Fragment of the performance "N":
Nizhinsky (OM) and the Actor (AF) appear in close-up side by side, swaying. The Actor tries not to burst out laughing. Nizhinsky gazes and smiles. The Actor pushes him on the shoulder. Both jump on their feet, synchronously run to the white pillars, jump on them and then simultaneously slide down.

Actor: I can get out of here any time I want!
Nizhinsky: Where to?! Well you won't find me when you get back!
Actor: (round-eyed) Oh, but if I’m not coming back...
Nizhinsky: Don' t you understand? They'll bring you back.
Actor: Where are you going to be?
Nizhinsky: They're going to take me away...
Actor: Will we ever meet again?
Nizhinsky: If we look for each other...
Actor: We will look for each other!
Nizhinsky: And maybe we'll even find each other.

***

Ekaterina Ufimtseva:
Nizhinsky’s fate was decided at the moment he was introduced to Sergei Diaghilev, who was starting his enterprise. With his prophetic flair, Diaghilev at once felt the right person. He took care of all Nizhinsky’s problems, but instead demanded full subjection. From now on, Nizhinsky became completely dependant on Diaghilev, both in life and art.
In early May of 1909 the troupe of Ballets Russes came to Paris. Nizhinsky headed to the sleeping-car accompanied by a faithful Diaghilev’s servant, Vasily. From this moment, Vasily became a bodyguard and almost a jailer of the dancer. He anticipated his every wish, but kept an eye on every move.
In Paris, on Benois's witness, everybody realized what an executive place Nizhinsky is destined to take, and how much affection the director shows to him. Diaghilev was busy creating a new ballet star. Nizhinsky more than fulfilled the entrepreneur’s hopes. His success far surpassed the expectations. Paris was struck. Newspapers were praising the dancer, and it was a high fashion to accept him in the most respected houses, and to boast later the acquaintance with the celebrity.
But Nizhinsky remained deaf to all the noise around his name and kept stammering and blushing in public.

***

In the studio.

E. Ufimtseva: And how did you cope with directing?
A. Feklistov: In fact, the difficulties with directing began with… how to put it?... it was such an unusual way… It was not the director, who had chosen the play and the actors; it was vice versa…
O. Menshikov: I think this particular idea required that the director should’ve been with us from the start. Obviously, it was necessary that he had been with us from the very beginning, from the moment when the idea and the name of Nizhinsky emerged.

EU: (very seriously) But was there a place for a director in your company?
OM: Well, after all it turned out that (laughing), may be there was no place for him... but... we had no such an intention at the beginning.

EU: Who had the right to say the final word at a rehearsal?
OM: Well, it was a cooperative work...
AF: (interrupts) But Oleg was to say the final word.

EU: So, Oleg after all?
AF: Yes, Oleg. Because it was his idea in the first place and… well, it happened so that we trusted him more than we trusted ourselves. We had to agree at some point. After all, there were three of us. The third was Pavel Kaplevich, designer. And generally we worked together.
OM: But... also there was such an atmosphere… not common excitement… but trust to each other. That’s why it was necessary that someone… well, if we have two variants, someone should say: “OK, guys, let’s do it this way!”

EU: Oleg, as far as I know, you wanted to be a director.
OM: Yes, I did. And I still do. (Pause) But I want to win this right. I want to win the right to share something with people… To lead people.

EU: You think you haven’t won it yet?
OM: No, I haven’t – inside of me. (Explains) To speak to my colleagues at a different level.

EU: But aren’t you jealous of each other? Well, something like: who got more applause, who was asked for more autographs, who was more praised by the press…
OM: Well, you know, if pay much attention to such things… (AF chuckles off-frame), it means you’re in trouble... (laughing)
AF: You can go mad...
OM: In this case, it is better to forget about the profession and think only about these things.

EU: (stands her ground) But it was not me who invented the problem! Actor’s jealousy and the desire to lead the performance have existed for ages, since the moment the theatre appeared!
OM: Well... I don’t know… Such a… (nods to AF) Well, go ahead, Sasha, say your word!!! (Bursts out laughing)
AF: (thoughtfully) No. Well, when you perform a play for two… It’s my second experience of the kind… There’s no such a division at all, really! Only two of us are responsible for the performance. There’s no one to cover our backs. We don’t go backstage, we don’t have an interval, and we almost don’t leave each other alone on the stage. Well, it is implied in the play. But, so to say, we create this world anew every time! And if one takes less part in this creation than the other… well, here we really are as honest as possible with each other.

