greatly impressed’: ibid., p. 253.
46 ‘to their conversations’: ibid., p. 258.
47 ‘to please Diaghilev’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 162.
47 ‘help cultivate’: quoted in Scheijen, ibid., p. 162.
47 ‘his most fervent’: quoted in Scheijen, ibid., p. 169.
47 It was first on the list he and Astruc wrote in June 1908 of what they hoped would form their 1909 season. See R. Buckle, Nijinsky (London, 1971), p. 63.
48 ‘a child who’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 170.
48 ‘barefoot childish hoppings’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 224.
48 ‘the green box trees’: quoted in R. Burt, The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities (London, 1995), p. 13. Burt adds that at this time the male nude as a subject for painting and sculpture also disappeared, and plain, dark suits became a bland and sexless uniform for men of all classes.
49 five times: N. Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929 (London, 1975), p. 6.
49 ‘I hated him’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’ Diary, p. 103.
50 ‘many beautiful women’: ibid., p. 205.
50 ‘I knew perfectly’: Dolin, Autobiography, p. 44.
51 ‘I came … long time’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 262. Some observers speculated that Lvov’s motive in trying to set him up with Diaghilev was to get rid of a lover of whom he had become bored, but I think Bronia and Nouvel’s accounts tally together better in this interpretation of events.
52 ‘the lovely sight’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 219.
52 ‘the tangled mass’: D. Milhaud, Notes without Music (London, 1952), p. 19.
53 ‘little ladies … canary-bird’: de Gramont, Years of Plenty, pp. 24–5.
54 ‘a fairy godmother’: Valentine Gross quoted in F. Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography (London, 1970), p. 69.
54 ‘tournée des mécènes’: A. L. Haskell, Ballet Russe: The Age of Diaghilev (London, 1968), p. 11.
55 ‘benevolent giant’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, quoting Marie Rambert, p. 110.
55 ‘A conference was’: A. Khan, The Memoirs of the Aga Khan (London, 1953), p. 109.
55 ‘It was impossible’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 120.
55 ‘bare of adornment’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 215.
55 ‘did not want’: M. Calvocoressi, Music and Ballet: Recollections of M. D. Calvocoressi (New York, 1978), p. 226.
56 ‘that would amaze’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 282.
56 ‘shouted himself hoarse’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 201.
56 ‘had seen a Japanese’: ibid., p. 214.
57 ‘His whole body’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 270.
57 ‘a storm of applause’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 197.
57 ‘The familiar barriers … up there’: ibid., pp. 198–9.
58 ‘every movement … his arm’: C. W. Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, pp. 16–17.
59 ‘wonder of wonders’: Commedia, 20 May 1909.
59 ‘seen anything like’: A. Rubinstein, My Young Years (London, 1973), p. 219.
60 ‘vacant eyes’: M. de Cossart, Ida Rubinstein (Liverpool, 1987), p. 17.
60 ‘so thin you thought’: Cocteau, Journals, p. 55.
61 ‘the cunning with’: Keynes, Lydia Lopokova, p. 215.
61 ‘He couldn’t stand’: in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 244.
61 ‘not this, that’: J. Bowlt, Z. Tregulova and N. R. Giordano (eds), Feast of Wonders: Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes (Milan, 2009), p. 21.
61 ‘We really did’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 284.
61 ‘we all lived’: S. Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929. (Harmondsworth, 1953), p. 25.
61 And as Diaghilev’s most recent biographer Sjeng Scheijen observes, we must take the rapture shown by the ballet’s first audiences at face value.
61 ‘Right away I’: S. Kahan, Music’s Modern Muse (Rochester, NY, 2003), p. 159 and Lifar, Serge Diaghilev, p. 161.
61 ‘drably provincial’: ibid., p. 155.
61 ‘When one has’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola (London, 1991), p. 376.
62 walk upright: Oliveroff, Flight of the Swan: A Memory of Anna Pavlova, p. 163.
62 ‘applied maximum … so that’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 401.
62 ‘In no other art’: French Vogue, December 1986. R. Gottlieb (ed.), Reading Dance (New York, 2008), pp. 336–7.
62 ‘how perfection lay’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 258.
62 ‘should be as simple’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. p. 93.
62 ‘he could never watch’: ibid., p. 115.
63 ‘like an old Marquise’: ibid., p. 89.
63 ‘With Grigoriev following’: L. Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev (London, 1960), p. 39.
63 ‘incapable of loving’: ibid., p. 37.
63 ‘a capacity’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 190.
63 ‘pride and joy’: Lifar, Serge Diaghilev, p. 143.
64 ‘new existence’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 289.
64 ‘uncanny swiftness … of Jesus’: Oliveroff, Flight of the Swan: A Memory of Anna Pavlova, p. 23.
64 ‘tight, nervous … small space’: D. Bull, The Everyday Dancer (London, 2011), p. 159.
64 ‘standing in the wings’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, pp. 517–18.
64 ‘very small pair’: Cocteau, Journals, p. 50.
64 ‘that murmuring’: J. Cocteau, Paris Album 1900–1914, p. 32.
64 ‘We always knew’: L. Sokolova in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 144.
65 ‘a glass … his shoulders’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 369.
65 ‘His bearing was modest’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 28.
65 ‘just as a horse’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 94.
65 ‘all the ballerinas’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 161.
66 ‘great friends’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 273.
66 ‘the peculiar specialities’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 95.
66 ‘Bakst thought the women’: Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography, p. 78, quoting Paul Morand’s diary.
66 ‘We are all living’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 200.
67 ‘that she was the only woman’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 186.
68 ‘Look at that strength!’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 95 and note.
69 ‘the mere fact’: quoted in R. Davenport-Hine, A Night at the Majestic (London, 2006), p. 167.
69 ‘I did not want … afraid of life’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 198.
69 ‘loved Diaghilev’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 111.
69 ‘this world of art’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 306.
69 ‘but exhilarated at the prospect’: Massine, My Life in Ballet, p. 47.
70 ‘like going to bed’: J. Richardson, Picasso, vol. 3, The Triumphant Years 1917–1932 (New York, 2007), p. 7.
70 Figures from Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 178 and Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 106.
71 Speculation on the genesis of Faune: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 108 and note.
71 ‘an eyeglass’: S. Lifar, Ma Vie: From Kiev to Kiev (trans. J. H. Morgan; London, 1970), p. 41.
71 ‘like a street urchin’: quoted in Stoneley, A Queer History of the Ballet, p. 68.
71 ‘as if … stage costume’: Calvocoressi, Music and Ballet: Recollections of M. D. Calvocoressi, p. 209.
72 ‘to society what Ida’: H. Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete (London, 1948), p. 37.
