Dispatches from Home – A Leap into Madness!

“This book explores the origins, manifestations, and treatment of Vaslav Nijinsky’s madness. The successful first half of his life has become legendary, but his breakdowns and terrible decline have never been fully described.” Thus begins Peter Ostwald’s powerfully evocative book about the life and times of one of the most successful performing artists of the 20th Century. Being a lover of classical ballet, particularly during the days of Czarist Russian, I found this book a page-turner from beginning to end.

Nijinsky, born in Russia in 1889, thrilled audiences with his acting ability, bizarre power of mimicry, and extraordinary capacity for gravity-defying leaps into the air, seemingly suspended, then floating down like a feather. He became a charismatic artiste who mesmerized audiences from St. Petersburg, Russia, across Europe, and down to South America with his incredible dancing. However, lurking just beneath his brilliance, there was a simmering darkness.

When Nijinsky was only twelve years old, he fell victim to a near-fatal brain injury. His injury, coupled with his already nervous disposition, severely handicapped his ability to speak and write. Also, at this time, he began experiencing recurring periods of depression. The depression culminated in a mental breakdown in his mid-twenties. Even so, he continued to mystify audiences with his dancing, but the demon of depression was always waiting in the wings.

By the 1920s, chronically depressed and progressively more disabled, Nijinsky spent the rest of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals and asylums until he passed away in 1950. Although Nijinsky’s career was absolutely unique and exceptional, his struggle was not unlike what many performers face today—a compelling inner drive for perfection. Nijinsky’s desire for perfection drove him mad. His dancing career would have been different had there been better diagnostic methods and more effective psychiatric care in those days.

Mr. Ostwald ends his book thusly: “Nijinsky dance his way around the globe, and he leapt into that mysterious universe called madness. He was a saint, a genius, a martyr, and a madman. One can see him still, arcing in space, jumping and flapping, cavorting and flailing, shooting into the sky, suspended, laughing, crying, grimacing, screaming. He remains a myth, an apparition, an emblem, a creature of fantasy, a biological creation, a fleeting image of God. Nijinsky, The God of the Dance.”

(Originally published September 29, 2021)

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