Ballets Russes, << ba lay ROOS, >> was the most important ballet company of the early 1900’s. It was founded and directed by Russian ballet director and producer Sergei Diaghilev.
Diaghilev established the Ballets Russes in 1909. At first, he used dancers and choreographers (dance composers) from the Russian imperial theaters. Diaghilev soon persuaded some of the most innovative artists and composers of his time to collaborate on his ballets. They included dancers Tamara Karsavina, Serge Lifar, Leonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, and Olga Spessivtseva and composers Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, and Igor Stravinsky. The chief choreographers were George Balanchine, Michel Fokine, Massine, Nijinsky, and his sister Bronislava Nijinska. Designers included such noted artists as Leon Bakst, Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, André Derain, Juan Gris, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Rouault.
The company staged about 70 ballets during its 20-year history. Among the most significant ballets were Les Sylphides (1909), The Firebird (1910), Petrouchka (1911), The Afternoon of a Faun (1912), The Rite of Spring (1913), Parade (1917), Les Noces (The Wedding, 1923), Le Pas d’Acier (The Steel Step, 1927), Apollo (1928), and Prodigal Son (1929). The Ballets Russes disbanded after Diaghilev’s death in 1929.
The huge popularity of the Ballets Russes revitalized ballet in Europe. The company also kindled enthusiasm about ballet in areas that had no strong tradition of ballet, such as Australia, South America, and the United States. After the company broke up, its dancers and choreographers joined companies in many parts of the world, and they influenced ballet wherever they went. In 1932, members of the Ballets Russes helped form the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.