72 ‘it was more wonderful’: F. Rose, Saying Life (London, 1961), p. 70.
72 ‘Diaghilev’s attitude’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 303.
73 Firebird: R. Buckle, Diaghilev (London, 1979), p. 162, citing Boris Kochno.
73 ‘in those days’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 302.
73 ‘impossible to describe’: I. Stravinsky, Stravinsky in Conversation with Robert Craft (London, 1960), p. 174.
73 ‘extraordinary … personality’: I. Stravinsky and R. Craft, Memories and Commentaries (Harmondsworth, 1960), p. 35 (phrases cited in different order from original source).
73 ‘the elite … own art’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 306.
74 ‘because I was’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 89.
74 ‘at ease … social blunder’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, pp. 306–7.
74 ‘essay in choreography’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 130.
74 ‘supremely right … heartache’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs p. 282.
74 ‘I do not wish to share’: ibid.,, p. 283.
75 ‘He was almost always alone’: ibid., p. 293.
75 ‘that it … to speak’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 52.
75 ‘magic lantern’: quoted in Haskell, Ballet Russe: The Age of Diaghilev, p. 75.
76 ‘Que veux-tu?’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, pp. 310–11.
77 ‘not unlike the bloom’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 33.
77 ‘inexpressibly wild’: C. W. Beaumont, Michael Fokine and his Ballets (London, 1935), p. 42.
77 ‘Nobody will believe me’: C. M. Joseph in L. Garafola and N. V. N. Baer (eds), The Ballets Russes and its World (New Haven, 1999), p. 201.
77 ‘conscious of his performances’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 36.
77 ‘the grief of the repentant seducer’: Benois quoted in L. Kirstein, Nijinsky Dancing (London, 1975), p. 83.
77 ‘his dancing was’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 24.
77 ‘an acrobatic cat’: D. Parker, Nijinsky (London, 1988), p. 104.
78 ‘his usual brilliance’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 310.
79 ‘I spit … at us’: ibid., p. 311.
79 ‘But there was’: ibid., p. 314. 79 the music of Debussy: Bronia’s Memoirs indicate that even at this early stage he knew the music would be Debussy’s, but other sources suggest that the music was the last thing to fall into place, after Nijinsky had got quite far with his choreographic ideas. The fact that the music and his movements seem far apart in the piece might corroborate this.
79 ‘I want to move away’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 315.
80 ‘as if to encourage’: M. Chagall, My Life (London, 1965), p. 92.
80 ‘an indecent … will be’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, pp. 319–20.
81 ‘Paris is tolerant’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 218.
81 ‘conceited artist’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 318.
82 ‘Vaslav was now’: ibid., p. 318.
82 ‘Appalling scandal’: quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 217.
82 ‘where ballets’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 325.
82 ‘A completely new path’: ibid., p. 324.
84 ‘You don’t understand’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 240.
84 ‘looking very pompous’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 340.
84 ‘a celestial insect’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 137.
84 ‘suggested a cluster of leaves’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 28.
84 ‘When he danced’: Rambert quoted in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 115.
84 ‘the most perfect’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 26.
84 ‘grace, freshness … the Rose’: E. Cecchetti and O. Racster, The Master of the Russian Ballet (London, 1922), p. 217.
85 ‘The fact that’: Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master, p. 182.
85 ‘the artistry by which’: V. Gross, Nijinsky on Stage, p. 67.
85 ‘played the chord’: D. Monteux, It’s All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux (London, 1966), p. 77.
86 ‘all solicitude as’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 57.
86 ‘What grace coupled’: K. Kopelson, The Queer Afterlife of Vaslav Nijinsky (San Francisco, CA, 1997), p. 113; see also Steegmuller, Cocteau, p. 84 and J. Cocteau, The Cock and the Harlequin (Le Coq et l’Arlequin), translated by R. H. Myers (London, 1921), p. 42.
87 ‘the “lowest sort”’: V. Stravinsky and R. Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents (London, 1960), p. 26.
87 ‘that sets itself’ quotation continued, but in a better translation, in Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, p. 290.
87 ‘in perfect … of execution’: Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master, p. 194.
88 ‘The costumier … and glamorous’: M. Sert, Two or Three Muses (London, 1953), p. 129.
88 ‘Only Monteux’: Monteux, It’s All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux, p. 76.
89 ‘enchanted’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 337.
90 ‘Only the swinging’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 373.
90 ‘Of the once bright-red cheeks’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 373.
90 ‘A friend … very clear’: E. Denby quoted in Paul Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance (New York, 1977), pp. 19–20.
90 ‘an entire poem’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 67.
90 ‘amplified the crazy doll’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 128.
91 ‘seemed to have’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 45.
91 distilling something … its loss: see Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, pp. 29, 32, 48.
91 ‘personality, the imprisoned genius’: Keynes, Lydia Lopokova, p. 211.
91 ‘a Hamlet’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 159.
91 ‘to help the actor’: Valery Bryusov essay quoted in Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 27.
91 ‘seen the finest actor’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 129.
91 ‘the most … ever seen’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 37.
92 ‘the mythical outcast’: R. Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell (London, 1964), p. 227.
92 ‘in the midst’: S. Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929 (Harmondsworth, 1953), p. 55.
92 ‘People thought and talked’: T. Beecham, A Mingled Chime (London, 1973), p. 149.
92 ‘with their diamond tiaras’: Charles Ricketts quoted in Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 232.
92 society girls: Lady Diana Cooper actually did; see Melville, Diaghilev and Friends, p. 122.
92 ‘Now I knew’: M. Green, Children of the Sun: A Narrative of ‘Decadence’ in England After 1918 (New York, 1977), p. 30.
93 ‘Je ne sais pas’: M. Draper, Music at Midnight (Kingswood, Surrey, 1929), p. 143.
93 ‘he ate and drank’: ibid., p. 188.
93 ‘Always he demanded’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 299.
94 ‘the most rigorous seclusion’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 113.
94 ‘to go … Certainly not’: Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography, p. 80.
94 ‘childishly spoiled’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 35.
94 ‘on the pretext’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 339.
94 ‘mon petit’… restless: Count Harry Kessler and Kuzmin quoted in Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 238.
94 ‘thought I went out … horrible’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 18.
94 ‘I received a moral blow … a beast’: ibid., p. 20.
95 ‘You have slapped … of China’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 285 and Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 156. This took place in 1910. I am assuming that Diaghilev used the feminine pronoun because it simply wouldn’t have been acceptable to use the male. Whatever he may have thought Karsavina understood about his personal life, I don’t think he would ever have referred to it directly with her. In the unlikely case he had said ‘he’, she would almost certainly have changed it herself for publication.
96 ‘That’s not so great … the ballet’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 318.
