Fokine, Michel << faw KEEN, mih SHEHL >> (1880-1942), was a great Russian choreographer (dance creator). Fokine invented the one-act ballet based on music by a first-rate composer. The dance and scenery in his ballets merge with the mood and drama of the music to create a powerful theater event. Fokine composed more than 60 one-act ballets from 1905 to 1942. The best known include The Dying Swan, Les Sylphides, Prince Igor, Scheherazade, Le Spectre de la Rose, Petrouchka, L’Epreuve d’Amour, and The Firebird.
Fokine was born in St. Petersburg on April 23, 1880. There he became soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet (later the Kirov Ballet; now known again as the Mariinsky Ballet). He left Russia for Western Europe with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1909. Fokine’s early work with the Ballets Russes in Paris marked the beginning of his great career as a choreographer. He became a U.S. citizen in 1932. He died on Aug. 22, 1942.
See also Ballet (Ballet in Russia).
