Serge Diaghilev and His World: A Centennial Celebration of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1909–1929
Online Exhibition

After completing his secondary school studies in Perm, Russia, Serge Diaghilev traveled throughout Europe and developed his interest in visual arts. With artists Léon Bakst (1866–1924) and Alexandre Benois (1870–1960), he cofounded the journal Mir iskusstva (The World of Art) in 1898. In 1906, Diaghilev arranged an exhibition of Russian art in Paris and organized a festival of Russian music at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra the next year. In 1908, Diaghilev returned to Paris to present six performances of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov—the opera’s first performance outside Russia.

Much of the success of the Ballets Russes can be attributed to Diaghilev’s unique ability to promote significant collaborations among established and up-and-coming artists, such as choreographers Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska, and George Balanchine; designers Natalia Goncharova, Juan Gris, Nikolai Roerich, and Georges Braque; and composers Manuel de Falla, Sergei Prokofiev, Erik Satie, and Maurice Ravel. This photograph shows Serge Diaghilev with two of his most important collaborators, the dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky (1889 [1890?]–1950) and the composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971).

Léonide Massine (1896–1979) expanded ballet’s impact by integrating extensive character and ethnic inspirations into his choreographies, which resulted in highly dramatic works. A protégé of Diaghilev, Massine was recognized for his ability as a dancer and for his choreographic creativity. He joined the Ballets Russes in 1914 as a dancer and created eighteen works for the company between 1915 and 1928.

French writer and artist Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) fell under the spell of the Ballets Russes during the company’s early visits to Paris. He published articles, interviewed its principals, and created posters that featured the dancers Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina. Between 1912 and 1927, Cocteau provided libretti or scenarios for the ballets Le Dieu Bleu, Parade, Le Train Bleu, and the opera Oedipus Rex.

Serge Grigoriev (1883–1968), rehearsal director for the Ballets Russes between 1909 and 1929, compiled a series of photograph albums that show the company rehearsing, performing, and relaxing. This page of snapshots, taken by Grigoriev in Monte Carlo in 1928, includes Diaghilev and his artistic collaborator Boris Kochno (1904–1990); the artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and his son Paulo (1921–1975), and Picasso’s first wife, the dancer Olga Khokhlova (1891–1955).

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) was a founding member of “Les Six,” a group of young French composers that included Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Germaine Tailleferre. The group sought to establish a quintessentially French style of contemporary art music by rejecting foreign influences, most notably that of the German Romantic Richard Wagner, as well as the musical impressionism of their compatriot Claude Debussy. Poulenc composed one ballet for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Les Biches, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. Part of the inscription on this photograph states “to the admirable Nijinska who made our ‘Biches’ so beautiful, with my profound affection—Francis Poulenc, 1923.”

Russian scenery and costume designer, Léon Bakst was one of the principal members of Diaghilev’s original circle of artists, writers, and musicians. After the first performance of the Ballets Russes in 1909, Bakst continued to be one of Diaghilev’s primary collaborators. He created the costumes or scenery for nineteen Ballets Russes productions—more than any other artist—including Le Festin, Le Carnaval, Le Spectre de la Rose, L’Après-Midi d’un Faune, Jeux, and The Sleeping Princess.

The 1909 and 1910 seasons of the Ballets Russes consisted of a pick-up troupe of dancers on vacation from the Russian Imperial Theater. However, the ballets were so popular with Paris audiences that Diaghilev created a permanent dance company in 1911 with Michel Fokine (1888–1942) as the principal choreographer. He produced more than twenty works for Diaghilev between 1909 and 1912 and 1914 and 1915, and his choreographies established the base for the repertory of the Ballets Russes until it dissolved in 1929. Many of his works continue to be performed today, including Les Sylphides, Schéhérazade, The Firebird, Le Spectre de la Rose, and Petrouchka.

The “Polovtsian Dances” scene from act 2 of the opera Prince Igor was so successful that the work was performed without singers in later seasons. (“Polovtsian Dances”: music by Aleksandr Borodin, completed and partly orchestrated by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Glazunov; sets and costumes by Nikolai Roerich; choreography by Michel Fokine; premiere on May 19, 1909, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris.)

Based on Fokine’s 1908 ballet Une Nuit d’Égypte, the new version, which was retitled Cléopâtre, featured three of the most famous dancers to appear with the Ballets Russes: Anna Pavlova (1881–1931), Ida Rubinstein (1885–1960), and Tamara Karsavina (1885–1978). In later performances Adolph Bolm (1884–1951) danced Fokine’s role of Amoun. The work remained in the repertory of the Ballets Russes until 1929 (Cléopâtre: music by Anton Arensky, with additional music by Aleksandr Glazunov, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Taneyev, and Nikolai Tcherepnin; sets and costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Michel Fokine; premiere on June 2, 1909, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris.)

