File:Nijinsky_-_Poster-2008-17-08.jpeg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Ballets Russes
Sign in to saveAlso known as The Russian Ballet, Diaghilev's Russian Ballet, Russian Ballets
Paris-based ballet company in the early 20th C.
Key facts
- Name
- Ballets Russes
- Year founded
- 1909 ; 117 years ago ( 1909 )
- Closed
- 1929 ; 97 years ago ( 1929 )
- Principal venue
- Various
- Artistic director
- Sergei Diaghilev
- Formation
- Principal Soloist Corps de Ballet
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Léon Bakst 001.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- inception
- 1908-01-01
- Commons category
- Ballets Russes
- dissolved, abolished or demolished date
- 1914-00-00
- native label
- Ballets russes
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~27 min read
Article
Poster by Jean Cocteau for the 1911 Ballet Russe season showing Nijinsky in costume for Le Spectre de la rose, Paris The Ballets Russes ( French: [balɛ ʁys]) was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris which performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there.
Originally conceived by impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes is widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of the 20th century, in part because it promoted ground-breaking artistic collaborations among young choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, all at the forefront of their several fields. Diaghilev commissioned works from composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Sergei Prokofiev, Erik Satie, and Maurice Ravel, artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Alexandre Benois, Konstantin Korovin, Nicholas Roerich, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, and costume designers Léon Bakst, Ivan Bilibin and Coco Chanel.