The Ballets Russes
History, Stage Designs, Decorative Art
of Diaghilev's Ballet Company.
MAIN A-Z INDEX - A-Z of ART MOVEMENTS
|
The Ballets Russes
|
|
|
The Ballets Russes (1909-29)Contents • What
is the Ballets Russes? |
|
|
A world-famous showcase of visual art, the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet) was a travelling ballet company owned and run by Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), that performed between 1909 and 1929 in various cities across Europe, and on tours to America. Hailed by theatre and art critics as the embodiment of Russian art, the Ballets Russes revolutionized ballet design with its vividly painted sets and exotic costumes, as well as its stunning dance performances and dramatic choreography. The impact of its decorative art lay chiefly in its dazzling colour schemes and flamboyant painting, with its vibrant combination of Art Nouveau and traditional Russian folk art. Diaghilev had a genius for attracting (though not keeping) the leading modern artists of the day, and he engineered a number of collaborations between composers, choreographers, dancers, designers and painters, many of whom were leaders in their field. Although at first he relied heavily on a small number of Russian artists - like, Leon Bakst (1866-1924), Alexander Benois (1870-1960), Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947), Konstantin Korovin (1861–1932) - to design most of the theatrical sets and costumes, he later recruited some of the best painters of the Ecole de Paris, including Matisse (1869-1954), Picasso (1881-1973), and Joan Miro (1893-1983). The French fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971) was another of his designers. His best choreographers were Michel Fokine (1880–1942) and Marius Petipa (1818-1910), while the most famous of his dancers were of course Nijinsky (1890–1950) and Anna Pavlova. Most of the original 1909 cast were resident dancers at the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg, recruited by Diaghilev to perform in Paris during the Imperial Ballet's summer holidays. Thereafter, dancers were hired from St Petersburg or from within the large community of Russian exiles based in Paris. Diaghilev toured Europe and America with the Ballets Russes for two decades until his death in 1929. However, due to upheavals caused by World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, the company never performed in Russia. The Ballets Russes company was dissolved in 1929, after the death of Diaghilev. Although active for just 20 years, its contribution to modern art - across many disciplines, including the design of stage scenery and costumes, dance, choreography, applied art and crafts of all types - is immeasurable. |
|
EVOLUTION OF VISUAL
ART RUSSIAN PATRONS
OF THE ARTS |
|
|
Origins, History and Development In 1899, Diaghilev - along with Bakst and Benois - founded "World of Art" (Mir iskusstva), an artist group and magazine sponsored by Savva Mamontov (1841-1918) and others, in order to exchange ideas with artists across Europe. Although the group faded in 1904, Diaghilev continued to use his organizational skills, staging a huge exhibition of Russian portrait art at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg. In 1906 he staged the groundbreaking Paris Exhibition of Russian Painting at the Petit Palais, the first significant showcase of Russian art in the West, whose success stimulated a fascination in the French capital for all things Russian. Diaghilev followed this up in 1907 with a season of Russian music at the Paris Opera, and in 1908 with six performances of the opera Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, which garnered huge acclaim. In 1909 Diaghilev bought a Ballet company - later named Ballets Russes - and on 19 May, after weeks of publicity, opened his first "Saison Russe" (season of Russian ballet) in Paris. Dominated by the exotic designs of Leon Bakst. His sumptuous colours, swirling Jugendstil designs transformed ballet into a total work of art. Despite a serious financial loss of over €450,000 (in today's money), Diaghilev was suddenly in demand across Europe, so in 1911 he converted the Ballets Russes into a year-round touring company rather than a seasonal Paris-based operation. The Ballets Russes took full advantage of Diaghilev's contacts with the Russian Imperial Ballet. The virtuosity of the company's lead male dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950), for instance, was such - it was claimed - that no one who saw him perform on stage, ever forgot him. Trained at the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg, Nijinsky was an instant success as a dancer, while as a choreographer he created a style of movement completely different from the academic ballet that audiences were accustomed to seeing. In 1908 Nijinsky became Diaghilev's lover. It was a tempestuous relationship which terminated abruptly when the dancer married in 1913 whereupon Diaghilev sacked him from the company. In the summer of 1914, the Ballets Russes had enjoyed five successful years and were just about to disperse for their summer holiday, when war broke out across Europe. With all European plans put on hold, it took Diaghilev a full year to organize a touring schedule in North America and reform the company, which survived but only just. After the war, the Ballets Russes replayed most of their traditional venues in Europe, although the routine had changed. Monte Carlo was now the company's base in the winter, where new productions were created, while long seasons in London provided financial stability. In addition, with his reputation still riding high, Diaghilev was able to attract some of the most famous artists to design and decorate his sets, while a new set of choreographers - all trained at the Russian Imperial Ballet, and headed by Petipa, Leonide Massine (1896-1979), Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) and George Balanchine (born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze) (1904-1983) - continued to create innovative movement on stage. The Ballets Russes gave its final performance at Covent Garden Theatre, London, on July 26th, 1929. The Ballets Russes was famous for the technical virtuosity of its dancers, most of whom were classically trained in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Its principal male dancers included: Vaslav Nijinsky, Michel Fokine, Valentin Zeglovsky, Theodore Kosloff, Serge Lifar, Leonide Massine, Anton Dolin and George Balanchine; while its leading female dancers included: Anna Pavlova, Olga Spessivtseva, Tamara Karsavina, Mathilde Kschessinska, Bronislava Nijinska, Ida Rubinstein, Lydia Lopokova, and Alicia Markova. Choreographic activity was in the hands of Michel Fokine (originally a first soloist dancer at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg), Marius Petipa (premier maitre de ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres 1871-1903) and Leonide Massine (equally talented in both acting and dancing), with new works by Vaslav Nijinsky, George Balanchine and Bronislava Nijinska (Nijinsky's younger sister). Diaghilev used a wide range of 20th-century painters to design and decorate his theatrical sets. The key Russian artists were Bakst, Benois, Roerich, and Korovin. After 1914, newcomers included Mikhail Larionov (1881–1964), Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962), Naum Gabo (1890-1977), Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) and Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957). Those from the Paris School included Matisse, Picasso and Miro, as well as Georges Rouault (1871-1958), Andre Derain (1880-1954), Georges Braque (1882-1963), Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955), and the surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-89). Diaghilev commissioned music from the leading modern composers of the 20th century - including, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky and Richard Strauss - as well as the foremost conductors such as Ernest Ansermet, Edward Clark, Roger Desormiere and Pierre Monteux. List of Main Ballets Performed by the Ballets Russes 1909 Le Pavillon d'Armide - Music
by Nikolai Tcherepnin Related Articles on Russian Modern Art For more about 19th and 20th century Russian arts and crafts, please see these articles: - Russian
Sculpture (c.1740-1940) |
|
|
|
• For more about theatrical design of scenery, sets and costumes, see: Homepage.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART HISTORY |