***

Fragment of the performance "N":
The Actor and Nizhinsky recline head to head on the floor:

Nizhinsky: Is this some kind of joke?
Actor: I don't get you...
Nizhinsky: Is today really my birthday?
Actor: Really. Congratulations!!! (Presents N. with a foam-rubber cake)
Nizhinsky: Ooooh!!!
Actor: Now you tell me something funny!
Nizhinsky: Something funny? Ah... funny! Did you know I met Chaplin?!
Actor: Really?!
Nizhinsky: Ye-es... I spent my favorite birthday with Chaplin. We talked about his mother. He loved her very tenderly. Yes! We sat like... And neither had he spoken Russian, nor I spoke English. Do you like Chaplin?
Actor: Yes.
Nizhinsky: And so do I! Do you like him much?
Actor: Very much.
Nizhinsky: …Now think well! Do you like Chaplin much?
Actor: I like Chaplin very much.
Nizhinsky: Then take this! (Smashes the cake into the Actor’s face. The famous “Chaplin’s” music breaks out)
Actor: (falling onto his back, laughing) A-ha-ha-ha!!!

Music becomes louder. Nizhinsky jumps on his feet and brushes his trousers on his knees in Chaplin’s manner. Then, to the music and very loudly:

Actor: And what do YOU love most of all on earth? (Puts a hat on Nizhinsky’s head)
Nizhinsky: Most of all on earth? Insects and parrots.
Actor: (to himself) Unfortunately, I don't like either one. What do you hate?
Nizhinsky: Ringing telephones. (Puts a hat on the Actor’s head)
Actor: Your ideal?
Nizhinsky: Nietzsche!
Actor: Your favorite object?
Nizhinsky: À mirror... no, wait. Yes, à mirror.
Actor: Your most treasured dream?
Nizhinsky: To see the light.
Actor: In what sense?
Nizhinsky: Next question!
Actor: OK. What thought has pursued you all life long?
Nizhinsky: You mean, like an idee fixe?
Actor: Yeah, sort of.
Nizhinsky: À circle. Like an eye, you know?
Actor: Uhuh. Do you believe dreams?
Nizhinsky: I don't believe life!!!

Nizhinsky and the Actor dance to the music in Chaplin’s manner. The Actor holds an umbrella and Nizhinsky – a walking cane. The dialogue is continued in the rhythm of the music.

Actor: Do you believe dreams?
Nizhinsky: Not all of them.
Actor: Favorite flower?
Nizhinsky: Narcissus.
Actor: You lie!!!
Nizhinsky: Rose!
Actor: You lie!!!
Nizhinsky: Narcissus!
Actor: All right. Color? (Puts on a gown, resemling a fish scales)
Nizhinsky: Coffee!
Actor: Me too! Smell?
Nizhinsky: Backstage…
Actor: Joking?
Nizhinsky: (doesn’t give up) Back-stage...
Actor: Stubborn as an ass!
Nizhinsky: As old as this world!
Actor: ...But wrong. Season?
Nizhinsky: I am not sufficiently prepared to answer that question. Winter in Europe!
Actor: Winter in Europe?

Dancing, they share the gown and appear both dressed in it, they stand up and waving arms like wings roll to the back of the stage. It turns out that while dancing each of them have put on a roller-boot. Almost at the backstage Nizhinsky manages to take off his roller and pushes it to the proscenium.

***

In the studio.

EU: (to AF) What do you love most of all on earth?
AF: (with a smile) I love the earth itself.

EU: And you, Oleg?
OM: (also smiling, after a pause) Oh, no. I will not answer, because it sounds too beautifully.

Everybody laughs.

EU: Your favorite object, Oleg?
OM: My favorite object? I don’t know… A piano, maybe…

EU: (to AF) Do you believe dreams?
AF: No.
OM: I did. For some time I did.

EU: (to AF again) Your favorite flower?
AF: Wildflowers, I think.

