Editing Sergei Diaghilev (section)

== Personal life ==
Diaghilev's life and the Ballets Russes were inextricably entwined. His most famous lover was [[Vaslav Nijinsky]]. However, according to Serge Lifar, of all Diaghilev's lovers, only [[Léonide Massine]], who replaced Nijinsky, provided him with "so many moments of happiness or anguish".<ref>Norton, Leslie "Léonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet", McFarland & Co, 2004, p80</ref> Diaghilev's other lovers included [[Anton Dolin (ballet dancer)|Anton Dolin]], Serge Lifar and his secretary and librettist [[Boris Kochno]].

Nijinsky's later bitter comments about Diaghilev<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tucker |first=Scott |date=2012-01-11 |title=The Normal Heart and Nijinsky’s Faun |url=https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-normal-heart-and-nijinskys-faun/ |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=Truthdig |language=en-US}}</ref> inspired a mention in [[W. H. Auden]]'s poem "September 1, 1939":
<blockquote><poem>
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.<ref>{{cite book |last=Auden |first=W.H. |author-link=W. H. Auden |editor-last=Mendelson |editor-first=Edward |editor-link=Edward Mendelson |date=1979 |title=W.H. Auden: Selected Poems |location=London; Boston |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |page=88 |isbn=0-571-11396-6}}</ref></poem></blockquote>

Diaghilev dismissed Nijinsky summarily from the Ballets Russes after the dancer's marriage to [[Romola de Pulszky]] in 1913.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Riding |first=Alan |date=1995-01-24 |title=Nijinsky's Notebooks Are Published, Unexpurgated |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/24/books/nijinsky-s-notebooks-are-published-unexpurgated.html |access-date=2025-01-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Nijinsky appeared again with the company, but the old relationship between the men was never re-established; moreover, Nijinsky's magic as a dancer was much diminished by incipient mental illness. Their last meeting was after Nijinsky's mind had given way, and he appeared not to recognise his former lover.{{sfn|Scheijen|2009}}

Diaghilev was known as a hard, demanding, even frightening taskmaster. Ninette de Valois, no shrinking violet, said she was too afraid to ever look him in the face. George Balanchine said Diaghilev carried around a cane during rehearsals, and banged it angrily when he was displeased. Other dancers said he would shoot them down with one look, or a cold comment. On the other hand, he was capable of great kindness, and when stranded with his bankrupt company in Spain during the 1914–18 war, gave his last bit of cash to [[Lydia Sokolova]] to buy medical care for her daughter. [[Alicia Markova]] was very young when she joined the Ballets Russes and would later say that she had called Diaghilev "Sergypops", and that he had said he would take care of her like a daughter.

Dancers such as Alicia Markova, [[Tamara Karsavina]], Serge Lifar, and Lydia Sokolova remembered Diaghilev fondly as a stern but kind father-figure who put the needs of his dancers and company above his own. He lived from paycheck to paycheck to finance his company, and though he spent considerable amounts of money on a splendid collection of rare books at the end of his life, many people noticed that his impeccably cut suits had frayed cuffs and trouser-ends.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} Several sources have cited Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes as inspiration for the 1948 film ''[[The Red Shoes (1948 film)|The Red Shoes]]''.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/09/movies/dance-view-why-the-red-shoes-is-still-a-hit-on-film.html | work=[[New York Times]] | title=Why 'The Red Shoes' Is Still a Hit -- on Film | first=Anna | last=Kisselgoff | author-link=Anna Kisselgoff | date=9 January 1994 | access-date=15 April 2024}}</ref><ref name="salwolke" />{{efn|Film expert Scott Salwolke comments, "Diaghilev obviously provided the model for [''the film's impresario character''] Lermontov... His tribute to Pavlova, following her death, of using a spotlight to take her place on stage would be re-created in ''The Red Shoes'', as would be his dismissal of a dancer for having married."<ref name="salwolke">{{cite book |last=Salwolke |first=Scott |year=1997 |title=The Films of Michael Powell and the Archers |location=[[Lanham, Maryland]]; London |url=https://archive.org/details/filmsofmichaelpo0000salw |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]] |page=157 |isbn=0-8108-3183-X}}</ref> Film-makers [[Michael Powell]] and [[Emeric Pressburger]] both acknowledged the similarities but not that Diaghilev was the sole inspiration.<ref>{{cite book |last=Powell |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Powell |year=1986 |title=A Life in Movies: An Autobiography |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeinmoviesaut00powe |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |pages=97, 614, 639 |isbn=0-394-55935-5}}</ref>}}