Letter to a Man

Mikhail Baryshnikov steps inside the splintering psyche of one of the greatest dancers in history in director Robert Wilson’s staging of Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries. The text chronicles the onset of the iconic Russian performer’s schizophrenia in 1919, tracing the contours of his profound isolation, tormented sexuality and spirituality, and preoccupation with erstwhile lover and Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev. Hal Willner’s collage-like score weaves audio fragments of the diary with a century-spanning soundtrack of songs by Tom Waits, Arvo Pärt, Henry Mancini, and Soviet futurist composer Alexander Mosolov, as our coat-tailed subject sashays and staggers through Wilson’s saturated lightscapes.