The Legend: The Ballet Russes

 Art is related to history closely in the age of Modernism. Art borrowed from the past to invent the new. Ballet is an art form striding over physical and political obstacles to present social and cultural development.

   Ballet first appeared during the time of the Italian Renaissance in the court of King Louis XIV in the 17^th century. In the 18^th century, ballet combined French opera and became part of court entertainments in France. However, in the early 19^th century, other European cities started producing a string of masterworks, including London, Vienna and Copenhagen.

  Ballet combined singing, dancing and orchestral performances, which made ballet more beautiful from 1830, called the golden age. When it comes to the late 19^th century, St Petersburg began its rise. When French dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa collaborated with composer Tchaikovsky, they created wonderful sound and performance.Well-known The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Le Corsaire were all works of this time. And they created the new classical tratditon.

  In 1909, Vaslav Nijinsky, a brilliant young male dancer overwhelmed all audiences with his dancing. The company, the Ballet Russes was seeking celebrities as dancers of it. The company was directed by its impresario Sergei Diaghlev, who turned ballet into a rock star activity in the early 20^th century. The Ballet Russes only used twenty years to lit up world stages of ballet. It combined the very best of contemporary and music of its time, while respecting its traditions. Ballet managed to survive the Russian Revolution in 1917 and became an important activity between World War I and World War II.

 

Sergei Diaghilev

                   

                                              Nijinsky

The Ballet Russes Company was dissolved following Diaghilev’s death in 1929 when the heart went out of it, but its artistic consequences were to be enormous as the stone gathering moss rolled on and it reanimated ballet throughout Western Europe.