Bronislava Nijinska

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Bronislava Nijinska (January 8, 1891 - February 21, 1972) was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent, also known as Bronislava Fominitshna Nizhinskaya; in Polish: Bronisława Niżyńska. Nijinska was born in Minsk. She was the third child of the Polish dancers Thomas and Eleonora Bereda Nijinsky. She was just 4 years old when she made her theatrical debut in a Christmas pageant with her brothers in Nizhny Novgorod.

Nijinska played a leading role in the pioneering venture that stayed against 19 century Classicism.A breakthrough came in 1910 -she created her first solo, the role Papillon in Le Carnival.

Nijinska (the sister of Vaslav Nijinsky) was a member of the Imperial Ballet and the Ballets Russes from whom she choreographed her best known works Les Noces (1923), The Blue Train (1924) and Les Biches (1924). She also choreographed the dances (to Felix Mendelssohn's music) for Max Reinhardt's 1935 film version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film). Bronislava Nijinska died in Pacific Palisades, California.

She was twice married, bearing a son who was tragically killed in a car accident and a daughter who subsequently carried on her work. The true love of her life, but to whom she was never married, was the great Russian bass singer Feodor Chaliapin. She was bisexual.[1]

She was the subject of an album The Nijinska Chamber by Kate Westbrook [2] and Mike Westbrook.