Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap Into Madness: A Leap Into Madness

Nijinsky (1890-1950) remains, by reputation, the outstanding male dancer of at least one century, and a pathbreaking choreographer as well. Yet his life dramatically demonstrates the uncertain line dividing genius and madness, as psychiatrist Ostwald ( Schumann: The Inner Voices of a Musical Genius ) here shows. The ``god of dance'' spent 30 of his 61 years in the grip of infantile rages and catatonic withdrawal; neither Freud, institutionalization, sedation nor countless insulin shock-treatments could halt his increasing derangement. Using Nijinsky's own notebooks to augment the existing medical evidence, Ostwald examines the dancer's family history, the effects of his personal and professional subjection to Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev--his Svengali-like mentor and lover--and Nijinsky's troubled marriage to a woman perhaps nearly his equal in self-destructiveness. Medically thorough Ostwald undeniably is; his account is interesting at many points. Regrettably, though, this portrait of a savagely intense, erotically charged danseur is written with all the excitement of a doctor's report. (Nov.)