Biographical Note
The Polish Ballet (Balet Polski) was formed in 1937 with Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) as artistic director. Born into a dance family, Nijinska's career on stage began in 1908. She built a reputation as a choreographer working with her brother Vaslav Nijinsky and within companies run by Serge Diaghilev and Ida Rubinstein. The company's debut was at the 1937 Paris International Exposition of Art and Technology Applied to Modern Life. The Polish Ballet then went on to perform in London and in multiple venues across Germany before returning to Poland in March 1938. Nijinska's leadership lasted only one season, and in that time, she created five new works: Chopin Concerto; Le chant de la terre; Legend of Cracow; Apollon et la belle; and Le rappel. In the late 1980s, Lisa C. Arkin, then an assistant professor at the University of Oregon, began conducting research on Nijinska's involvement in the Polish Ballet. This research resulted in the publication of "Bronislava Nijinska and the Polish Ballet, 1937-1938: Missing Chapter of the Legacy" in Dance Research Journal, volume 24, no. 2 (Autumn 1992).