For 20 years, the Ballets russes served as an artistic hub for Paris’ most prominent dancers, artists, choreographers, composers, and designers. In fact, the notion of collaboration was a central part of the company’s ideals. Historically most ballets were written largely in layers, with the music, choreography, and visual aesthetic being created individually. A Ballets russes production, however, was more of a collective endeavour and the various artists consulted each other actively throughout the creative process. While this occasionally resulted in fruitful interdisciplinary partnerships (and at least one alleged romance, between Chanel and Stravinsky), it also frequently devolved into antagonistic relationships with collaborators jockeying for position and spreading rumours about one another until Diaghilev would step in to mediate.
As years went on, Diaghilev gradually branched out beyond his local network of Russian émigrés to include famous artists from across Europe, commissioning, for example, costumes from Chanel, sets from Picasso, storylines from Jean Cocteau, and music from the members of France’s young avant-garde collective Les Six. While such an international roster of collaborators was celebrated, the company worked hard to maintain its image as the “Russian ballet.” During the early years, Diaghilev continued to poach dancers from the impressive Russian dance schools, but after the Russian Revolution of 1917, this became virtually impossible. He thus turned his attention to European conservatories instead, selecting promising candidates and offering them a comprehensive training that extended to full language immersion and often the adoption of new Russian names both on and off the stage.
When Diaghilev died in 1929 his overspending caught up with the company and it was forced to disband due to its substantial debts. The surviving members created several new troupes to carry on their work, some of which directly invoked their artistic lineage in their names, like the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo or The Original Ballet Russe. Like its parent company, the first of these off-shoots left its strongest impact in a place not mentioned in its name: after abandoning Monte Carlo to tour in America, many of its members put down roots in the New World and brought the traditions of the “Russian ballet” with them. The most famous? George Balanchine, who went on to create the New York City Ballet — finally, a name that made sense!

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: The Enfants Terribles Of Paris

Cookies Policy