97 ‘carry out my artistic ideas’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 142.
97 ‘Oh, he was like the rest of them’: C. Spencer, Léon Bakst (London, 1978), p. 98.
97 lacked taste: from Haskell, Ballet Russe, p. 74. Since Haskell relied heavily on Walter Nouvel’s interpretation of events, we can assume that Diaghilev’s ‘close collaborator’ to whom Haskell credits this assertion was Nouvel.
97 ‘sweetly sentimental’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 315.
97 ‘Leaping to his feet’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 146.
97 Meyerhold: Faune transposed to the dance stage Meyerhold’s ‘static Theatre’ with its ‘two-dimensionality, stylised posture, foreshortened stage, depersonalised performing style, totalising design, and slow “signifying” movement’. Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 54.
97 ‘moving bas-relief’: Haskell quoted in Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 52.
98 ‘the source … own way’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 315.
98 ‘laboratory experiments in’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 82.
98 ‘Explaining is the wrong word’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 59.
98 ‘without any preparation … the movement’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 316 (phrases cited in different order from original source).
99 ‘unexpected and unusual severity’: ibid., p. 328.
99 ‘remoteness of music’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 164.
100 ‘compensate for’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 241.
100 perfectly musically literate: see also S. C. Berg, Le Sacre du printemps: Seven Productions from Nijinsky to Martha Graham (Ann Arbor, MI, 1988), p. 26.
100 ‘music made visible’: C. W. Beaumont, Bookseller at the Ballet: Memoirs 1891 to 1929 (London, 1975), p. 100.
100 ‘the courage to stand still’: Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 251.
100 ‘horribly decadent’: Stravinsky, Stravinsky in Conversation with Robert Craft, p. 165.
101 ‘she never makes one forget’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 214.
101 ‘Oh, Mathildoshka … two feet’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 160.
102 ‘almost as a priest … uncanny feeling of apprehension’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 16.
102 ‘When she unfolded’: Karsavina in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 18.
103 ‘dancers dreaded’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 66.
103 ‘Up to then … choreographic plan’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 427.
103 ‘the movement he gave’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 62.
103 ‘merely an extension … that speaks’: Jacques Rivière quoted in Burt, The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities, p. 90.
103 ‘never seen him’: Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 88, telegram of 18 April 1912.
104 ‘You will see … understood it’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 431.
104 ‘“creating” a choreographer’: Fokine, Memoirs of a Ballet Master, p. 202.
104 ‘This was a very unhappy’: Monteux, It’s All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux, p. 93.
104 ‘shabby, jealous little group’: A. Gold and R. Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert (New York, 1980), p. 156.
105 ‘with the weight … and sulky’: Cocteau, Journals, p. 54.
105 300,000 francs: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 187.
105 ‘doubts in the wings’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 434.
105 ‘plus nu que nu’: Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography, p. 77.
105 ‘In the costume … be human’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 170.
106 ‘introversion, self-absorbtion’: Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, p. 309.
106 ‘thrilling. Although his movements’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 40.
106 ‘Nobody was certain’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 172.
107 ‘I wish that’: quoted in Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 437.
107 ‘this wonderful evocation’: quoted in Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 226. For a fuller understanding of this scandal, see Scheijen, Diaghilev, pp. 249–51 and Count Harry Kessler’s diaries (published in German in 2005).
107 ‘WICKED PARIS’: Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 78.
107 ‘safe haven of’: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 57.
107 ‘the seesaw … against instinct’: ibid., p. 58.
107 ‘Of course Nijinsky’: Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography, p. 73.
107 ‘adored the … by it’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 36.
108 ‘I did not think’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 203.
108 ‘Once you mastered’: L. Sokolova in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 146.
108 ‘The sensation’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 40.
108 ‘a refutation … without parallel’: Oliveroff, Flight of the Swan: A Memory of Anna Pavlova, p. 163.
108 ‘to his own purpose’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 63.
108 ‘Je ne suis pas’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 136.
108 ‘in spite of Diaghilev’s’: Benois, Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet in London, p. 290.
109 ‘evolved a sculptural line’: Massine, My Life in Ballet, p. 84.
109 ‘revealed not one’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 143.
109 ‘ill-concealed impatience’: Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 235.
109 ‘very nervous … and jailer’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 227.
109 ‘sat in the garden’: Lady Juliet Duff quoted in Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 261.
109 ‘I do not know’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 41.
109 ‘naively … all evening’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 36. In Lady Juliet Duff’s version of the event, he called her ‘perroquet’, a reference to her aquiline nose. See Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 261. 110 comparing her to a giraffe: It was a compliment. ‘Lady Morrell is so tall, so beautiful, like giraffe’; Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 187.
110 ‘He was so different’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 239.
110 ‘from another world’: ibid., p. 227.
110 ‘There were … his art’: M. Seymour, Ottoline Morrell: Life on a Grand Scale (London, 1998), p. 231.
110 Bedford Square: see William Plomer’s poem, ‘The Planes of Bedford Square’, which describes Nijinsky watching a game of tennis and crying out, ‘Quel décor!’
110 ‘no corps de ballet’: Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 234, citing Jacques-Emile Blanche’s description of the dinner.
111 ‘A woman and a man’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 46.
111 ‘The man that I see’: Le Figaro, 14 May 1913, cited in Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 467.
111 ‘When today one sees a man stroll’: same interview cited in Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 59. See also Parker, Nijinsky, p. 111.
111 ‘waltz with changing partners’: M. Hodson, Nijinsky’s Bloomsbury Ballet (Hillsdale, NY), p. 263.
111 ‘The Faun is me’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 207.
112 ‘Sin’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 268.
112 ‘perverted degeneracy’: Fokine quoted in Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 249.
112 ‘If we don’t lay down the law’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 252, quoting Kessler’s diary.
113 ‘Il ne supporte plus les désordes sexuels’: E. Aschengreen, Jean Cocteau and the Dance (Gyldendal, 1986), p. 229 n. from a 1953 entry in Cocteau’s journal.
113 ‘happy and proud’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 182.
114 ‘from hotel to hotel’: Cocteau, Journals, p. 54.
114 ‘I gave my whole heart to it’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 164.
114 ‘I soon discovered’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 17.
114 ‘with an aloof, distant air … never warmth’: ibid., pp. 21–2.
115 ‘a rather risqué situation’: C. Debussy, Letters, trans. R. Nichols (London, 1987), p. 260, 12 September 1912.
115 ‘He replied that’: Calvocoressi, Music and Ballet: Recollections of M. D. Calvocoressi, p. 208.
115 ‘the best … tell you’: Karsavina quoted in Nijinska, Early Memoirs, pp. 465–6.
116 ‘ballerina mentality … forgive you’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 68.
