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20th century ballet was born in St Petersburg, from a group of
artists who were disenchanted with the arts scene in Russia. They
included: the painters Leon Bakst and Alexandre Benois; Serge
Diaghilev, who had won fame for organising exhibitions of Russian
paintings in Paris, and the choreographer Michael Fokine, who
had become disaffected with the conservative, traditional ballets
of Petipa.
The New Ballet
By 1905 a new generation of dancers was in revolt against the
conservatism of the Imperial Ballet. Their new ballet combined
movement, music and design in a fusion that was to distinguish
20th century ballet. The subject matter of each ballet dictated
the style of the choreography, music and design. A dance programme
was now of three or four short contrasted works rather than a
full evening’s performance. Choreography became more expressive
without formal mime movements and the corps de ballet became an
integral part of the ballet instead of just a decorative background.
Michael Fokine
Serge Diaghilev gathered dancers from the Imperial Russian theatres
and in May 1909 they appeared in Paris. No one had seen ballet
or dancers like this before and they were a great success. Les
Sylphides was Michael Fokine’s tribute to the Romantic ballet.
It used the corps de ballet in a new and expressive way. The rhythms
of the Polovtsian Dances and Fokine’s uninhibited
choreography, performed by Adolph Bolm, had the audience in a
frenzy. It was Fokine who developed exciting new choreography
for men and rekindled an interest in the male dancer.
Overnight European ideas about ballet were overturned and ballet
became an important art form. The success of Vaslav Nijinsky and
Adolph Bolm restored the male dancer to popularity; the dancers
became household names, and the designers the rage of Paris. In
1912 Fokine’s Ballet Scheherazade, designed by Leon
Bakst inspired a fashion for harem pants, turbans and floor
cushions.
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Introduction
18th Century Satire