EU: Color?
AF: (with a short laugh) Let’s say, white with black polka-dot.(OM laughs demonstratively)

EU: Smell?
AF: Sometimes I recall the smells of childhood. Like… I don’t know. This smell can be compared to nothing else. This is the smell of memories.
OM: There’s such a smell… of a new thing. I don’t know how to define it.

EU: Your ideal?
OM pretends prompting to AF. Together: "Nietzsche!" Both laugh.

EU: Favorite dish?
OM: There was no such question!
EU: There was!
OM: Ah, yes, there was… Well, I forgot. We haven’t been playing for a long time...

The sounds of Chaplin theme again.

***

Fragment of the performance "N":
The Actor and Nizhinsky step in tact.

Actor: Favorite dish?
Nizhinsky: Aren't you going to ask about my favorite breed of dog?
Actor: No...
Nizhinsky: Pomegranate.
Actor: That's not à dish.
Nizhinsky: Then what is it?
Actor: It's just à fruit.
Nizhinsky: Sometimes it's impossible to talk to you! (Pause.) Why so silent? (Gives up) Oh, all right. À pomegranate is just à fruit. Let it be just a fruit. Are you happy, now? Although it's not true. Happy birthday!
Actor: What do you mean?
Nizhinsky: Today is birthday. My birthday. Your birthday. Our birthday. Happy birthday to both of us!
Actor: Thanks. Vaclav, what can you tell me about the ballet?
Nizhinsky: In general? Nothing.
Actor: Happy birthday! Why so capricious?
Nizhinsky: I don't know what to say. Thanks. Give me à hint!
Actor: Who? Me? I don’t know what to say… Let's say, choreography...
Nizhinsky: (Nods) Uhum.
Actor: ...Plot...
Nizhinsky: Uhum.
Actor: ...Partnership. Critics, finally...
Nizhinsky: No! We have decided that the word “critics” means “death”. Because it is theorizing.
Actor: (interrupts) I see, I see...
Nizhinsky: Why do you ask?
Actor: You see, I heard something about the ballet once. But I don't remember it now! Something about à pretty castle…
Nizhinsky: (in a quavered voice) I know. The castle of beauty.
Actor: (hurriedly) Yes-yes-yes...
Nizhinsky: (lightly) Well, the plot is fair. You've either got to have à plot that nobody knows at all or that everybody everywhere knows. For example, I could devise à dance for à hunchback, could you?
Actor: Me? No! (Holds a wreath of oak leaves)
Nizhinsky: I don’t know how to explain. There, you see? You just waved me off with your hand. Maybe choreography makes use of the very same gesture, only in an artificially created environment. I don’t know...

Pause.

Actor: I don’t know... Vaclav, you yourself don’t know what you are.
Nizhinsky: (stares “in nowhere") But I know one thing, there is no such thing as à dance that is independent from death.
Actor: What did you say?

Sounds of flute. Debussy. "The Afternoon of Faun".

Actor: There is no such thing as à dance that is independent from death? But I’d say… (Puts on the wreath and makes moves with his hands imitating the moves of Nizhinsky as Faun), you’ve exaggerated, to put it mildly...
Nizhinsky: What do you mean?
Actor: Look!

Against the amber background, the Actor’s figure takes the shape of Faun. Faun dances. The photos of Nizhinsky as Faun.

***

Ekaterina Ufimtseva:
Influenced by Diaghilev, Nizhinsky took over his first production. A ten-minute ballet took him more than a hundred of rehearsals, which seemed impossible back then. It was “The Afternoon of Faun”, the ballet to the music by Debussy, dedicated to the love desires, visions and dreams.
Nizhinsky’s Faun is the type of eternal spring, who will never be mature. After the first performance, the audience kept silence at first, puzzled. Then a couple of claps and an uncertain whistle were heard. Diaghilev demanded to repeat the dance. This time the applause won. Loudest of all was the great Rodin’s. However, many considered the ballet indecent. Even Mikhail Fokin, the leading Diaghilev’s choreographer, wrote furiously that such a finale simply can’t be performed in front of the audience where young ladies may occur.
By that time Nizhinsky was dismissed from the theatre in his Motherland for going on the stage in “Giselle” in a too revealing costume designed by Benois.
Now he was completely in Diaghilev’s hands.

***

In the studio.

