MY WIFE, HELENE Mladova, and I were touring Northern England when we heard of Nijinsky's death. Passing through London a few days later we decided to visit the mortuary where Nijinsky's body had been placed. The room was filled with floral tributes from many well-known names from the ballet world. Helene and I then continued our journey to Paris.

In Paris we read of Nijinsky's burial, the coffin carried by dancers, the students who covered the pathways with rose petals.

Returning to London some months later we went to Kensel Green Cemetery to look at Nijinsky's grave. We could not find it. In the cemetery office we were given a number and directions to where the grave could be found. It was headed with no more than a number, covered with weeds and several tin cans. No one, it seemed, had been near the grave since the coffin had been interred.

Helene and I cleared the weeds and cans, dug much of the earth with our bare hands and returned the next day with plants and flowers, still finding it incredible that Nijinsky had so soon been forgotten.

 We went to Kensel Green regularly and discovered we were the only visitors to the grave. We then wrote to several people in the ballet suggesting that some finance should be obtained to erect a suitable headstone and pay for a gardener to continually attend the grave. We expected to leave England in a short time. We had no response from our letters, one being to Nijinsky's associate, Serge Lifar.

Having planted flowers around the edge of the grave we returned to the cemetery to ensure that our planting had been successful. To our amazement we found the grave open and the coffin gone! In the cemetery office we learnt that the coffin had been exhumed and was being transported to Momtmartre Cemetery in Paris. This had been arranged by Serge Lifar.

Some time later when in Paris we went to see Nijinsky's new resting-place and saw, one again, that no one had been near it for a long time. Even in Paris, the city where Nijinsky had known many great triumphs as a dancer, he was forgotten.

I placed on the grave a tribute of china violets, which appeared to be popular, and which we knew would last for some time.

This story does, however have a less sad ending. Some time later when my daughter, Odette, visited Montmartre cemetery she found the grave well cared for and in a vase a large bunch of roses. Someone had remembered Vaslav Nijinsky and had taken time to revere his name.

Ó Leonard Boucher January 1998.

Leonard Boucher trained as a dancer under Kschessinskaya, Kyash, Sokolova, Dolin and Idzikowski. He danced leading roles for major ballet companies in Europe and the USA and created several ballets for the theatre, television and film productions appearing in the film 'The Red Shoes' with Leonide Massine. He danced in 'Bullet in the Ballet'. Leonard now works as a film and television scriptwriter.

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