One of History’s Greatest Ballet Dancers Was Addicted to Prostitutes
Born in the Russian Empire, Vaslav Nijinsky (1889 – 1950) grew up to become one of history’s greatest ballet dancers, and the best male dancer of the early 20th century. His ability to dance en pointe – on tippy toes – was rare for male dancers in his day, and he captivated audiences with his spectacular leaps and sensitive interpretations. He got his start performing in classical ballets such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, before joining the Ballets Russes – a ground breaking company of that era. His talents were so remarkable that special ballets were created just for him, to showcase his skills. The man was a revolutionary force in ballet, until his career was cut tragically short. The first blow was WW1, which broke out while he was in Budapest, so he ended spending the conflict interned as a Russian subject. Soon after the war ended, he was forced to retire from the stage in 1919, at age 29, because of a nervous breakdown caused by schizophrenia.
He was also an addict, whose drug was prostitutes. After his death, Nijinsky’s wife published his diary, but years later, when researchers got a hold of Nijinsky’s raw diary, they discovered that his widow had edited out of some interesting stuff. Apparently, there were some aspects of the marriage that she did not want to share with the public: to wit, that her husband liked prostitutes.
“Liked” is probably putting it mildly: Nijinsky had a flat out compulsion for prostitutes. He was ashamed of what he viewed as an unfortunate affliction, but he simply could not refrain from gratifying his craving for prostitutes, whom he referred to as “tarts”. The diary describes Nijinsky’s disappointments when he would “look for [a prostitute] all day long and not find one“. It also describes his joy upon finding them, and how he “made love to several tarts a day” on such occasions.
Understandably, that put serious strains on the marriage. After one spree with prostitutes in Paris, Nijinsky’s wife wanted to send him to Zurich for psychiatric treatment. He looked forward to it – not because he was eager to improve his conduct and his marriage, but because of the opportunity to try out Zurich’s prostitutes. His obsession went beyond the act: he was actually interested in plumbing the minds of prostitutes. As he wrote in his diary: “I will not be writing in Zurich, because I am very interested in that town. I will go to a brothel because I want to have an intuitive understanding of tarts. I have forgotten tarts. I want to understand the psychology of a tart“.