Vaslav Nijinsky

Born in Russia to Polish parents in 1889 or 1890, Nijinsky joined Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and became the face of ballet's break with the past. His virtuosity was technical—he could do en pointe, nearly unheard of for men—but it was the intensity in his body that made people stare. Between 1912 and 1916 he choreographed L'après-midi d'un faune, the riot-starting Le Sacre du Printemps, Jeux, and Till Eulenspiegel, each one a shove toward something rawer. The leaps looked like defying gravity because, for a second, they were. He didn't dance long enough to grow old in the role.