For The Australian Ballet’s 2025 season premiere, the return of legendary American ballet choreographer John Neumeier’s Nijinsky makes a fine showcase of the exceptional artistry and emotive performances that dance can achieve. And, if there is one word best to sum it up, schizophrenic is a good start.
That quality seems hardly accidental. By the age of 30, the celebrated ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky (1889/90 – 1950) was diagnosed with schizophrenia and, until his death 30 years later, was in and out of mental institutions. The ballet forms a tragic mix of virtuosity, fame and madness.
Laudably, Neumeier’s psycho-investigative approach in his homage to Nijinsky finds its power in its ability to essay the artist’s disintegration of relations between thought, emotion, and behaviour so characteristic of the mental disorder – and only an individual with the technical capability, stamina and emotional perceptiveness could convey that. In the titular role, Principal Artist Callum Linnane’s Nijinsky is awe-inspiring.
Incorporating the people close to Nijinsky, the roles he danced and the works he created which unfold in flashback-like sequences, Nijinsky is also dense, complex and sometimes frustrating. While a decent understanding of both his life and Neumeier’s concept would be helpful, what never languishes is Neumeier’s hugely intriguing and richly drawn choreographic style.
Created in two parts, the first part places the action at Nijinsky’s final public performance at a Swiss hotel in St Moritz in 1919. The sounds of incomprehensible chatter among attendees and incidental music at an onstage piano are broken by an off-stage scream.
Nijinsky’s subsequent appearance – as regal as a monarch but attired in an overgarment that hints at a straight jacket – immediately establishes the tragedy befallen greatness and success.
Nijinsky becomes a vehicle to remind us that lives after the horrors of World War I were impacted and startles the audience with bursts of wildly spasmodic movements. Thereafter, Neumeier mimics schizophrenia’s withdrawal into fantasy and delusion to paint Nijinsky’s mental fragmentation with distorted memories of ballets he performed in and the drama of his relationships.
The bold and energetic life evident in several reimagined scenes with the Ballets Russes, to which Nijinsky gave himself, encircles him while under the spell of Russian impresario and founder Sergei Diaghilev (Maxim Zenin).
Nijinsky’s illicit relationship with Diaghilev is depicted with melting sensuality in a danced fusion of bodies to create a lasting highlight through Linnane and Zenin’s beautifully interwoven work.
With Diaghilev clearly the ringmaster of the relationship, contrast is certainly achieved between the pair with the tumult to come when Nijinsky abruptly weds Romola Pulszky, (Grace Carroll), who had long-aspired to get close to him.
While the first part can seem overloaded, the second part of this rollercoaster of career highs and mental lows plummets deeper into Nijinsky’s tortured and delusional world with a more satisfying dramatic flow.
Tormented by the pressing march of soldiers of war – with an accompanying dangerously seething display by the male corps de ballet – the death of his brother Stanislav, his wife’s infidelity and seemingly haunted by his sister Bronislava’s dance, the pain Nijinsky suffers is palpable.
Neumeier superbly holds a mirror to Nijinsky’s disturbed state which, as the works key driver, is illuminated with outstanding detail and creativity.
The conundrum for me is that, as stunningly realised as it is – Neumeier’s set, lighting and costume designs are clearly a total investment of love – the equation linking Nijinsky’s documented and dreadful sexual, emotional and physical trauma to his eventual diagnosis feels either not strong enough or compressed by so much surrounding content.
Rather selfishly, you might want a close up view for a more fully immersive experience to iron out some of the confusing circumstances. Going further, you might hope for a more pinpointed approach that minimises the presence of the large corps de ballet. But, of course, that would mean sacrificing the great pleasure of seeing and feeling the riveting work they perform.
On stage for almost its entirety, Linnane aligns artistry with emotion in a spectacularly mature performance marking a career peak. Through the beauty and exhilaration of jumps, turns and sequences, including unforgettable leaps diving into falls to the stage that conjure thoughts of self-inflicted punishment, Linnane’s embodiment of Nijinsky’s plagued life seems grafted naturally.
Performances are faultless. Zenin’s Diaghilev looms with dark overtones, Carroll dances Romola with resoluteness and poise, Jill Ogai is an oft spectral-like presence with her utterly brilliant en pointe walks as Bronislava and Elijah Trevitt makes an astonishing impression with his brutally convincing turn as Nijinsky’s similarly mentally ill brother.
Artists featuring Nijinsky’s danced roles are impressively drawn by Marcus Morelli as an energetic Harlequin, Jake Mangakahia as a sexually charged Golden Slave and Faun and Brodie James contrasting a spirited Petruschka with the affecting paradox of the sad clown.
Supporting Neumeier’s wonderful convergence of classical, contemporary and folk influences, the music of Chopin, Schumann, Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich creates a seductive soundscape with Jonathan Lo conducting an excellent playing Orchestra Victoria.
But read up, sit close or take the best seats to experience Nijinsky for the most satisfactory experience. Its schizophrenic quality will trigger the mind.
NIJINSKY
Regent Theatre, 191 Collins Street, Melbourne
Performance: Friday 21 February 2025
Season continues to 1 March 2025
Bookings: www.ticketek.com.au
Joan Sutherland Theatre – Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney
Season: 4 – 22 April 2025
Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com
For more information, visit: www.australianballet.com.au for details.
Images: Callum Linnane – photo by Kate Longley | Grace Carroll and Callum Linnane – photo by Kate Longley | Maxim Zenin and Callum Linnane – photo by Kate Longley Grace Carroll and Jake Mangakahia – photo by Kate Longley | Jake Mangakahia, Callum Linnane and Grace Carroll – photo by Kate Longley
Review: Paul Selar