MADNESS AND MAGIC
National Ballet performs Nijinsky at the NAC
The National Ballet of Canada this month brings its acclaimed production of Nijinsky to Ottawa for the first time. In an interview with Lynn Saxberg, Quebec-born dancer Guillaume Côté, who portrays the tortured genius on opening night, discusses the significance of the role and why it might be his last time performing it.
Q Who was Vaslav Nijinsky?
A Nijinsky was considered the god of dance. He lived in a time when Paris was equivalent to Hollywood and dance was hugely popular. He was a massive superstar who came along at the time when all of these amazing creators lived in Paris: Picasso, Leon Bakst, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Debussy. Hemingway was there for a while. All these people used to hang out at cafes together before the First World War. It was a real hub of the most ingenious creators in the world and he was at the heart of it all as the lover of Diaghilev at the time. Q Why are we fascinated by him? A The famous story of him was he took 10 years to train, then he took 10 years to become the world’s superstar of dance and took 40 years to die. What was very tragic was the mental illness in his family. His brother had serious schizophrenia. Nijinsky started showing signs in his 20s of schizophrenia as well. He was the lover of the most important impresario in the world, but at some point Diaghilev got bored and decided to go with another young man and then Nijinsky, in retaliation, married a woman. And with that, Diaghilev dismissed him completely. Some people speculate that the madness began then.
Q: You are dancing the lead role in the ballet created by John Neumeier, director of Hamburg Ballet. How big of a deal is that?
A: John is well into his 70s and has been famous since his 20s as a choreographer. He’s made hundreds of works and this is his masterpiece. It’s a piece we (the National Ballet of Canada) are really lucky to have. We were the first company outside of his own company to get the rights to do this piece and I was, I think, the third dancer to dance that role. Ever. We did it for the first time in 2013 and it was only possible because (NBC artistic director) Karen Kain is such good friends with John. He wouldn’t have allowed anybody else to do it. Q Tell me a bit about the ballet. A It starts off with Nijinsky’s last performance, between the First and Second world wars. It was supposed to be his big comeback, but when he came in, it was clear he was kind of disturbed. Then it goes into flashbacks, a bit of stream-of-consciousness style where you see glimpses of his life: his first meeting with Diaghilev, his courtship, his wedding and how he dealt with the mental illness of his brother. Then you dive into his insanity and what is happening in the world at that time, which was the First World War. Like any good artist, Nijinsky is soaking up the world around him and in John’s opinion, the weight of that is what made him truly go insane.
Q Did you feel pressure when you took the role?
A: Yeah, huge. I did my research. I studied this particular ballet and saw it with the original cast many times. I went to Hamburg, to the company it was created for, and studied it with the people who created it and with John. It’s a lot of pressure at first because you want to measure up to this character, but at the same time, you shouldn’t think of it that way because you’re just portraying a man. What’s really beautiful is John is not trying to glorify who this person was. He’s actually just telling the story of a human being who’s affected by mental illness and who has people around him who love him and who try to salvage what’s left of the massive star he was. It’s a really personal, simple and universal story.
Q You are dancing alongside your wife Heather Ogden. What’s that like? A: It’s very touching for us to dance that together because it’s very real and we’ve danced it together from the first time we did it.
Q In what ways do you identify with Nijinsky?
A I identify with him because I’m also a choreographer. He was a massive star as a dancer, but not that well accepted as a choreographer and as a choreographer you show your vulnerabilities so much more than if you are just an interpreter. It’s so much more personal because all of you is out there, as opposed to being a performer when a lot of it can be hidden behind a role or a persona. I think Nijinsky was very sensitive and that part I can identify with. I started from that point when I started developing the role. Q Is the physical performance a challenge?
A Absolutely. I’m on stage the entire two hours. His physicality was so extreme. We do it every two or three years and I have to do a six-month workup to it because it takes a different physicality than Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake.
Q You had an injury a few years ago. Did that affect your performance?
A I got injured right after the last time we did it and I had two years to recover. Thank God I was able to recover 100 per cent. I feel I’m more in shape now than I’ve ever been. As dancers, I think you hit this point between 30 and 40 where you can maximize your movements and theatricality without expending as much energy as you did when you were in your 20s. You have much more understanding of your body.
Q Is muscle memory part of it?
A Oh yeah, absolutely. And for the emotional part, I find that now it’s so in my body, I live it more than I show it. I remember doing it and showing off, almost, how much I could do. But now I go into this space where I’m just living this person’s journey for that two hours. It’s really quite incredible when you get to that point. I understand it’s not something that will last forever. This will probably be my last run of this ballet in my career. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this again. I’m 36. I highly doubt we’ll bring it back when I’m 38.