EU: And how do like ballet?
AF: (smiling shyly) Actually, I’m an amateur in it. Though, now that we started… But anyway, I see it from my own amateur point of view – whether I like it or not. I don’t quite understand it. I can only guess. I’m not a balletomane.

EU: And you, Oleg?
OM: Me neither.

EU: It sounds strange. Without a passion for ballet, you choose a character from this specific world.
AF: (shyly) Well, we made a performance not about the ballet or a historical person.

EU: Do you mean, if he was a painter, you could produce the performance anyway?
AF: (relieved) Of course, of course...

EU: Oleg, and who do you play?
OM: I play… You know, it’s hard to explain who you play after you have played… Because, if it’s not clear, why explain? But in general, we didn’t have an idea to make a performance about Nizhinsky. (AF nods in agreement) We had an idea to produce a play about our attitude to… (Pause) to the genius. The attitude, like… “to look comparing the present with the glorious past".

EU: But this idea was prompted to you by a certain person…
OM: Yes, certainly.

EU: ...And this person was Nizhinsky.
OM: The person-legend, the person-myth. The myth that everyone is free to interpret in his own way. For some Nizhinsky is a “dark genius”. So to say, genius, but dark. I don’t agree with it, but it’s my personal opinion. For some he is an extreme light, and this is closer to my view. I, for example… There are people, who think that Nizhinsky was nothing. That he was a genius performer, but as a person he was nothing… Was of no interest as a person.

EU: (shyly) Do you think he was a gifted choreographer? Or he wasn’t?
OM: (seriously and sadly) I don’t know. Who knows? Nobody saw it.

EU: But what do you think? Because in a way you tried to…
OM: I think he was a gifted choreographer FOR HIMSELF. I don’t think he was gifted… for the performance. Well, you understand what I mean… to make a performance with many dancers, but I don’t think that… Probably, he could SHOW, but it is impossible to repeat Nizhinsky’s dance. And he couldn’t explain anything anyway.

***

Fragment of the performance "N":
Nizhinsky sits on a window-sill, and the Actor – at the edge of the stage.

Actor: Say, how was it that you could hang in the air at the top of à leap?
Nizhinsky: That's simple.
Actor: What do you mean - simple?
Nizhinsky: I mean simple. You just get à bit of à running start, take off, and then, for à minute, you just stop in the air. That’s all.
Actor: What do you mean, just stop? (mumbles) Simple...
Nizhinsky: (puzzled) Well... just stop. (in a whisper) Try it.
Actor: Me?
Nizhinsky: You!!!
Actor: Come on! I don't have any experience.
Nizhinsky: So what? All experience does is kill à good leap. Come on, come on! (Excited, runs to the middle of the stage dragging Actor with him)
Actor: No, I’m just curious.
Nizhinsky: Come on! Come on, go to that wall, come on, go! Just try it. Just fall in love with this leap. Fall in love. Fall in love and think of nothing.

The Actor, muttering, goes along the pass between the seats to the opposite wall. Returns.

Nizhinsky: Right here. (Heats the stair) Right here you take off and fly. Try it!!!
Actor: OK. How do I start? When?
Nizhinsky: (murmurs a tune) Ta... (Simultaneously the sounds of pas-de-de from “Don Quixote” are heard) ta-ta-ta-ta… As soon as you're ready, I’ll wave my hand!
Actor: (doomed) All right...
Nizhinsky: (excited) Come on! From here!

The Actor returns.

Nizhinsky: (shouts, with metal in his voice) Take your position! Quick!!!

The Actor is not seen. Nizhinsky, having stretched out his hand as an animal trainer, sways in tact. The Actor approaches. Nizhinsky waves his hands energetically, together they slap the stage and raise their hands. Bright light. Music rises to forte.
Music ceases. Lights go dim. The Actor drops his hands helplessly.

Actor: I can’t. I can’t do it.
Nizhinsky: (casually) No need to get upset. Nobody can do it. I'm probably the only one... Come here. (They sit. With a laugh) When I was à boy I used to copy out Pushkin's poems, hoping I would learn to write like he did. Something like, "I'm sitting on pins in à dungeon so damp...”**
Actor: (sadly) "God grant I don't go nuts!"***
Nizhinsky: Yes-yes-yes-yes!
Actor: I know...
Nizhinsky: I wrote several poems myself, but nobody, nobody ever read them.
Actor: No wonder! What rhymes with "existence"?
Nizhinsky: Existence. Existence. Nizhinsky.
Actor: What?
Nizhinsky: (quietly) Nizhinsky.
Actor: What?
Nizhinsky: (quieter) Nizhinsky.