116 ‘felt that … a woman’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 201.
117 ‘could not compose it … never finished’: ibid., p. 206.
117 ‘blank … Debussy’s score’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909– 1929, pp. 91–2.
117 ‘What beauty … in this?’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 56.
117 ‘second installment’: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 63.
118 ‘Monsieur Dalcroze … young savage’: Debussy, Letters, p. 272, 9 June 1913.
118 ‘had some … and immature’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 91.
118 ‘Everything in the choreography’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 445.
118 ‘He was like a crumpled rose’: Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 256.
118 ‘Japanese food’: ibid., p. 250.
119 ‘Rose is a rose’: Hodson, Nijinsky’s Bloomsbury Ballet, p. 5.
119 ‘I must make’: Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 238.
120 ‘entranced … and Nijinsky’: L. M. Easton, The Red Count (Berkeley, CA, 2002), p. 202.
120 ‘Bowls of monstrous strawberries’: ibid., p. 203.
120 originator of the initial concept: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 63; P. Hill, Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 4–6; Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 212.
122 ‘to present the power’: N. Misler in Bowlt, Z. Tregulova and N. R. Giordano (eds), Feast of Wonders, p. 77.
122 ‘some unconscious folk memory’: P. C. van den Toorn, Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring (Oxford, 1987), p. 12.
123 ‘the foot … to honour’: Lifar, Serge Diaghilev, p. 200; letter from NR to SD.
123 ‘the picture of’: van den Toorn, Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring, p. 3.
123 ‘they were wild about it’: Hill, Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring, p. 26.
123 ‘dull, rumbling explosions’: Lifar, Ma Vie, p. 5.
123 ‘the violent Russian spring’: Stravinsky, Stravinsky in Conversation with Robert Craft, p. 164.
123 ‘extraordinary new … conduct it.”’: Monteux, It’s All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux, pp. 88–9.
124 ‘When they finished … the roots’: Hill, Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring, p. 27.
124 ‘by a beautiful nightmare … some jam’: Debussy, Letters, p. 265; 5 November 1912.
124 ‘new forms must be created’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 30.
125 ‘was as helpless as a child’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 76.
125 ‘something he brought’: Sokolova in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 145.
125 ‘twice as fast’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 58.
126 ‘idea of the ballet’: L. Kirstein, Dance: A Short History of Classic Theatrical Dancing (New York, 1969), p. 114.
126 ‘incessantly thinking out new ballets’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 227.
127 ‘As I danced’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 450.
127 ‘Nijinsky works with passionate zeal’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 92.
127 ‘Gentlemen, you do not have to laugh’: T. F. Kelly, First Nights (New Haven, CT, 2000), p. 281.
128 ‘with little bits of paper’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 42.
128 ‘is the life of the stones’: Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 90; Nijinsky interviewed by the Pall Mall Gazette, 2 February1913.
128 ‘declared his feud’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 236.
129 ‘the artist who loves all shapes’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 56.
129 ‘La grace, le charme’: Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance, p. 20.
129 ‘Another vision than’: E. Burns (ed.), Gertrude Stein on Picasso (New York, 1970), p. 65.
129 ‘unable to reach them’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 461.
129 ‘that it was an excellent sign’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 90.
129 ‘pagan worship, the religious instinct’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 239.
130 ‘as if he felt’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 475.
130 ‘a wild creature … him before’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 38.
131 ‘If the work continues like this’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 94; 25 January 1913.
131 ‘You are the only one … muzhik’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 462.
131 ‘a blackguard, a brigand’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 58.
132 ‘how exhausting and fatiguing’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 462.
132 ‘himself away with a wild leap’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 464.
132 ‘more than human’: Bourdelle quoted in Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance, p. 56.
133 ‘in that sad delightful … very quickly’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 202; G. Astruc, Le Pavillon des fantômes (Paris, 1929), p. 286.
133 ‘I realised that Diaghilev’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 110.
133 ‘going through a dreadful period’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 153.
133 ‘a little in love with him’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 462.
134 ‘Get out … and parrots’: Krasovskaya, Nijinsky, p. 267.
134 ‘Nijinsky didn’t take’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 58.
134 ‘no danger’: Nijinska in conversation with Buckle; Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 247.
134 ‘the greatest tragic dance’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 63.
134 ‘His movements were epic’: Marie Rambert to Clement Crisp, 1962; draft of an article for Dance Research magazine found in the Rambert Ballet’s archive.
134 ‘picture-postcard’: Kirstein, Nijinsky Dancing, p. 145.
134 ‘I think the whole thing’: Cecchetti and Racster, The Master of the Russian Ballet, p. 226.
135 ‘the thousand varieties of snobbism’: Cocteau, The Cock and the Harlequin, p. 48.
135 ‘I am happy to have found’: ‘Montjoie’ in Dossiers de Presse, 29 May 1913, reproduced in Hill, Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring, p. 95.
135 ‘Whatever happens’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 92.
136 ‘impervious and nerveless’: Stravinsky, Stravinsky in Conversation with Robert Craft, p. 46.
136 ‘You may think’: Monteux, It’s All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux, p. 90.
136 ‘Exceptionally long-sleeved’: Sotheby’s Ballets Russes Catalogue 1972, lot 68 iv.
136 ‘as irritating to’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 75.
137 ‘If that’s a bassoon’: P. Blom, The Vertigo Years (London, 2008), p. 288.
137 ‘with a … don’t understand it’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 151.
137 ‘First listen!’: Astruc, Le Pavillon des fantômes, p. 286.
137 ‘to exclude the audience’: T. Scholl, From Petipa to Balanchine: Classical Revival and the Modernisation of Ballet (London, 1993), p. 74.
137 ‘I am sixty years old’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, pp. 199–200 and Cocteau, The Cock and the Harlequin, p. 49.
137 ‘an utterly new vision’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 271.
138 ‘Down with the whores’: Kelly, First Nights, p. 293.
138 ‘the refined primitivism’: Roerich p. 89.
138 ‘What an idiot … dura publika’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 113.
138 ‘She seemed to dream’: André Levinson quoted in Kirstein, Dance: A Short History of Classic Theatrical Dancing, p. 288.
138 ‘no cathartic outpouring’: Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, p. 311.
139 ‘Nothing could be’: Scholl, From Petipa to Balanchine: Classical Revival and the Modernisation of Ballet, p. 75.
139 ‘This is not’: Jacques Rivière quoted in Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 299.
139 ‘a bleak and intense celebration’: Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, p. 311.
139 ‘excited, angry … what I wanted’: Aschengreen, Jean Cocteau and the Dance, pp. 8–9.
140 ‘dress coat and top hat’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 272.
