The Bronislava Nijinska Collection spans from 1740 to 1996 with the bulk of material dating from 1920 to 1987. The collection covers the life and career of choreographer, dancer, and teacher Bronislava Nijinska as well as the continuation of her legacy through the efforts of her daughter, Irina Nijinska. This collection also contains documentation Nijinska collected or maintained on the life and work of her brother, choreographer and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Significant portions of the collection are in Russian and French with select translations or summaries available as appendices or filed with the material.

Choreographic Works is the largest series and contains choreographic drawings and notes, costume and set designs, photographs, posters, programs, and other materials related to dances created or performed by Nijinska. The series is divided into two subseries: Individual Works and Multiple Works. Individual Works consists of materials related to a specific dance while Multiple Works organizes material by dance company or performance venue.

Materials related to Nijinska's work as a teacher of dance both in Ukraine and the United States is organized in Teaching Materials. This series also includes Nijinska's original drafts of "On Movement and the School of Movement," her early manifesto on dance.

The Writings series is divided into three subseries based on subject or format: Early Memoirs, Diaries and Notebooks, and Other Writings. Early Memoirs consists of original drafts and translations of writing that resulted in the publication of the book in 1981. Diaries and Notebooks hold early accounts of Nijinska's life in her own hand, and Other Writings includes articles and miscellaneous notes Nijinska wrote on a variety of subjects. English translations and summaries for select portions of each subseries were created prior to 2015 and are available in Appendix A, Appendix B, and Appendix C, respectively.

Nijinska's professional and personal lives overlap in Business and Personal Papers. The series is organized into the following file groups according to subject matter or material type: address books, artwork, biographical materials on Nijinska, clippings, contracts, exhibitions, family members, financial records, lithographs and prints, people, photographs and albums, posters, programs, and writings by others. Additional description of photograph albums is found in Appendix D

Cards, letters, notes, and telegrams sent to Nijinska concerning business or personal matters are organized in Correspondence. Correspondents include artists, choreographers, composers, dancers, family members, friends, impresarios, and professional organizations. This series also holds a small amount of correspondence sent to Irina Nijinska after her mother's death including several folders of condolence letters.

The Scrapbooks series is made up of 50 volumes documenting Nijinska's career, life, and interests. Volumes contain clippings, correspondence, photographs, programs, and other ephemera and were created and maintained by Nijinska, Irina Nijinska, and Gibbs S. Raetz. All but one of the scrapbooks have been mircrofilmed, and the reel number is noted at the box or folder level.

The Music series primarily holds printed music collected and annotated by Nijinska. Many of the pieces provided music for her choreographic works, but the series also holds music likely used for classroom exercises. Manuscript material in this series is noted at the folder level. Printed music wihtout annotations was not retained in the collection and is inventoried in Appendix E.

Nijinska organized her collection of books, pamphlets, published librettos, and periodicals according to a numbered system that was documented in bound indices and individual index cards. Nijinska's Library consists of these guides to her collection. A more complete list of the works she collected as well as additions made by Irina Nijinska is found in Appendix F.

A note on name spellings: Variations on name spellings appear throughout this collection. Vaslav Nijinksy's first name is sometimes spelled Vaslaw or Waslav. Nijinska's first husband, Alexander Kotchetovsky, appears as Alexandre Kochetovksy, and Serge Diaghilev is sometimes published as Diaghilew. Names have been standardized across this finding aid except where they appear within the titles of works. Whenever possible names are spelled according to Library of Congress Name Authority File.