***

Ekaterina Ufimtseva:
Nizhinsky made a true revolution in ballet. For the first time the leading part was that of a dancer. Thus Mikhail Fokin’s ballet “The Vision of Rose” appeared. On the day of the premiere, designer Bakst came to the dressing-room and watched the lilac petals being attached to Nizhinsky’s lilac costume. He himself put a cap on Nizhinsky’s head, and a tender soul of a flower was born. Nizhinsky whirled, he enveloped, he disturbed the innocent souls of the sleeping people, and in the end he leaped out of the open window. It was rumored that Vasily nearly made a capital giving to the admirers thrown away crumpled petals.

***

In the studio.

EU: (to AF) Sasha, and who do you play in the performance after all?
AF: (sighs) Well, judging by the reviews on the performance… (Everybody laughs), I play Nizhinsky’s alter ego and I play a psychiatrist. I think there are both. In a way we implied it in the performance, in its language. We implied this endless allusion about my part. It can’t be interpreted one-way. But if put it simply, it is Someone who comes to Nizhinsky and tries to read the riddle of his life and art… And then he faces… He starts to perceive and feel the world just like Nizhinsky.

EU: (to OM) Do you think Nizhinsky was a free person?
OM: I think that during the last 30 years he was terribly dependant. He has always been a restricted person. That’s how his diaries originated. I think it was the greatest disaster of his life. This constant lack of freedom and constant dependence of the direction of the Imperial Theatres, of Sergei Diaghilev, of Romola, of… he has constantly been as if held by someone…

EU: Sasha, you play a slight hint at Diaghilev. What role do you think Diaghilev played in Nizhinsky’s life?
AF: Well, I think he played a great role in his life. This man influenced his passions and tastes. He gave him the opportunity to dance so many parts. We, actors, after all are dependant people. And ballet dancers are dependant in the same way. An artist should be given an opportunity to realize his potential.

EU: But there’s quite an opposite point of view that Diaghilev restricted Nizhinsky’s will, and that Nizhinsky was completely dependant on him, which later influenced the course of his disease.
AF: Yes. Well… First of all, we surely are, probably, not so competent… actually, nobody is competent, because there’s little evidence. But on the other hand, we were not after recreating the historical realities of the relations between Diaghilev and Nizhinsky. We were after quite different things.

***

Fragment of the performance "N":
To the sound of Weber, the Actor as Diaghilev steps from behind the pillars. He has a winning appearance of an American dandy. He wears the fish-scales gown and holds an umbrella; a monocle sparkles in his eye.

Diaghilev: (very loudly and pretentiously) ... Allow me to introduce myself: Diaghilev. Sergei Pavlovich.

Nizhinsky lies on his back at the proscenium. At first he chuckles.

Diaghilev: (carelessly) Vaclav, my dear boy, don't you recognize me? How have you been?
Nizhinsky: Don't try taking him on. That's no role for you!
Diaghilev: Do you remember that hotel?
Nizhinsky: Drop him, I said!
Diaghilev: (aggressively) We had just been introduced and you were so weak!
Nizhinsky: Yes!!! I fainted!
Diaghilev: I was so afraid for you that I called the doctor.
Nizhinsky: The doctor found nothing wrong and you brought me an orange.
Diaghilev: I took your hand in mine...

Diaghilev pulls Nizhinsky onto his feet energetically. Nizhinsky helplessly goes limp in his master’s arms.

Nizhinsky: (indifferently, his eyes closed) I was out of money. How many times do I have to tell you? I need pocket change for minor expenses. I can't be bothered with that every moment of the day.
Diaghilev: (leaves N., steps aside) But I gave you à thousand francs! That's all I had with me!
Nizhinsky: I need two thousand francs by tomorrow! And I have no desire to wait any longer! I am à free man and I do as I please!
Diaghilev: (with a hiss) Of course, of course. But who pays your bills? (Throws a walking cane to N.)
Nizhinsky: I don't need support like that! I want my own money and I want to spend it however I want!