With its exotic and colorful décor and cast of harem wives and slaves, Schéhérazade was considered the epitome of Diaghilev’s Orientalism. It became one of the most popular ballets produced by the Ballets Russes and was performed more than five hundred times between 1910 and 1929. The original cast of Schéhérazade included Ida Rubinstein, Vaslav Nijinsky, Enrico Cecchetti, and Bronislava Nijinska. (Schéhérazade: music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; libretto by Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, and Michel Fokine, after the first tale of The Thousand and One Nights; sets and costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Michel Fokine; premiere on June 4, 1910, Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris.)

Stung by criticism from the Paris critics who claimed he produced well-danced ballets with exotic décors and costumes but with no comparable innovative music component, Diaghilev turned to the young composer Igor Stravinsky. The Firebird was Stravinsky’s first commission from the Ballets Russes and proved to be the catalyst that began Stravinsky’s ascent to international acclaim. Considered to be one of Michel Fokine’s best choreographies and one of Diaghilev’s most successful collaborative efforts, The Firebird was a triumph with Paris audiences. (The Firebird: music by Igor Stravinsky; libretto by Michel Fokine; sets and costumes by Aleksandr Golovin, with additional costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Michel Fokine; premiere on June 25, 1910, Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris.)

Michael Fokine’s ballet Le Spectre de la Rose featured only two dancers. He described the intimate stage setting as “a tiny room, the two walls of which meet together in an upstage corner, leaving but little room for dancing. The difficulty lay in confining the dance to such a small space.” The dancers in the original cast were two of the most admired dancers of the early twentieth century: Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina. (Le Spectre de la Rose: music by Carl Maria von Weber, orchestrated by Hector Berlioz; sets and costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Michel Fokine; premiere on April 19, 1911, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

In her diary, Bronislava Nijinska speaks about the first rehearsal of Petrouchka: “The musicians refused to play Stravinsky’s music, saying they considered it an insult to perform such a piece of music where each note was in discord with the laws of harmony. The conductor, Pierre Monteux, had no authority to force them to play. The presence of Igor Stravinsky did not bother them in the least. At last, Serge Diaghilev arrived. His imposing figure and the look of contempt on his face had an immediate effect on the musicians.” (Petrouchka: music by Igor Stravinsky; libretto by Stravinsky and Alexandre Benois; sets and costumes by Benois; choreography by Michael Fokine; premiere on June 13, 1911, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris).

Léonide Massine continued the experiments in movement initiated by Michael Fokine but integrated character and ethnic influences into his choreographies, resulting in highly dramatic ballets. Massine joined the Ballets Russes in 1914 as a dancer and was its chief choreographer between 1915 and 1920. Some of his most notable choreographic works include Contes Russes, Parade, Le Tricorne, Pulcinella, and La Boutique Fantasque. One of the Ballets Russes’s most successful productions, La Boutique Fantasque. (The Magic Toyshop), was performed more than 300 times between 1919 and 1929. (La Boutique Fantasque: music by Gioacchino Rossini, orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi; sets, costumes, and curtain by André Derain; choreography by Léonide Massine; premiere on June 5, 1919, Alhambra Theatre, London.)

Italy was one of Diaghilev’s favorite destinations for inspiration, and the ballet Pulcinella was the second that resulted from his visits. Léonide Massine had also visited Italy, and, after reading through commedia dell’arte scripts, he based his choreography on the story of The Four Pulcinellas. The original cast included Massine and Tamara Karsavina. (Pulcinella: music by Igor Stravinsky, after Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and other composers; sets, costumes, and curtain by Henri Matisse; premiere on May 15, 1920, Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris.)

Based on a classical theme with costumes that were neither period nor contemporary, Zéphire et Flora was performed fewer than thirty times between its premiere in 1925 and 1929. (Zéphire et Flora: music by Vladimir Dukelsky [Vernon Duke]); sets and costumes by Georges Braque; choreography by Léonide Massine; premiere on April 28, 1925, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

Les Matelots (The Sailors) was the second of three ballets composed by Georges Auric (1899–1983). (The other ballets were Les Fâcheux, 1924, and La Pastorale, 1926.) However, Auric and Diaghilev disagreed about commissioning fees, and Auric did not compose any ballets for the Ballets Russes after 1926. Described by Léonide Massine as a “light-hearted romp,” Les Matelots was extremely popular with Parisian audiences. (Les Matelots: music by Georges Auric; libretto by Boris Kochno; sets, costumes, and curtain by Pedro Pruna; scene painting by Prince Alexander Schervashidze; choreography by Léonide Massine; premiere on June 17, 1925, Théâtre de la Gaïté-Lyrique, Paris.)

