From the Vault: Nijinski in London – A Missed Opportunity

Marie-Odile Guellier

Just before the First World War, the Ballets Russes – founded in 1909 by patron Serge de Diaghilev (1872-1929) – were a massive triumph with dance audiences, with the company touring extensively in Europe and on the American continent. However, relations between Diaghilev and Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950), the famed dancer and choreographer of Afternoon of a Faun (L’Après-midi d’un faune) in 1912 and later of Jeux and The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps), brutally deteriorated during this time. Excluded from the Ballets Russes and having given up on joining the Paris Opéra Ballet, Nijinsky tried to settle in London.

At the beginning of 1914, encouraged by the director of London’s Palace Theatre, Nijinsky founded a dance company that included his sister Bronislava Nijinska. The first program he presented consisted of two ballets: Les Sylphides and Le Spectre de la rose. But his art was received rather coldly by British audiences. Critic Cyril de Beaumont wrote in his Memoirs: “the magic of yesteryear has disappeared.” Bronislava, who danced with her brother in Le Spectre de la rose, declared: “He danced better than ever, but the sparkle, the enthusiasm that had animated his being, the elevation that had marked each of his movements, were no longer there.” Overworked and increasingly nervous, Nijinsky fell ill. This marked the end of his brief London adventure.

This failure had an enormous impact on London’s high society, where Nijinsky had many admirers and supporters. Among them, the Marchioness of Ripon holds a special place. Born in 1859, Constance Gwladys Robinson – who went by Gladys – was a great patron of the arts in Great Britain, and she was particularly keen on the foreign avant-garde. Of aristocratic descent, she married Frederick Robinson, Marquess of Ripon, in 1885. A close friend of Oscar Wilde, who dedicated his play A Woman of No Importance (1893) to her, Gladys Ripon was a particular supporter of the Royal Opera House. A great lover of ballet, she also befriended Nijinsky and Diaghilev.

Among the 300 letters in the Gilberte Cournand fund, one can find the letter presented here. It is part of a series of 4, likely sent between January and March 1914 by the Marchioness to her Parisian friend – the patron, muse, and pianist Misia Sert (1872-1950), who was a close friend of Diaghilev. In this correspondence, Gladys Ripon laments the poor quality of the performances she has just attended. Her disappointment was all the greater given Sert’s deep admiration for Nijinsky. In another letter, she explicitly pleads for Diaghilev to reinstate the dancer in his troupe. She wrote to Misia Sert: “Would it still be possible to hire Nijinsky back? Can you do something about it?” This emphasizes the bonds of companionship and friendship between artists and their patrons, well beyond mere financial support, as well as the microcosm of the patrons themselves.

My dearest friend,

We’re both so invested in the matter that I’d like to tell you straight away what impression yesterday’s performance of Nijinsky made on me – it was drearily sad – a childish imitation of Fokine’s ballets. I felt torn between the sorrow of accepting the failure of an artist I’ve admired more than anyone and the satisfaction of realizing that he is absolutely incapable of competing with the “Ballets Russes” in anything except as a memory of what he once was. I beg you to keep all this to yourself and not to tell anyone except Diag. Especially do not mention this to Cocteau, Bakst etc., for Nijinsky has done nothing against me, and I still owe him a luminous debt of gratitude for the artistic impressions he gave me. And although I feel very sorry for our dear friend Diag for the painful ordeal he went through during his stay here this time, I also pity with all my heart this poor little being who never had time to digest all the artistic education imposed on him, the importance demanded of him, and the adulation lavished on him for so few years! I expect to arrive in Paris on the 15^th of this month, and hope to see you again so we can talk about all this.

Fondly,

Gladys Ripon

Marie-Odile Guellier is a documentalist and archivist in the CN D’s Heritage, Audiovisual and Publishing department.

References

C.W. Beaumont
Bookseller at the ballet. Memoirs 1891 to 1929, incorporating the Diaghilev ballet in London
London, 1975, p.149

Guillaume de Sardes
Nijinsky : sa vie, son œuvre
Hermann, 2006. p.120

Donation Gilberte Cournand
CN D Library
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