Review Of "Nijinsky's Feeling Mind: The Dancer Writes, The Writer Dances" By N. Svobodny

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

4-1-2024

Published In

Choice

Abstract

Svobodny (global studies, Washington Univ. in St. Louis) offers the first in-depth English-language analysis of ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky’s original Russian writings. Her work is based on considerable archival research in libraries and collections in the US and Europe. The book is organized as a contrasting dialogue between Nijinsky’s experiences of and attempts to understand interior and exterior, private and public, physical and mental, and somatic and performative realities. Making strategic use of secondary sources, the author focuses on Nijinsky’s words and posits the influence of Russian literary masters such as Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Tolstoy on his writings. Svobodny investigates catalyzing events that prompted Nijinsky’s writings and argues that he wished readers to experience both his writing process and the result. Ultimately, readers must wrestle with the relationship between Nijinsky as dancer and writer. This interdisciplinary approach will be of interest to dance scholars, historians, and literary theorists. The text is supported by carefully selected English translations of selections from Nijinsky’s diaries, as well as relevant excerpts from the writings of others. Extensive notes and a lengthy bibliography extend the book’s substance and usefulness. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

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