Vaslav

00 Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the "God of Dance," was on the verge of a mental breakdown when he wrote this diary as an outlet for his views on religion, art, love, and life. The diary provides unique insight into the inner life of a highly gifted but mentally disturbed creative genius. Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the "God of Dance," was on the verge of a mental breakdown when he wrote this diary as an outlet for his views on religion, art, love, and life. The diary provides unique insight into the inner life of a highly gifted but mentally disturbed creative genius.

This is three books in one: an impressionistic account (based on the aestheticism of Walter Pater) of the dancer's homoerotic career, a deconstructive analysis of his gay male reception (drawn from the semiotics of Roland Barthes), and an exploration of the limitations of that analysis.

The lush, sweeping story of a remarkable dancer who charts her own course through the tumultuous years of early twentieth-century Europe. Beautifully blending fiction with fact, The Chosen Maiden plunges readers into an artistic world upended by modernity, immersing them in the experiences of the era's giants, from Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev to Coco Chanel and Pablo Picasso. From their earliest days, the Nijinsky siblings appear destined for the stage. Bronia is a gifted young ballerina, but she is quickly eclipsed by her brother Vaslav. Deemed a prodigy, Vaslav Nijinsky will grow into the greatest, and most provocative, dancer of his time. To prove herself her brother's equal in the rigid world of ballet, Bronia will need to be more than extraordinary, defying society's expectations of what a female dancer can and should be. The real-life muse behind one of the most spectacular roles in dance, The Rite of Spring's Chosen Maiden, Bronia rises to the heights of modern ballet through grit, resilience and fervor. But when the First World War erupts and rebellion sparks in Russia, Bronia—caught between old and new, traditional and ground-breaking, safe and passionate—must begin her own search for what it means to be modern.

No diagnosis of mental disorder is more important or more disputable than that of "schizophrenia." The 1982 case of John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan, brought both aspects of this diagnostic dilemma to the forefront of national attention. It became evident to the general public that the experts engaged to study him exhaustively could not agree on whether Hinckley was schizophrenic. General public outrage ensued, as schizophrenia, "the sacred symbol of psychiatry," in the words of Thomas Szasz (1976), emerged as a king of Alice in Wonderland travesty. Schizo phrenia seemed not to be a legitimate diagnostic entity but some sort of facade erected to protect the guilty. In 1973, David Rosenhan had already shown the readers of Science that schizo phrenia was a label that could be given to normal people presenting with a supposed auditory hallucination on even one occasion. In Rosenhan's studies, mental health professionals were outclassed by the regular psychiatric hospital patients, who cor rectly saw the false schizophrenics as imposters while the professional diagnosticians continued to fool themselves.

The Beast is back in Dubna. Let the obsession begin. Finished with the Italian and home in his motherland, Vaslav Pashkov should be happy to isolate away in his safe and private hills. But the unfortunate detail of unfinished business with his dead friend drags him back to the city and puts Vera Avdonin straight into his waiting hands yet again. Every meddling step he takes into her life only drags her closer to him whether she likes it or not. Somebody’s bound to notice. How much will they pay? Welcome to Russia—while here, you will play by his rules. * The Lies Between Lovers is Part Two of Vera and Vaslav’s story in The Beast of Moscow Saga. It should only be read after Part One.

Now in paperback, Bronislava Nijinska: Early Memoirs--originally published in 1981--has been hailed by critics, scholars, and dancers alike as the definitive source of firsthand information on the early life of the great Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950). This memoir, recounted here with verve and stunning detail by the late Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972)--Nijinsky's sister and herself a major twentieth-century dancer and leading choreographer of the Diaghilev era--offers a season-by-season chronicle of their childhood and early artistic development. Written with feeling and charm, these insightful memoirs provide an engrossingly readable narrative that has the panoramic sweep and colorful vitality of a Russian novel.

Does Jerusalem Stand? It was the question all human star travelers asked one another. The ancient city of Jerusalem, holy to three human religions, had become the touchstone for anyone not yet absorbed into the Na’id Empire, under its twin banner of Galactic Dominion/Human Supremacy. Iry— A planet out of myth, whose very existence could bring down an empire. Alihahd— The captain was a notorious rebel runner. To most of the known galaxy hewas a legend without a face, to the rest, a face without a name. He was called Alihahd. “He left.” It was the word Na’id enforcers heard when they demanded to know where the rebel had gone—always one step ahead—as if he knew his enemy very well. Hero, villain, coward. Three times a legend on both sides of the same war.

A story of triumph and tragedy, hailed as “the definitive biography” of ballet’s greatest male dancer (The Times Literary Supplement). From Richard Buckle, one of the all-time leading authorities on golden-era Russian dance, Nijinsky is an account of the rise and fall of perhaps the most iconic ballet performer of the twentieth century, Vaslav Nijinsky. Drawing on personal conversations with countless people who knew and worked with Nijinsky, including his sister and famed choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, Buckle’s intimate and astonishing portrait reveals a master whose reign was all too brief. As a dancer, interpretive artist, and choreographic pioneer, Nijinsky reached unparalleled heights. His breathtaking performances with the Ballets Russes took Western Europe by storm, and his avant-garde choreography for The Afternoon of a Faun and The Rite of Spring, both now regarded as the foundation of modern dance, caused riots in the streets. Through his liaison with the great impresario Sergei Diaghilev, Nijinsky worked with the artistic elite of the time—including Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst, Claude Debussy, Mikhail Fokine, Tamara Karsavina, Anna Pavlova, and Igor Stravinsky—and lived in an atmosphere of perpetual glamour, hysteria, and intrigue. But when Njinsky married Hungarian aristocrat Romola de Pulszky, Diaghilev abruptly dismissed him from the Ballets Russes. Five years after the betrayal, Nijinsky was diagnosed with schizophrenia and declared insane, and the final curtain fell on the world’s most famous dancer. This remarkable biography both celebrates Nijinsky’s profound genius and shadows his descent into the madness that is inextricably linked with his legendary reputation.

Twelve previously uncollected experimental shorter plays: The Chalky White Substance • The Day on Which a Man Dies (An Occidental Noh Play) • A Cavalier for Milady • The Pronoun "I" • The Remarkable Rooming House of Mme. LeMonde • Kirche, Küche, Kinder (An Outrage for the Stage) • Green Eyes • The Parade • The One Exception • Sunburst • Will Mr. Merriwether Return from Memphis? • The Traveling Companion Even with his great commercial success, Tennessee Williams always considered himself an experimental playwright. In the last 25 years of his life his explorations increased—especially in shorter forms and one-act plays—as Williams created performance pieces with elements of theater of the absurd, theater of cruelty, theater of the ridiculous, as well as motifs from Japanese forms such as Noh and Kabuki, high camp and satire, and with innovative visual and verbal styles that were entirely his own. Influenced by Beckett, Genet, and Pinter, among others, Williams worked hard to expand the boundaries of the lyric realism he was best known for. These plays were explicitly intended to be performed off-off Broadway or regionally. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes outrageous, quite often the tone of these plays is rough, bawdy or even cartoonish. While a number of these plays employ what could be termed bizarre "happy endings," others gaze unblinkingly into the darkness. Though several of Williams' lesser-known works from this period have already been published by New Directions, these twelve plays have never been collected. Most of these shorter plays are unknown to audiences and scholars—some are published here for the first time—yet all of them embrace, in one way or another, what Time magazine called "the four major concerns that have spurred Williams' dramatic imagination: loneliness, love, the violated heart and the valiancy of survival."