Liszt, and Nocturne (1919) and Marche Funèbre (1920), music by Chopin. These solo dances may be "the first abstract ballets" of the 20th century. In many of her productions her students danced for the public, among whom Serge Lifar was the most outstanding. Accordingly, she began to receive broad recognition as a choreographer. Then, invited by the Ministry of Arts, Nijinska mounted a full theatrical production of the Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake. She adapted the classic Petipa and Ivanov choreography of 1895. Her success involved trimming the ballet's difficulty to fit the level of her weaker students. The performance was held at Kiev's State Opera Theater. Reasons for leaving Kiev It had been reported in the literature that Nijinska and family left Kiev in 1921 in order to visit her brother Vaslav Nijinsky in Vienna, after learning of his deteriorating health. Yet she learned about her brother in 1920, when the Russian civil war prevented travel. Based on recent research, Prof. Garafola describes a different and suppressed reason. The Cheka, as the notorious Soviet security police was then called, in early 1921 stepped up its harassment of her and her students. Her artistic independence was confronted and by April L'Ecole de Mouvement had been closed. The school "had given her a new life and an identity of her own as a modern artist. It was her child, the home of her imagination, a community of friends and devoted followers, the catalyst and expression of her creativity. In the weeks that followed [its closing] she quietly made plans to leave. She traveled west out of Kiev under false pretenses, assisted by other dancers. She'd taken her two children, Irina aged seven and Leon aged two, and her mother of sixty-four years. After she bribed the Soviet border guards, they waded across the Bug River into Poland, arriving in early May, 1921. Several weeks later in Vienna the four travelers visited her brother Vaslav, his wife Romola and their children Kyra and Tamara. His health, however, had deteriorated since 1914, their last meeting. Once widely-celebrated as the "god of dance" he had not performed since 1917. Despite such sadness, the family was reunited. Broni found income by working at a cabaret in Vienna. At this point Diaghilev sent her an invitation; he included train fare. Her two children she entrusted to her mother's care. Nijinska then departed for Paris to rejoin Ballets