Musicians and performers
Bronislava Nijinska
January 8, 1891 — February 21, 1972
- Dancer
- choreographer
Sister of Vaslav Nijinsky and one of the first great women choreographers. She lived in Kyiv in 1915–1921, founding her innovative School of Movement and training Serge Lifar.
Biography
Bronislava Nijinska was born in Minsk on 8 January 1891 to a family of Polish dancers. She graduated from the St Petersburg Imperial Theatre School and danced with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes alongside her brother, the celebrated Vaslav Nijinsky.
In August 1915 she moved to Kyiv with her family. Her husband Alexander Kochetovsky became ballet master of the city opera house, and the couple staged the dance scenes in its productions. In February 1919 Nijinska opened her own School of Movement (L’École de Mouvement) in Kyiv, where she developed new, modernist ideas about choreography. Her most famous pupil was the young Serge Lifar.
Pressure from the Soviet authorities and the Cheka forced the school to close in spring 1921, and in May she crossed into Poland and rejoined Diaghilev. She went on to create her landmark ballets Les Noces (1923) and Les Biches (1924). She died in Los Angeles on 21 February 1972.
Kyiv in their life
Kyiv gave her six years (1915–1921) and the birthplace of her own school. She worked with the company of the city opera house and in 1919 opened the School of Movement that produced Serge Lifar. There is no dedicated memorial to Nijinska in Kyiv.
