Vaslav Nijinsky

Vaslav Nijinsky revolutionized ballet in a career lasting barely a decade, yet his impact surpasses that of #7 Carlos Acosta in brevity and magnitude. As principal dancer of the Ballets Russes, he combined a 180-degree split leap with an expressive intensity that contemporaries struggled to describe rationally. His choreographic debut, L’Après-midi d’un faune (1912), caused a scandal that put ballet on European front pages, and his Rite of Spring (1913) sparked the most notorious riot in performing arts history, now regarded as the founding document of 20th-century modernism in dance. Nijinsky's elevation—he appeared to hover in mid-air for a full second—remains faster and higher than the average principal dancer, a feat no other performer has matched in over a century.