Diaghilev throws a part of his gown over Nizhinsky’s neck. Together they step in tact to the music.

Nizhinsky: You don't even allow me the most basic needs.
Diaghilev: What do you consider the most "basic needs?" Where did you go last night, just to spite me?
Nizhinsky: I didn't do anything to spite you! Yesterday, the day before yesterday, or the day before the day before yesterday. I'm sick of constantly being followed!!!
Diaghilev: You can do anything your heart desires...
Nizhinsky: I'm not talking about the ballet. (rebelliously) How come the sheets aren't changed more often? Tell them I want the bed changed every morning!!!
Diaghilev: What are you talking about? Vasily is in charge of that.
Nizhinsky: Vasily follows me! (Pause) By the way, get him away from me! I see his disgusting face everywhere I go!
Diaghilev: À face no worse than any other.
Nizhinsky: À mug!
Diaghilev: À face!
Nizhinsky: À mug!
Diaghilev: À face!
Nizhinsky: Now comes the blow with the walking cane.
Diaghilev: What?
Nizhinsky: I used to blow him with the walking cane. Like this! (Hits D., the cane breaks)
Diaghilev: (oppressing anger) That hurts.
Nizhinsky: It hurts me, too.
Diaghilev: (points an umbrella at Nizhinsky’s chest. Furious) You scum! You scoundrel! You liar! (Kicks N. off his feet) Do you know who you are? You're à two-bit hoofer, that's who! You madness is hereditary. (Taunting) And if you hadn't made such à huge, mysterious legend out of it, you would have been nothing but fine print in à ballet encyclopedia. The only time anybody would ever remember you would be when some teacher in à kid's ballet school was showing some kid how to jump!!!

Nizhinsky pushes Diaghilev with his legs.

Diaghilev: You're an ape!

***

Ekaterina Ufimtseva:
Diaghilev’s excitement pushed him further. The director of Ballets Russes had made the final decision to replace his leading choreographer Mikhail Fokin with Nizhinsky.
…And this destroyed Nizhinsky. Perhaps, he overstrained himself choreographing “The Rites of Spring” to the Stravinsky’s music.
The atmosphere of the rehearsals predicted the thunder. The choreographer suffered. But the dancers suffered too, being unable to understand what he wanted from them. On top of everything his sister Bronislava confessed she was pregnant and couldn’t dance the leading part.
The premiere of “The Rites of Spring” in some way resembled an earthquake. The theatre’s walls were shaking from buzz. Yells, outrages and hooting didn’t cease. Music was nearly muffled by the hiss. The sounds of slaps and hits were heard. Nizhinsky, pale as death, was shouting backstage beating the rhythm. Diaghilev gave commands from his box.
Soon after that he attempted to make up with Fokin. Fokin agreed, but his condition was to have all Nizhinsky’s parts.

***

In the studio.

EU: And how would you explain his strange marriage to Romola Pulska?
OM: Well, first of all, I don’t think it was “strange”. It was rather sudden, quick.

EU: It was not too sudden. She was courting him for some time, and looked for opportunities to see him.
OM: (interrupts) Yes, but he didn’t recognize her. Every time they met.

EU: Why do you think he didn’t recognize her?
OM: (archly) ...Nobody knows! That’s why we produced this play. Because actually we know just some four or five facts.

***

Ekaterina Ufimtseva:
Romola Pulska first saw Nizhinsky in Budapest at the premiere of Ballets Russes, and fell deeply in love with him. From that moment she had been following the troupe everywhere, and never missed a single performance. But all her tricks were vain. Nizhinsky hardly noticed his admirer. They were introduced many times, but the next day he didn’t recognize her again.
Romola started to take dancing classes and persuaded Diaghilev to accept her in the troupe. The unaware entrepreneur sheltered the woman, who was destined to strike him a severe blow. Thus, Romola found herself on the board of “Avon”, the ship that brought the troupe on tour to America.
...Diaghilev didn’t join the troupe as he was predicted to die on water, and for the first time Nizhinsky was on his own.
The whole troupe watched young Romola’s flirt with the leading dancer. They spoke different languages, but that didn’t prevent Nizhinsky from making a sudden proposal to Romola.
At first she thought he was playing a mean joke on her, but on September 10, 1913 their wedding took place during the stop at Buenos-Aires.
Diaghilev was sent a wire about the event. Soon after that Nizhinsky was informed that Ballets Russes didn’t need him any longer.
And the next year Nizhinsky’s daughter Kira was born.

