The man who is right, Nijinsky wrote, is the one who feels but does not understand.

Nijinsky, Diary
Somebody dances for you; maybe you can enjoy it, but how can you know the beauty of dance unless you
dance? It is something inner. What happens when a person is dancing? What happens to his innermost
core?
Nijinsky, one of the greatest dancers, used to say that there come moments when he disappears,
only the dance remains. Those are the peak moments -- when the dancer is not there and only the dance
is. That's what Buddha is saying -- when the self is not there.
Now Nijinsky is moving into an ecstasy, and you are just sitting there watching the movement. Of course
those movements are beautiful. Nijinsky's movements have a grace, a tremendous beauty, but it is nothing
compared to what he is feeling inside. His dance is a beauty, even when you are just a spectator, but nothing
compared to what is happening inside him.
He used to say that there are moments when gravitation disappears. I can understand because I have come
across the feeling myself when gravitation disappears. And it was only for moments that gravitation
disappeared for me. Now I have lived for years without gravitation. I know what he means.
Even scientists were very much puzzled, because there were moments in Nijinsky's dance when he would
leap and jump -- and those leaps were tremendous, almost impossible leaps. A man cannot leap that way;
the gravitation does not allow. And the most beautiful and amazing part was that when Nijinsky would be
coming back from the leap he would come so slowly that it is impossible. He would come so slowly as if a
leaf is falling from a tree... very slowly, very slowly, very slowly.
It is not possible, it is against the physical law, it is against physics. The gravitation does not make any
exceptions, not even for a Nijinsky. And he was asked again and again, 'What happens? How do you fall so
slowly? Because it is not within your power to control -- the gravitation pulls you.' He said, 'It does not
happen always, only rarely -- when the dancer disappears. Then sometimes I am also puzzled, surprised,
not only you. I see myself coming so slowly, so gracefully, and I know that the gravitation does not exist in
that moment.'
He must be functioning in another dimension where the physical law does not exist, where another law starts
working that spiritualists call the law of levitation. And it seems absolutely rational and logical to have both
the laws, because each law has to be counterbalanced by another law in the opposite direction. If there is
light there is darkness, if there is life there is death, if there is gravitation there must be levitation that pulls
you up. There must be ways where a person is pulled up.
- Osho about Ninjinsky, "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol2"

Legendary Vaslav Nijinsky (March 12, 1889 - April 8, 1950)

Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. Nijinsky was one of
the most gifted male dancers in history. His ability to perform seemingly gravity-defying leaps
was legendary. Nijinsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine, son of Polish dancers Tomasz Niyski and
Eleonora Bereda. In 1900, he joined the Imperial Ballet School, where he studied under Enrico
Cecchetti, and Nicholas Legat. At only 18 years old he was given a string of leads. In 1910, a
fellow Imperial Ballet dancer, Mathilde Kschessinskaya, selected Nijinsky to dance in a revival
of Marius Petipa's Le Talisman, during which Nijinsky created a sensation in the role of the
Wind God Vayou.

Nijinsky met Sergei Diaghilev, a

celebrated and highly innovative
producer of ballet and opera as
well as art exhibitions, who
concentrated on promoting
Russian visual and musical art
particularly in Paris. In 1909,
Diaghilev took his dance
company, the Ballets Russes, to
Paris, with Nijinsky and Anna
Pavlova as the leads. The show
was a huge success. Nijinsky's
talent showed in Fokine's pieces
such as Le Pavillon d'Armide,
Cleopatra and The Feast.
His partnership with Tamara Karsavina, also of the Mariinsky
Theatre, was legendary, and they have been called the "most
exemplary artists of the time".
Then, Nijinsky went back to the Mariinsky Theatre, but was
dismissed for appearing on-stage during a performance as
Albrecht in Giselle wearing tights without the modesty trunks, obligatory for male dancers in
the company. The Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna, complained that his appearance was
obscene, and he was dismissed. It is probable that the scandal was arranged by Diaghilev, in
order that Nijinsky could be free to appear with his company in the west, where many of his
projects now centered around him. He danced lead roles in
Fokine's new productions Le Spectre de la Rose, and Igor
Stravinsky's Petrouchka, in which his impersonation of a
dancing but lifeless puppet was widely admired.
Nijinsky took the creative reins and choreographed ballets.
His ballets were L'aprs-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a
Faun, based on Claude Debussy's Prlude l'aprs-midi d'un
faune) (1912), Jeux (1913), Till Eulenspiegel (1916) and Le
Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring, with music by Igor
Stravinsky) (1913). Nijinsky created choreography that
exceeded the limits of traditional ballet and propriety. For the
first time, his audiences were experiencing the futuristic, new
direction of modern dance. The radically angular movements
expressed the heart of Stravinsky's radically modern scores.
Nijinsky's new trends in dance caused a riotous reaction at
the Thtre de Champs-Elyses when they premiered in
Paris.
In 1913, Diaghilevs Ballets Russes toured South America.
Diaghilev did not make this fateful journey, because he was
told by a fortune teller in his younger days, that he would die
on the ocean if he ever sailed. Without his mentor's
supervision, Nijinsky entered into a relationship with Romola
Pulszky, a Hungarian countess. An ardent fan of Nijinsky, she
booked passage on board a ship that Nijinsky was due to
travel on, and during the voyage Romola succeeded in
engaging his affections. They were married in Buenos Aires
when the company returned to Europe. Diaghilev is reported
to have flown into a rage, culminating in Nijinsky's dismissal. Nijinsky tried in vain to create his
own troupe, but a crucial London engagement failed due to administrative problems.
During World War I, Nijinsky was interned in Hungary. Diaghilev succeeded in getting Nijinsky
out for the American tour in 1916. During this time, Nijinsky choreographed and danced the
leading role in Till Eulenspiegel. However, it was around this time in his life that signs of his

dementia praecox were becoming apparent to members of the

company.
Nijinsky had a nervous breakdown in 1919, and his career effectively
ended. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and taken to Switzerland
by his wife, where he was treated unsuccessfully by psychiatrist,
Eugene Bleuler. He spent the rest of his life in and out of psychiatric
hospitals and asylums. Nijinsky died in a London clinic on April 8, 1950
and was buried in London until 1953 when his body was moved to
Cimetire de Montmartre. The tombstone of Vaslav Nijinsky is in
Cimetire de Montmartre in Paris. The statue, donated by Serge Lifar,
shows Nijinsky as the puppet Petrouchka.
While immortalized in numerous still photographs, no film exists of
Nijinsky dancing. Diaghilev never allowed the Ballets Russes to be
filmed. He felt that the quality of film at the time could never capture the artistry of his
dancers and that the reputation of the company would suffer if people saw it only in short
jerky films. However, recently films have in fact surfaced out of the former Soviet Union!