‘Nijinksy’ actors wed in Vegas

In life, Sergei Diaghilev and Romola de Pulszky both loved the great virtuoso dancer Vaslav Nijinsky and thought they’d won him. But Diaghilev lost him to Pulszky, who married Nijinsky in 1913, and she, in turn, lost him to mental illness only six years later.

These events formed the narrative spine of “Nijinsky,” a two-act dance drama performed by the Hamburg Ballet at the Orange County Performing Arts Center earlier this month. But offstage events put a new spin on the story when Diaghilev wed Pulszky in Las Vegas on Feb. 9 -- or, rather, when the Hamburg principals cast in those roles at the ballet’s American premiere in Costa Mesa were married in Sin City. However, Belorussian principal Ivan Urban and Russian principal Anna Polikarpova have no time for a honeymoon: Their “Nijinsky” roles, and rivalries, will occupy them in New York and Washington, D.C., as the Hamburg tour continues.

-- L.S.