140 ‘You cannot imagine’: Cocteau, The Cock and Harlequin, pp. 49–50. Aschengreen cites Stravinsky, who denied Cocteau was there that night (‘Cocteau’s story was only intended to make himself important’; they weren’t intimate enough with him then to take him to dinner ‘after such an event’); Aschengreen, Jean Cocteau and the Dance, p. 9. But in his diary, written at the time, Kessler remembered Cocteau being there, lending Cocteau’s account more credence; Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 273.
140 ‘as if she’: Romola Njinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 194.
140 ‘and watched them’: ibid., p. 195.
141 ‘seemed now almost’: ibid., p. 208.
142 ‘a sound … My God!’: M. Draper, Music at Midnight (Kingswood, Surrey, 1929), p. 145.
142 ‘defeated and … this work’: A. Rubinstein, My Young Years (London, 1973), p. 412.
142 ‘really terrible and intense’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 227.
142 ‘much more attractive’: M. Holroyd, Lytton Strachey: a Critical Biography, Vol. 2, 1910–1932 (London, 1968), p. 94.
142 ‘that boredom and sheer anguish’: ibid., p. 95.
143 ‘in a few years’: quoted in Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 208.
143 ‘The fact is … in dancing’: Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 100.
143 ‘primitive music with’: Debussy Letters, p. 270; 29 May 1913.
143 ‘An artist sacrifices’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 203.
143 ‘uprooted … be reborn’: quoted in Blom, The Vertigo Years, p. 289.
143 ‘one of the great’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 102.
144 ‘death warrant … my madness’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 202.
144 ‘Where would he be’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 133.
144 ‘intolerable and mal elevé’: ibid., p. 156 and Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 258.
144 Friends of St Stephen’s: Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 84.
144 ‘capable of giving life’: Burt, The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities, p. 88.
145 ‘I am confident’: Krasovskaya, Nijinsky, p. 249.
145 ‘Nijinsky’s choreography is’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 102, 3 July 1913.
145 ‘I had to tell Nijinsky’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 473.
145 ‘Let Diaghilev give it’: ibid., p. 474.
146 ‘It’s a possibility’: ibid., p. 475.
146 ‘I shall have to part’: ibid., p. 475.
148 ‘Twenty-one days’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 218.
148 ‘the agreeable routine’: ibid., p. 217.
149 ‘our art’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 87.
149 ‘She is also alone’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 478.
149 ‘endless talks about Nijinsky’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 72.
149 ‘he was only absorbed’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 214
150 ‘harboured a burning’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 58.
151 eating his glass: Massine, My Life in Ballet, p. 62.
151 ‘courteous … Pas casser!’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 74.
151 ‘Oh, she … Diaghilev’s lover’: ibid., p. 74.
152 ‘Nijinsky gave me … a lift’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 230.
152 ‘Romola Carlovna … oui, oui’: ibid., pp. 231–2.
152 ‘her affection was not’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 87.
153 ‘This is indeed’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 232.
153 ‘utterly heartless … without him’: ibid., pp. 235–6.
153 ‘not quite sure’: ibid., p. 237.
153 ‘I am not stupid’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 480.
154 ‘saying that of all’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 75.
154 ‘rather dreary … so worried’: Sokolova interviewed in Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 147.
155 ‘strong undercurrent’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 94.
155 ‘they all seemed happy’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 241.
155 ‘handed to Anna’: ibid., p. 245.
155 ‘made me notice … of happiness’: ibid., pp. 245–6.
157 ‘madly superstitious … beloved child’: Sert, Two or Three Muses, p. 120.
157 ‘Diaghilev burst out again’: ibid., p. 120.
157 ‘As high as Nijinsky’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 257.
157 ‘an escape … the friendship’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 67.
158 ‘for I believe’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 116.
158 ‘a being never’: A. L. Haskell, Diaghileff: His Artistic and Private Life (London, 1935), p. 255. Through Arnold Haskell and as Stravinsky’s first ghost-writer, Walter Nouvel was one of Diaghilev’s staunchest defenders against the memory of his former lover. According to him, it was the already ‘debauched’ (Haskell and Nouvel, Diaghileff, p. 252) Nijinsky who pursued Diaghilev sexually, rather than the other way round; without Diaghilev, he would have been no more than ‘another brilliant dancer among brilliant dancers’ (Haskell, Balletomania, p. 66); when Nijinsky is choreographing, ‘Diaghilev can truly be said to be in sole command’ (Haskell and Nouvel, Diaghileff, p. 71); Nijinsky did not understand music; by the time of their break Nijinsky was a ‘spent force’ (Haskell and Nouvel, Diaghileff, p. 254).
158 ‘had to ejaculate’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 53.
158 ‘experiencing a feeling’: ibid., p. 155.
159 ‘was not mature’: ibid., p. 165.
159 ‘the background … flaccid will’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 124.
159 ‘a wild orgy’: ibid., p. 160.
159 ‘He was sitting alone’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 489.
160 ‘for treating Nijinsky’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 101.
160 ‘Be kind and’: Buckle, Diaghilev, p. 264 and Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 135.
160 ‘Of course … moral sense’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 280 and Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 106.
161 ‘There was a heavenly moment’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 78.
162 ‘I asked her’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 143.
163 ‘for material things’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 43.
163 ‘I am only an artist’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, pp. 252–3.
163 ‘she loved me’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 143.
163 ‘a young, good-looking’: ibid., p. 59.
163 ‘the intelligent Romola’: ibid., p. 56.
163 ‘prevent her from’: ibid., p. 12.
163 ‘I was petrified … be helpful’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 255.
163 ‘whole world had collapsed’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 50.
165 ‘engagements on golden trays’: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 190.
165 ‘something like a million francs’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 284.
165 ‘I can’t believe’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 283 and Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 38.
165 ‘It seems incredible’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 333.
165 ‘his legendary irresistible charm’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 490.
166 ‘When we parted’: ibid., p. 491.
167 ‘sandwiched between’: Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 108. Nijinsky interviewed by T. P.’s Magazine, 1911.
167 ‘to perfect himself’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 390.
167 ‘He also felt’: Romola Nijinska, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 257.
167 ‘I was the intruder’: ibid., p. 258.
168 ‘to shrink … the end’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 501.
168 Romola says her eyes filled with tears to see Vaslav perform after a clown and before a popular singer, but here and below I have followed the Palace’s programme as reproduced in Macdonald, Diaghilev Observed by Critics in England and the United States, 1911–1929, p. 109.
168 ‘with a pang … had vanished’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 79.
169 ‘the responsibility and’: Beaumont, Bookseller at the Ballet: Memoirs 1891 to 1929, p. 151.
169 ‘It was as if’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 503.
169 ‘Is this what’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 506.
