ABSTRACT
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) is a key figure in the reintroduction of the male ballet to the stages of European theatres at the beginning of the twentieth century, and for initiating and developing representations of masculinity that have dominated ballet and even to some extent modern dance throughout the century. From reminiscences of the first performance of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909, it is clear that Nijinsky became a star overnight, and he went on to become probably the most famous dancer of the twentieth century With this has come the inevitable processes of mythologization, making it difficult to establish precisely what his contribution was to the development of representations of masculinity in dance.
