Vaslav Nijinsky was, prior to Nureyev, deemed the greatest male ballet dancer, celebrated for his virtuosity, for the intensity of his characterizations and his seemingly gravity-defying leaps- and his modernist choreography.
Born 12 March 1890 10.30 pm Kiev, Ukraine (Rodden B) to parents in the ballet world, he was a Sun Venus in creative Pisces; with his artistic Venus and Sun highlighted on the focal point of a Yod to an innovative Uranus sextile Saturn. He also had an emotionally troublesome Moon Mars in Sagittarius opposition Pluto Neptune in Gemini square Mercury in Pisces. He’d be very highly strung and on a fine mental balance which sadly became increasingly less stable after he was interned during World War 1. He initially became the lover of the impresario Sergei Diaghilev, though he later married and had two children, but was still under Diaghilev’s thumb. His marriage broke down and eventually he succumbed to depression and dementia with alternating rages and catatonic withdrawals, being diagnosed eventually as a hopeless schizophrenic – and spent the last thirty years of his life institutionalised.
His Moon aspects to Mars, Neptune and Pluto would account for some of his symptoms, especially the rage and all focussed onto a Mutable Mercury putting intolerable pressure on his rational functions.
Like Nureyev he had a Pisces Sun but in his case it lacked a firm anchoring and would be stressed being in a Yod, giving him a fluctuating sense of his identity. Like Nureyev as well he had Jupiter in Aquarius, which can have an appeal across people of many backgrounds. But Nureyev was a much harder personality and although a volatile personality with a Mars Uranus conjunction, that didn’t impact on his Moon, as it did for poor Nijinsky.