Robert Wilson / Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov (The Old Woman, 2014 Winter/Spring) steps inside the splintering psyche of one of the greatest dancers in history in director Robert Wilson’s staging of Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries. The text chronicles the onset of the iconic Russian performer’s schizophrenia in 1919, tracing the contours of his profound isolation, tormented sexuality and spirituality, and preoccupation with erstwhile lover and Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev. Hal Willner’s collage-like score weaves audio fragments of the diary with a century-spanning soundtrack of songs by Tom Waits, Arvo Pärt, Henry Mancini, and Soviet futurist composer Alexander Mosolov, as our coat-tailed subject sashays and staggers through Wilson’s saturated lightscapes.
Direction, set design, and lighting concept
by Robert Wilson with Mikhail Baryshnikov
Based on the diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
Text by Christian Dumais-Lvowski
Dramaturgy by Darryl Pinckney
Music by Hal Willner
Costumes by Jacques Reynaud
Collaboration to movements and spoken text by Lucinda Childs
Lighting design by A.J. Weissbard
Sound design by Nick Sagar and Ella Wahlström
Video design by Tomek Jeziorski
A Change Performing Arts and Baryshnikov Productions project
Commissioned by Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi, BAM, Cal Performances University of California Berkeley, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA
In collaboration with Teatros del Canal Madrid, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo/Monaco Dance Forum
Executive producer CRT Milano
A special thanks to the Vaslav and Romola Nijinsky Estate
“Asylum” and “Flooded Room with Chair” courtesy of James Casebere and Sean Kelly Gallery
An actor performs a reading of excerpts from Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries, chronicling his descent into madness, as performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov in this season’s Letter to a Man.
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