The Ballet Russes

Ballet Russe souvenir program from 1914

I love the striped sleeves!Last week I hired a number of DVDs that had been on my list to watch for a while. The 2005 documentary The Ballet Russes was one of them. I was keen to learn about the set and costume designers of the Ballet Russe. There was little on them as it happened, but all the same I found the documentary fascinating and moving.

There was much of the history that I knew little or nothing about: Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet company came from young Russian dancers trained in Paris, exiled from Russia after the revolution of 1917. The director died in 1929, and after Diaghilev’s original Ballet Russe disbanded, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was formed under a partnership. It in turn split in two, with one partner creating the Original Ballet Russe. It was this company that found its way to Australia during WWII.

The company’s productions created a world-wide sensation. It was a completely new style of ballet, with avant-garde sets, imaginative costumes, and extraordinary choreography and music. The company collaborated with many contemporary artists, including Matisse, Chanel, Picasso and Dalí. Much of the public did not understand it at first, and was outraged, but eventually the companies that toured the world during the War inspired a generation, and still do.

Karsavina as PetrouchkaThe Original Ballet Russe, at the Sydney Theatre Royal in1939-40Firebird costume by Léon Bakst