169 ‘a wretched choice’: ibid., p. 506.
170 ‘Mais, il est fou’: Monteux, It’s All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux, p. 90.
170 ‘busily revising his past’: R. Tarushkin quoted in van den Toorn, Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring, p. 17.
171 ‘his ignorance of’: I. Stravinsky, An Autobiography (New York), p. 40.
171 many believed his work: like the composer François Poulenc, who saw it in his teens. See Krasovskaya, Nijinsky, p. 272.
171 ‘had attempted to do’: Massine, My Life in Ballet, p. 152.
171 ‘very sensitive to’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 456.
171 ‘unjust’: Berg, Le Sacre du printemps, p. 41.
171 ‘by far the best’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 59; Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 471.
171 ‘This year … always admired’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 265.
172 ‘Massine’s aim is’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 37.
172 ‘Massine a taste for fame’: ibid., p. 102.
172 ‘terrible beauty … in everything’: Easton, The Red Count, p. 208.
172 ‘all the … whole company’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 342.
172 ‘one single excruciating’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 111.
172 ‘Now I am beginning’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 123.
173 ‘avaricious [and] … nobody did’: Melville, Diaghilev and Friends, p. 127.
173 ‘that cretinous lackey’: Holroyd, Lytton Strachey: a Critical Biography, Vol. II, p. 109.
174 ‘All these young men’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 272.
175 ‘quarrelled for eighteen months’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 211.
175 ‘I loved her’: ibid., p. 142.
175 ‘small silk panties’: ibid., p. 48.
175 ‘an enchanted habitation’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 279.
176 ‘invent signs which’: M. Sandoz, The Crystal Salt Cellar (Guildford, 1954), p. 66.
176 ‘But we loved it’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 280.
177 ‘I now have a family … such conditions?’: ibid., p. 317.
178 ‘Everyone but Kahn’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 80.
178 ‘harmed rather than abetted’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 132.
178 ‘extremely pretty … creative urge’: Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance, pp. 46–7.
179 ‘I am quartered’: ibid., p. 47.
179 ‘energy, his ardour’: ibid., p. 51.
180 ‘suspicious of everyone’: Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909–1929, p. 111.
180 ‘universally loved despite’: Bourman, The Tragedy of Nijinsky, p. 235.
180 ‘pompous [and] … totally’: ibid., p. 253.
180 ‘when he came on stage’: Keynes, Lydia Lopokova, p. 2.
180 ‘I had never imagined’: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 203.
181 ‘She puts into his mouth’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 91.
181 ‘not high enough’: Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance p. 58.
181 ‘Your scenery is so bad’: ibid., p. 56.
181 ‘drenched in pathos’: ibid., p. 58.
182 ‘taken out of’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 159.
182 ‘from the front lines’: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 73.
182 ‘the most magnificent’: O. Sitwell, Great Morning (London, 1948), p. 242.
182 $250,000: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 206.
182 ‘negro who makes love’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 360.
182 ‘a serious man’: C. Chaplin, My Autobiography (London, 1964), p. 206.
182 ‘The mystic world’: ibid., p. 205.
183 ‘un très grand artiste’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 142.
183 ‘intense poignancy’: Seymour, Ottoline Morrell: Life on a Grand Scale, p. 232.
183 ‘far more … they express’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 239.
184 ‘I see a divorce … worse … worse’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 349.
185 ‘felt as if’: ibid., p. 353.
185 ‘hot blooded heterosexual’: Richardson, Picasso, vol. 3, The Triumphant Years, p. 7.
186 ‘lots of cherries’: Sandoz, The Crystal Salt Cellar, p. 53.
186 ‘fatter and fatter’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 171. Letter dated 1915.
186 ‘burst into the lobby … prove it’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, pp. 357–8.
186 ‘the music … but, instead’: Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents, p. 512.
186 ‘where the violent … stand that’: A. Rubinstein, My Many Years (London, 1980), p. 11.
187 ‘He had an instinctive’: Massine, My Life in Ballet, pp. 86–7.
187 ‘but like two accomplices’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 361.
187 ‘I sensed now’: ibid., p. 362.
188 ‘Femmka, I am sorry’: ibid., p. 366.
188 ‘I wanted to’: ibid., p. 369.
189 ‘how beautiful he was’: F. Reiss, Nijinsky: A Biography (London, 1960), p. 168.
189 ‘One of the most endearing’: ibid., p. 168.
189 ‘as so many vermin … him bitterly’: Oliveroff, Flight of the Swan: A Memory of Anna Pavlova, p. 168.
189 ‘feverishly concerned’: ibid., p. 161.
190 ‘utterly foreign world’: ibid., p. 164.
190 ‘better than ever’: Rubinstein, My Many Years, p. 12.
190 ‘She was cunning’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 142.
191 ‘Nijinsky gave a few … endless ovation’: Rubinstein, My Many Years, p. 16.
192 ‘our house … happy one’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, pp. 386–7.
193 ‘I like family life’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 225.
193 ‘a very happy’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 179, quoting a letter from Marta Grant in the Daily Telegraph, September 1979.
193 ‘Romola was the most ’: Marta Grant in Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 182.
193 ‘looked like … it already’: ibid., pp. 179–80.
193 ‘We decided to’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 393.
194 ‘God said to me’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 14.
194 ‘did not slip’: P. Ostwald, Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness (London, 1991), p. 226.
195 ‘an exquisite little girl … to grow’: Sandoz, The Crystal Salt Cellar, p. 66.
196 ‘Oh no! Her grandfather’: ibid., p. 68.
196 ‘show how dances’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 406.
196 ‘I will tell her’: ibid., p. 406.
196 ‘How dare you disturb me!’: ibid., p. 407.
196 ‘We’re at war’: Sandoz, The Crystal Salt Cellar, p. 72.
197 ‘Now I will dance’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 407.
197 ‘And we saw’: Sandoz, The Crystal Salt Cellar, p. 73.
198 ‘it was the dance’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 408.
198 ‘A shiver of fear … delicious grace’: Sandoz, The Crystal Salt Cellar, p. 75.
198 ‘It must be very, very difficult’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 408.
198 ‘The audience came’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, pp. 6–7.
198 ‘the sentences repeated’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 409.
199 ‘To my knowledge’: Nijinsky (ed.), Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, p. vii.
199 ‘means intuitive perception’: ibid., p. xlix.
199 ‘I am afraid’: ibid., p. 10.
199 ‘I am God in man’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 32.
199 ‘Reading it is like’: M. B. Siegel, Mirrors and Scrims: The Life and Afterlife of Ballet (Middletown, CT, 2010), p. 19.
200 ‘to find out’: J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey (Boston, MA, 1961), p. 33.
