On Thursday at Mohegan Sun, the Albano Ballet Company of America will perform a version of "Afternoon of the Faun" choreographed by founder Joseph Albano and inspired by the original piece by Vaslav Nijinsky.

There is a tale to go with this performance that is "one of those weird stories of fate," says Eric Carnes, a principal dancer with the Albano Company.

And it involves the legacy of Nijinsky and legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

Here's Carnes' story of fate: Last year, Albano, Carnes and fellow dancer Miku Kawamura travelled to Monte Carlo, as they have been doing annually when Albano himself judges a dance festival in Sanremo, Italy.

They often travel around the area. Carnes knew that Nureyev had lived in Monte Carlo, and, this time, he decided to seek out that home.

"This was the first real estate he (Nureyev) bought, so this house was very special to him," Carnes says.

He saw a video clip online of Nureyev dancing at that very house, but finding the building wasn't so easy, since the area doesn't have visible address numbers. He drove around where he thought it might be but finally decided to give up.

"I started driving away. ... Someone was jogging by. I started speaking my bad French and asked if they spoke English. The person was British. He said, 'Yes, I speak English,'" Carnes says.

Not only that, but when Carnes told him that he was searching for Nureyev's former house, he recalls, "The British guy said, 'Oh, yeah, I know where the house is. I own it.' Before you know it, we went into the house and had a tour."

The man and his wife, whose names Carnes declined to give, are the first owners of the house since Nureyev's sister. When Nureyev died in 1993, he left the house to his sister Rosa. After she died, the house was deserted, populated only by squatters, and it became overgrown and covered with graffiti. It eventually went up for auction, and the couple who owns it now were the sole bidders. They recently finished restoring it.

Carnes and the couple spoke about the video showing Nureyev at the house, dancing Aurora's entrance of "Sleeping Beauty." Carnes knew the part and so, in his street clothes, danced it for the owners.

"We said, 'Next year when we come, we want to do something proper,'" he recalls.

Contemplating what dance to do at the home this year, Carnes decided on "Afternoon of the Faun."

"In the '90s, when that big revival (of 'Afternoon of the Faun') happened, Nureyev was very instrumental in it. He was quoted as saying the role of the faun was his favorite ballet role ever," Carnes says.

And here's a local connection: The woman who taught ballet to Albano when he was growing up in New London had performed "Afternoon of the Faun" at least once with Nijinsky, as one of the seven maidens. Margarita Fromeyn, who was in the Ballet Russe, educated Albano about "Faun."

"She explained to him the motifs. The faun is really famous for certain poses that Nijinsky created. There's a whole set of photographs of Nijinsky in these very Greek poses that he studied," Carnes says.

Albano choreographed a version of "Faun" based on Fromeyn's recollections in the 1980s, before the big "Faun" revival and before film clips of Nijinsky were discovered and restored. The result is, Albano's version is based on Nijinsky's but is completely different, Carnes says.

Getting to perform "Faun" where Nureyev once lived was an amazing experience for the Albano dancers.

"The house in Monte Carlo, it's in hills, way up," Carnes says. "On one side of the house, if you look very far down, you can see the Mediterranean and the palace. On the other side of the house, where we danced, where the lawn is, you can see the hills, I mean, all the way to Switzerland. It's beautiful. We were on the level of the clouds. It was unreal."

He added that Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun," which Nijinsky used to choroegraph his ballet, "is so beautiful, and to hear it in the hills and to be at a place that was so special to Nureyev and to honor him ..."

In the audience were a lot of people from Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.

"We were humbled by the whole experience, and to share it is very special to us," Carnes says.

The Hartford-based Albano Ballet Company is performing "Afternoon of the Faun" as part of its Summer Dance 2016 Thursday, Aug. 4, in the Mohegan Sun Cabaret Theater. The program also features Surreal Romantique Borodin and "The Mystery," an opera ballet on motherhood and featuring music by American composer Carlyle Floyd.

Albano Ballet Company's Summer Dance 2016, 7 p.m. Thursday, Mohegan Sun Cabaret Theater; $30, $35; (860) 232-8898, albanoballet@netzero.net.