The Art Of Ballets Russes

The Ballets Russes has engaged people for 100 years, ever sinceRussian-born Sergei Diaghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company.Diaghilev brought together some of the most important visual artists ofthe 20th century to work as costume and stage designers and workwith composers, choreographers, and dancers, infusing new life andcreative energy into the performing arts of the time. Through thecostumes, drawings, programs, and posters presented in this book, thevisual spectacle of the Ballets Russes is brought back into view for acontemporary audience to appreciate the revolution it was and theongoing influence it continues to have today.

Præsentation af en række balletter illustreret med fotografier og tegninger af kostumer og kulisser, ordnet alfabetisk efter designeren

The Ballets Russes was perhaps the most iconic, yet at the same time mysterious, ballet company of the twentieth century. Inspired by the unique vision of their founder Sergei Diaghilev, the company gained a large international following. In the mid-twentieth century - during the tumultuous years of World War II and the Cold War - the Ballets Russes companies kept the spirit and traditions of Russian ballet alive in the West, touring extensively in America, Europe and Australia. This important new book uncovers previously-unseen interviews and provides insights into the lives of the great figures of the age - from the dancers Anna Pavlova and Alicia Markova to the choreographers Leonide Massine, George Balanchine and Anton Dolin. The dancers' own words reveal what life was really like for the stars of the Ballets Russes and provide fascinating new insights into one of the most vibrant and creative groups of artists of the modern age.

The success of the Ballets Russes was legendary, but there is more to the legend than its name: the actual story, the adventure, conceived by one man and lived by a few, that lasted only eight seasons and three summers. From 1911 to 1914, Serge Diaghilev, driven by conviction and stubbornness, turned his vision into reality. He collaborated with the likes of Leon Bakst, Igor Stravinsky, and Picasso to create an explosion of creativity in Western Europe which had never before been seen in the world of art. Thanks to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the most glorious page in the history of ballet, one of the most magnificent moments in the adventure of Art, was written. To turn the pages of this stunning book, which offers rare documents from the legendary Ballets Russes from 1911 to 1914 (Monte Carlo years), is to follow Diaghilev on his creative quest--a journey that continues to influence art, theater, ballet, and fashion to this day.

Beautifully illustrated and drawing on unpublished images and memorabilia, this book illuminates the ways in which innovations by the Ballets Russes in dance, music, sets and costume both mirrored and invigorated contemporary culture. --Book Jacket.

In the history of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. Under the direction of impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929), the Ballets Russes radically transformed the nature of ballet—its subject matter, movement idiom, choreographic style, stage space, music, scenic design, costume, even the dancer's physical appearance. From 1909 to 1929, it nurtured some of the greatest choreographers in dance history—Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, and Balanchine—and created such classics as Les Sylphides, Firebird, Petrouchka, L'Après-midi d'un Faune, Les Noces, and Apollo. Diaghilev brought together some of the leading artists of his time, including composers Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokofiev; artists Picasso, Braque, and Matisse, and poets Hoffmansthal and Cocteau. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes is the most authoritative history of the company ever written and the first to examine it as a totality—its art, enterprise, and audience. Combining social and cultural history with illuminating discussions of dance, drama, music, art, economics, and public reception, Lynn Garafola paints an extraordinary portrait of the company that shaped ballet into what it is today.

A fresh perspective on the Ballets Russes, focusing on relations between music, dance and the cultural politics of belle-époque Paris.