Vaslav Nijinsky, a ballet dancer, in a scene from Giselle. Portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky in Giselle, 1910. Photo by L. Roosen. Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, cited as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. He was celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps. In his late twenties, Nijinsky became increasingly mentally unstable; he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919 and committed to an asylum for the first time. For the next 30 years, he was in and out of institutions, never dancing again in public.