NUREYEV and the Joffrey Ballet/In Tribute to Nijinsky, the Dance in America broadcast, debuted on March 9, 1981. Recorded in August 1880 in Nashville the program presented a collection of three ‘reconstructed ballets had been seen in a special limited run on Broadway. For television, the dances have been supplemented with biographical comments on Nijinsky by Dale Harris and snippets of interviews with Rudolf Nureyev.
Nureyev notes that Nijinsky had the handicap of being short, which accounts for his being used all the time as ”something exotic.” He was never the danseur noble, the elegant leading man. Yet, beginning in 1909 the 21 year old continued for eight years (until his personal and professional breakup with the impresario Serge Diaghilev) to dominated the world of dance.
Nureyev and The Joffrey Ballet in Tribute to Nijinsky (1980)