addition to dancing, she established her ballet school and began to choreograph programs. She danced in solos while costumed in tunics, e.g., Etudes (Liszt), Mephisto Valse (Liszt), Nocturnes (Chopin), Preludes (Chopin), Fear or Horror (in silence, costume by Exter), and in company performances, e.g., Twelfth Rhapsody (Liszt), Demons (Tcherepnine), March Funebre (Chopin). In 1921 she left Russia, never to return. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: 1921–1925, and 1926 Rejoining Ballets Russes in Paris, Nijinska first worked in Diaghilev's ill-starred 1921 London revival of the Petipa's classic The Sleeping Princess. Although a money loser, it was popular, and well designed and danced. Nijinska performed the roles of the Hummingbird Fairy and Pierette, for which she received "high critical praise". In 1922, following a personal request by Diaghilev, she performed the title role in Nijinsky's L'Après-midi d'un Faune during its Paris revival. She had helped her brother with its choreography for its 1912 premier. "Vaslav is creating his Faune by using me as his model. I am like a piece of clay that he is molding..." Yet these appearance became clearly auxiliary to her new, 'second career' working as the choreographer. From 1921 to 1924, 1926 with Ballets Russes, Nijinska nonetheless took prominent roles in many of her own dance designs. Accordingly, she performed as the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (1921), the Fox in Le Renard (1922), as the Hostess in Les Biches (1924), as Lysandre in Les Fâcheux (1924), and as the Tennis Player in Le Train Bleu (1924). In Europe & the Americas: 1925–1934 Subsequently, for her own ballet companies and for others, she danced in roles of her own inventions: in Holy Etudes, Touring, Le Guignol, and Night on Bald Mountain (all 1925); for Teatro Colón in Estudios religiosos (1926); in her Capricio Espagnole per Rimsky-Korsakoff in 1931; and in the 1934 ballet based on Hamlet per Liszt: the title role. She performed into the 1930s, at venues in Europe and the Americas. As Nijinska reached her forties, her performance career neared its end. What caused her trouble, and hastened the close of her performance art, was an injury to her Achilles tendon suffered in 1933 while at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Appraisals, critiques Her qualities as a dancer, of course, are distinct from her more celebrated choreography. Comments by several professional colleagues were collected by the New York ballet critic and author Lynn Garafola: "She was a