200 ‘I am not a magician’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 73.
200 ‘I will eat everyone’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 154.
200 ‘who prevent small birds’: ibid., p. 37.
201 ‘To understand … well developed’: ibid., p. 30.
201 ‘I am an Egyptian’: ibid., p. 44.
201 ‘I am a peasant’: ibid., p. 184.
201 ‘terrible things … terrible thing’: ibid., pp. 155–6.
201 ‘not want people to think’: ibid., p. 104.
202 ‘You do not want to live with me’: ibid., pp. 256 and 261.
202 ‘had enough of this’: ibid., p. 10.
202 ‘You think I am stupid’: ibid., p. 128.
202 ‘more than anyone else’: ibid., p. 21.
203 ‘I do not like’: ibid., p. 56.
203 ‘splinters and mosaics’: quoted in J. Lehrer, Proust was a Neuroscientist (Edinburgh, 2012), p. 177.
203 ‘loves me in his heart’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 89.
203 ‘He is a tidy man’: ibid., p. 163.
203 ‘She thinks that love’: ibid., p. 29.
203 ‘wants money because’: ibid., p. 174.
203 ‘I am an unthinking’: ibid., p. 52.
203 ‘whirring of wings’: Virginia Woolf in Lehrer, Proust was a Neuroscientist, p. 171.
203 ‘The quality of abstraction … seldom understood’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. xli.
204 ‘Later, too, I came to understand’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 35.
204 ‘he had no reason’: C. Wilson, The Outsider (London, 1990), p. 103.
204 ‘a verbal expression’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 1 (FitzLyon’s note).
204 ‘I am standing … abandoned by God’: ibid., p. xxv.
204 ‘I feel so much pain’: ibid., pp. 144–5.
204 ‘I have been told’: ibid., pp. 151–2.
205 ‘something total … and nowhere’: Kavanagh, Rudolf Nureyev: The Life, p. 187.
205 ‘more abundant life’: Wilson, The Outsider, p. 101.
205 ‘the working life … entirely destructive’: John Russell quoted in John Heilpern article in The Times, 2 January 1982.
205 ‘I want to dance’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 4.
205 ‘with tears in her voice’: ibid., p. 141.
206 ‘Before us we have’: Accocella in ibid., p. xxvi.
206 ‘I am afraid of people’: ibid., p. 8.
206 ‘I do not know’: ibid., p. 60.
206 ‘Come on out!’: ibid., p. 16.
207 ‘Femmka, you are bringing’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 411.
207 ‘a trail of madness’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 228.
207 ‘a shade worn … great art’: Draper, Music at Midnight, p. 142.
208 ‘living in a dream world’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 349.
209 ‘If that’s what’: Gold and Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 235.
209 ‘Take off … clothes on’: ibid., p. 235.
212 ‘his dancing is’: Ostwald, Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness, p. 224.
212 ‘Why am I locked up?’: ibid., p. 238.
212 ‘Would you believe … be created’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 514.
213 ‘as though an unspoken conspiracy’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 220.
213 ‘I can still taste’: ibid., p. 221.
213 ‘Vatsa, you are being lazy … am mad’: Ostwald, Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness, p. 266.
214 ‘I can’t take it’: Parker, Nijinsky, p. 10.
214 ‘but he did not know me’: Keynes, Lydia Lopokova, p. 141.
214 ‘almost suburban … never still’: Dolin, Autobiography, p. 33.
214 ‘I had the impression … not sure’: Gathorne-Hardy (ed.), Ottoline: the Early Memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell, p. 228.
214 ‘Nijinsky is not mad’: Aschengreen, Jean Cocteau and the Dance, p. 229 note.
215 ‘captive in his own mind’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 35.
215 ‘was to some degree’: Roy Porter, Sunday Times article, January 1991.
215 ‘biologically based … to develop’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. xv.
216 Baedeker: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 62.
216 ‘spiritual father’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 356.
216 ‘our two souls’: Lifar, Ma Vie, p. 44.
216 ‘I was enraptured’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 302.
216 ‘everything and everyone’: Lifar, Ma Vie, p. 49.
217 ‘Loves me? … adorable!’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 345 (see also Lifar, Ma Vie, pp. 61–2).
217 ‘all the tragedy’: C. W. Beaumont, Vaslav Nijinsky (London, 1932), p. 24.
217 ‘he again turned his head’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 243.
218 ‘With his big eyes’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 431.
218 ‘Who is that? … Can he jump?’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 244.
218 ‘Then I saw’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 79.
218 ‘she could have done more’: Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev, p. 47.
218 ‘Je ne veux pas!’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 348.
218 ‘modest, self-effacing’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 45.
218 ‘The longer the earth turns’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 237.
219 ‘like two mad dogs’: Sert, Two or Three Muses, p. 163.
219 ‘now, suddenly, it seems as if’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 442.
219 ‘Many things united us’: Scheijen, Diaghilev, p. 443; see also Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 47.
220 ‘the burden of taking care’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 246.
220 ‘tries to act’: Margaret Severn in Gottlieb (ed.), Reading Dance, p. 692.
221 ‘the only man in this world’: Ostwald, Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness, p. 285.
222 ‘Long talk later’: L. Kirstein, By With To & From. A Lincoln Kirstein Reader (New York, 1991), p. 150.
222 ‘By then his masterpiece’: See Richard Tarushkin’s article in the New York Times, 14 September 2012, ‘Shocker Cools into a “Rite” of Passage’.
222 ‘sometimes one can snatch’: Kirstein, Nijinsky Dancing, p. 35.
222 ‘My wife is an untwinkling star’: Nijinsky), Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 153.
223 ‘punishment at school … his dependency’: The Times, 2 January 1982.
223 ‘this exceptional, gentle’: Ostwald, Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness, p. 127.
223 ‘complained about everything’: a doctor at Bellevue quoted in ibid., p. 306.
224 ‘incapable of showing’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 209.
224 ‘Silently, he gazed …his heart’: ibid., p. 266.
224 ‘How good! … the air’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 376.
225 ‘simply relished being in his presence’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 279.
226 ‘I fell in love’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 435.
227 ‘sensation mongering … very cruel’: News Review, 11 October 1945.
227 ‘Sometimes he would kiss my cheek’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 436.
227 ‘a plump and well-contented’: A. L. Haskell, Balletomane at Large: an autobiography (London, 1972), p. 86.
228 ‘like a docile child’: Sunday Chronicle, 9 April 1950.
228 ‘Like gypsies’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and, The last years of Nijinsky, p. 565.
228 ‘in his glory’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 442.
228 ‘saintly … our hearts’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 373.
233 ‘refused to accept’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 236.
