Princess: Nijinska ... appeals to me as the most versatile dancer of the entire company. Her technique in her classical numbers is beyond reproach ... and her mime and personality in the demi-charactère dances are most convincing. An early signature of hers was a tough "virility". "Her own roles were packed with jumps and beats." Much later, in her prime, Nijinska crafted to combine her strength with an emotional touch "unexpectedly poignant". She liked the flow of movement on the stage. As a choreographer "In her lifetime Nijinska choreographed over seventy ballets, as well as dance sequences for numerous films, operas, and other stage productions." An annotated, chronological catalogue of her choreographies is presented by Nancy Van Norman Baer in her book on Nijinska. Her early experiences in choreographic arts involved the assistance given her brother Vaslav Nijinsky in his choreographic works for Ballets Russes. She had then tried out the initial stages of various steps created by him. In 'the Russias' during war and revolution At the start of World War I, Nijinska and her husband and daughter, and her mother, were caught on the eastern side of the Eastern Front. Her brother Vaslav was on its western side, eventually in Austria. Here 'the Russias' include the Ukraine and its capital Kiev. The Russian art world in the early twentieth century was often innovative and experimental. "Russian art before the October Revolution had held aloof from revolutionary Marxism." Thus the composer Igor Stravinsky distinguished clearly between the pre-war conservative fetters on art and the subsequent straitjacket eventually imposed by the Communist Party. For a few years following the war-born 1917 revolution, Russia was in chaos, and many artists managed to operate somewhat independently of Soviet politicians and their totalitarian ideals. Petrograd, her first choreographies 1914–1915 At the start of World War I, Nijinska, her husband Aleksandr Kochtovsky ('Sasha', married in 1912), and their infant daughter Nina returned to Petrograd (then the Russian capital's new name). Nijinska had long considered the city her home; it was her last time living there. She found work teaching ballet to Cecchetti's students. Newspaper accounts report that Bronislava and Aleksandr met their former colleagues from Ballets Russes, and danced alongside them. Included were Michel Fokine and Tamara Karsavina, and as well the Bolshoi's Mikhail Mordkin. Both became leading dancers at the Petrograd Private Opera Theatre. In 1915 Nijinska produced her first choreographies: Le Poupée