Ballets Russes

Russian émigré ballet company that toured outside Russia from 1909 to 1929 under the direction of Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev

Originally begun in 1909 as a summer theatre in Paris by the Russian Opera and Ballet, Ballets Russes became a permanent ballet company in 1911. Sergei Diaghilev, although never a professional dancer, gathered around him the foremost choreographers, dancers, and designers of his time. He employed Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky to create dance scores, and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, French artist Henri Matisse, and French poet-filmmaker Jean Cocteau designed his sets. He also featured such dancers as Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, George Balanchine, and Vaclav Nijinsky.

Although in the years preceding the status of ballet had suffered, the company's advanced technical skill, innovative ballets, and colourful designs revived ballet and reestablished it as a credible art form. Sensing the desire in the West for exotic Russian themes, Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine created the abstract ballet, Les Sylphides (1909); the fast-paced Russian fairy tale, The Firebird (1910); and the highly theatrical Petrushka (1911).

Nijinsky's dances, such as his scandalous L'aprés-midi d'un faune in 1911 (right) and Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) in 1912 broke away from classical technique. Le sacre du printemps, which combined eroticism and a powerful score by Stravinsky, caused riots at its première in Paris in 1913.

Main picture: Ballets Russes, 1916 Chicago