Men in Tights

Comments (0) By Hiya Swanhuyser Wednesday, Dec 2 2009

More About

It was said that Vaslav Nijinsky inhabited midair and hung there, shimmering, before he disappeared: His role in the ballet Le Spectre de la Rose was world-famous in 1911. It was also said that he was insane and obscene, but that didn't keep anyone from worshipping him like a golden god. In the early part of the last century, Nijinsky was Michael Jackson, Crispin Glover, and Robert Pattinson all wrapped up in pointe shoes, prancing around Europe pissing off royalty and ripping the dance world a new orifice. His controversial choreography in L'Après-midi d'un Faun and Le Sacre du Printemps shocked everyone with floor-humping and orgiastic savagery, respectively. But he had saved the real craziness for last; he intended to produce a catalog of human sexuality called Papillons de la Nuit, before he was ultimately locked up in a mental institution. Tonight, a multimedia reimagining of what it could have been appears as Nocturnal Butterflies. Kazakh choreographer Erika Tsimbrovsky and her company, Avy K Productions, have been up to their tits in the dancer's later notebook ravings, and plan to honor him hard, just the way he would have liked.
Dec. 10-12, 8 p.m., 2009