***

In the studio.

EU: But could it be an attempt to free himself from Diaghilev? Or do something that nobody expect from him and thus break away?
OM: I think there was everything. When we look just at one side of the problem, we forget about the rest: there was a desire to break away, and to free himself from Diaghilev, and anything. Well, I don’t know… Self-expression maybe. And many-many other reasons can be found to result in his proposal to Romola. And why… I think there are so many “whys”…

EU: What do you think caused his disease? Or, no matter how his life went, it would’ve revealed itself anyway?
OM: Well, in some way it is a matter of presumption. I don’t know. But perhaps… (Pause) ...it would’ve happened in any case. Sooner or later. I think it might’ve happened later in a different situation. But it would’ve happened in any case.

***

Ekaterina Ufimtseva:
Utterly exhausted by the uncompromising rivalry between Diaghilev and Romola, Nizhinsky became very nervous and suspicious. At the same time a couple of accidents happened to him: first, a soffit fell on the spot, where he had just been standing, then a decoration, under which he was to jump, collapsed. As a result, mania of prosecution developed.
He hired bodyguards. It seemed to him he was surrounded by enemies. Now he never agreed to go on the stage until his personal servant checked all the traps and examined all the battens to make sure there was no broken glass on them.
On October 26, 1917, Nizhinsky danced on the stage for the last time.
Gradually, his lonely strolls became longer and his drawings seemed stranger. He was the first to express the fatal prophecy in his diaries: “I’m mentally ill. I’m incurable”.
The dancer was placed into the mental clinic.
...And it was the moment when his other life started. Consciousness gradually left him and his connections to the outer world were breaking. Nizhinsky forgot his name, but he remained in memories of those, who at least once saw his leap, forever.

***

In the studio.

EU: Oleg, wasn’t you afraid to rehearse the leap that ends the performance?
OM: (laughing) Well, you see, if I say, I wasn’t afraid, all the finale of the performance will be ruined instantly.
AF: The day before the premiere Oleg leaped for the first time, as far as I remember.
OM: Yes, the day of the premiere… No, the night, the night!

EU: Whose idea was to do it?
AF: Oleg’s.
OM: To leap out of the window? Yes, mine.

EU: Was it hard to leap for the first time?
AF: (laughing) I was the first to try it – I reveal a secret.
OM: (laughing) Yes-yes-yes-yes. (Pause) Well, it was not… well, it was not terrifying...

EU: (echoing) Not terrifying… horrifying.
OM: Yes, terrifying. (AF in close-up. He looks at OM tenderly) Though you understand it is safe: the second floor, and the asphalt.

EU: Indeed, nothing terrifying.

***

The last fragment of the performance "N":
Actor: (Desperately) But why, why? You’re the only one that I have. I’ve lost everything… I just wanted to understand… (Shaking and stammering) ...I know it must happen, but I’m afraid… I can’t bear this… not now… Please, say something…

The sounds of Weber’s “Invitation to Dance”. Nizhinsky’s face is beautiful and full of inspiration. In a second this expression changes to the puzzlement of a person who is being misunderstood. He shrugs his shoulders, comes up to the window, and opens it. Looks out in the sky. Then goes back to the Actor, picks up a handful of rose petals and throws them in the air. Leans against the wall by the Actor’s side.

Nizhinsky: Have you ever seen The Vision of Rose?
Actor: (absentmindedly) Yes… No… I don’t remember...
Nizhinsky: And I’ve seen it. (Loudly) I’ve seen it!!!

Takes his position, pushes off the wall, runs – and leaps out of the window. The camera in the street meets his flight and pauses it. Bear trees are outlined against the wall of the building.

***

* The fragments of the play and the footnotes are quoted according to John Freedman’s translation of the play “Nijinsky” with slight changes caused by the scenic interpretation of the text.
** Nizhinsky rephrases the first line of Pushkin's poem, "The Prisoner." The original translates literally as, "I sit behind bars in à damp dungeon."
*** This is an abomination of the first line of a famous poem by Alexander Pushkin. A literal translation of Pushkin's actual words: "God grant that I not lose my mind."