Bronislava Nijinska

Bronislava Nijinska was a Polish dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Nijinska played a leading role in the pioneering movement that turned against 19thcentury Classicism, which paved the way for neoclassical works to come. A breakthrough came in 1910, when she created her first solo, the role of Papillon in Le Carnival.

Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz Nijinsky and Eleonora Nijinska . She was the younger sister of the renowned dancer Vaslav Nijinsky . Early on in life Nijinska learned folk dances at home. Her parents taught her Polish, Hungarian, Italian, and Russian folk dances. Additionally her father taught her some acrobatics which she later incorporated into some of her choreographic works. She was four years old when she made her theatrical debut in a Christmas pageant with her brothers in Nizhny Novgorod. Nijinska trained with Enrico Cecchetti before joining the Imperial Ballet School in 1900. She was a student there until 1908 and was taught by Nicolai Legat and Mikhail Fokine.

Source: Wikipedia