233 ‘And who could blame her?’: Buckle, Nijinsky (1980 edition), p. xxxi.
233 ‘both her strength’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 33.
234 ‘truly awful … talentless’: Roy Porter article in Sunday Times, January 1991.
234 ‘You know, they got it’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 32.
235 ‘Very strange. There was a Russian’: ibid., p. 60.
235 ‘generosity was boundless’: L. Garafola and N. V. N. Baer (eds), The Ballets Russes and its World, p. 261.
236 ‘sustain it …for anyone’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 114.
236 ‘was the permeating genius’: Draper, Music at Midnight, p. 141.
237 ‘Any outstanding work’: Dolin, Autobiography, p. 32.
237 ‘much more limited’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 201.
238 ‘I know that Diaghilev’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 206.
238 ‘Diaghilev did not like me’: ibid., p. 103.
238 ‘It was we, the painters’: Lifar, Diaghilev, p. 141.
238 ‘We were all of us’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 95.
238 ‘convenient for many reasons’: Kirstein, Dance: A Short History of Classic Theatrical Dancing, p. 283.
238 ‘went into his dreams’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 67.
239 ‘in reality … clever man’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and The last years of Nijinsky, pp. 25–6.
239 ‘all the more misleading’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 65.
239 ‘artist should show himself’: Beaumont, The Diaghilev Ballet in London, p. 40.
239 The poet Wayne Koestenbaum quoted in Kopelson, The Queer Afterlife of Vaslav Nijinsky, p. 214.
240 ‘a sign … extremely modest’: quoted in Hanna Jarvinen in K. Kallioniemi et al. (ed.), History of Stardom Reconsidered (Turku, 2007).
241 ‘although he was showman enough’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 41.
241 ‘there is nothing uglier’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 70.
241 ‘the risk, and’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 61.
241 ‘this most homosexual’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 96.
242 ‘To make Sergey Pavlovich happy’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and The last years of Nijinsky, p. 109.
242 ‘predominantly homosexual’: Buckle, Nijinsky (1980 edn), p. xxxii.
242 ‘Never, never, have I seen’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and The last years of Nijinsky, p. 295.
243 ‘in the normal man–woman’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 144.
243 ‘of a race apart’: Beaumont, Nijinsky, p. 25.
243 ‘made the relation’: Arlene Croce quoted in J. L. Hanna, Dance, Sex and Gender: Signs of Identity, Dominance, Defiance and Despair (Chicago, IL, 1988), p. 185.
243 ‘Freud’s chart of man’s’: L. Kirstein, Movement and Metaphor: Four Centuries of Ballet (London, 1970), p. 199.
243 ‘If the trilogy of Faune’: A. Croce in Hanna, Dance, Sex and Gender, p. 185.
244 ‘very much akin to sex’: Kavanagh, Rudolf Nureyev: The Life, p. 190.
244 ‘creative imagination’: Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 37.
244 ‘sylphide étrange’: Astruc, Le Pavillon des fantômes, p. 138.
244 ‘potty. His soul’: J. Mackrell, Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs Maynard Keynes (London, 2008), p. 424.
245 ‘the hidden injuries of class’: Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb, The Hidden Injuries of Class (New York, 1972).
245 ‘mind broke because’: Kavanagh, Rudolf Nureyev: The Life, p. 413.
246 ‘Balanchine always said’: E. Denby, Dance Writings (London, 1986), p. 492.
246 ‘At the moment’: street dancer José Esteban Muñoz quoted in Stoneley, A Queer History of the Ballet, p. 20.
246 ‘a dancer can leave nothing’: Mackrell, Bloomsbury Ballerina, p. xix.
246 ‘know how the great Taglioni’: Haskell, Balletomania, p. 4.
247 ‘spiritual activity in physical form’: Gottlieb (ed.), Reading Dance, p. 338 (from Susan Sontag, French Vogue, December 1986).
247 ‘his technique’: Spectator, 14 April 1950.
247 ‘incorporeal lightness’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 93; see also Karsavina in the Dancing Times, 1950.
247 ‘Never has any other dancer’: Bourman, The Tragedy of Nijinsky, p. 8.
247 ‘the nature of the Dance’: Nijinska, Early Memoirs, p. 517.
247 ‘the highest form’: Massine, My Life in Ballet, pp. 86–7.
247 ‘two Nijinskys’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 379.
247 ‘Where the essential Nijinsky existed’: Romola Nijinsky, Nijinsky; and The last years of Nijinsky, p. 114.
247 ‘wrapped up … take place’: Tamara Nijinsky, Nijinsky and Romola, p. 77.
248 ‘Nijinsky alone … merriment below’: Draper, Music at Midnight, p. 187.
248 ‘You could never believe’: Cocteau, Journals, p. 53.
248 ‘Too familiar’: Cocteau, The Cock and the Harlequin, p. 46.
249 ‘I do not like’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 128.
249 ‘What kind of beauty’: Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 298.
249 ‘I could not agree’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. 103.
249 ‘I want to prove’: ibid., p. 42.
249 ‘Now that … one else’: N. Wright, Rattigan’s Nijinsky (London, 2011), p. 42.
250 ‘Absolutely everything he invented’: Drummond (ed.), Speaking of Diaghilev, p. 114.
250 ‘I would not hesitate’: Rambert, Quicksilver: The Autobiography of Marie Rambert, p. 60.
250 Ninette de Valois: Parker, Nijinsky, p. 10.
250 ‘Had Niijinsky tried’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, p. 151.
251 Come, come now: a very loose paraphrase of Haskell, Balletmania, p. 47.
251 ‘Ah! What poet’: Francis de Moimandre’s Introduction to G. Barbier, Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky (London, 1913).
251 ‘the greatest of stage artists’: C. Van Vechten, Music After the Great War (New York, 1915), p. 77.
251 ‘his dancing has the unbroken quality’: Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance, p. 7.
252 ‘I have never seen’: ibid., p. 65.
252 ‘tiny, almost unnoticeable movements’: L. M. Newman (ed.), The Correspondence of Edward Gordon Craig and Count Harry Kessler (London, 1995), p. 78.
252 ‘Looking at him’: Denby in Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance, p. 20.
252 ‘It was not only … melting tenderness’: Beaumont, ‘Garland for Nijinsky’ in Ballet Annual 1950, pp. 189–90.
253 ‘He looks as if the body’: Magriel, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Duncan: Three Lives in Dance, p. 21.
253 ‘I do not see anything … on stage’: ibid., pp. 20–21.
253 ‘probably … some photographs’: Nijinsky, Nijinsky’s Diary, p. xliv.
254 ‘can be interpreted’: A. Croce, New Yorker review of Buckle’s Diaghilev, 12 May 1980.