In 1920, Igor Stravinsky’s 1914 opera Le Rossignol was turned into a one-act ballet called Le Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale), with choreography by Léonide Massine. Stravinsky agreed to do a revival of the ballet in 1925, and Diaghilev turned the choreography over to George Balanchine. The ballet never reached the success of later Balanchine works, but did establish the first collaboration between Stravinsky and Balanchine. In the years to come, their collaboration would prove to be one of the most creative partnerships ever made between a choreographer and a composer. (Le Chant du Rossignol: music by Igor Stravinsky; sets, costumes, and curtain by Henri Matisse; new choreography by George Balanchine; premiere on June 17, 1925, Théâtre de la Gaïté-Lyrique, Paris.)

George Balanchine (1904–1983) joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as a dancer in 1924. Two of his greatest works, Apollo and Prodigal Son, were created during the last years of the company’s existence. Today Balanchine is regarded as one of the principal artists of modern times and the founder of classical ballet in America.

With inspiration from English pantomime and folk songs and sets and costumes influenced by British illustrators and caricaturists George (1792 – 1878) and Robert (1789 –1856) Cruikshank, The Triumph of Neptune was popular with London audiences. Shown is Diaghilev’s notebook with notes for revisions of Balanchine’s The Triumph of Neptune (music by Lord Berners; costumes by Pedro Pruna; choreography by George Balanchine; premiere on December 3, 1926, Lyceum Theatre, London).

The choreography for Apollon Musagète was originally commissioned by Library of Congress patroness Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge for choreographer/dancer Adolph Bolm and composer Igor Stravinsky. The work premiered on April 27, 1928, in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. On June 12, 1928, Diaghilev’s version premiered at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, Paris, with choreography by George Balanchine and sets and costumes by André Bauchant. Retitled Apollo, the work became one of Balanchine’s most beloved ballets and rarely has been absent from the repertory of the New York City Ballet. (Apollon Musagète: music by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by André Bauchant; choreography by George Balanchine; premiere on June 12, 1928, Théâtre Sarah-Berhardt, Paris.)

Vaslav Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava Nijinska (1891–1972) are two of the most significant dance celebrities of the twentieth century. Born into a family of dancers, both graduated from the Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg and contributed to the success of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as dancers and choreographers.

Vaslav Nijinsky joined the Ballets Russes as a dancer in 1909 and soon became an international star. Among the many artists associated with the Ballets Russes, only Nijinsky became a celebrity and a legend. As a dancer, he was admired for his outstanding ballet technique and dramatic onstage presence.

Bronislava Nijinska was one of the most remarkable figures in the development of twentieth-century choreography. Nijinska’s work reflected a pioneering combination of classical ballet and choreographic innovation. She joined the Ballets Russes as a dancer in 1909 and was made a principal dancer the next year. Between 1921 and 1924, Nijinska was ballet mistress and chief choreographer for the Ballets Russes. During her tenure with the company she choreographed nine ballets and numerous operas for Diaghilev.

A vehicle for Nijinsky’s brilliant dance technique, Narcisse was little performed after he left the company in 1917. (Narcisse: music by Nikolai Tcherepnin; libretto, sets, and costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Michel Fokine; premiere on April 26, 1911, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

The puppet Petrouchka was one of Vaslav Nijinsky’s most famous roles, Bronislava Nijinska wrote of her brother’s performance at the end of Petrouchka: “With an agonizing pain and sadness in his eyes, he extends a trembling arm in farewell to the crowd, knowing that only they, the gray, common, Russian crowd, love and understand Petrouchka. The heavy wooden head hangs to one side, and the tragic eyes stare out of the grotesque, still mask of the doll’s face.”

Vaslav Nijinsky’s stark and erotic choreography for the ballet L’Après-midi d’un Faune (The Afternoon of a Faun) was criticized by the Parisian press as obscene. (L’Après-midi d’un Faune: music by Claude Debussy; sets and costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Nijinsky; premier on May 29, 1912, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris).

Dancer/actress Ida Rubinstein agreed to perform the role of the Nymph in Nijinsky’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune but, after only one rehearsal, she was indignant about the choreography and refused to participate in the ballet. Later, Rubinstein related her reasons. “Nijinsky wanted the impossible. If I had submitted to his direction I would have dislocated every joint in my body and would have been transformed into a maimed marionette!” Shown here are some of Nijinsky’s notes for the choreography, in his own hand.

Bronislava Nijinska noted in her memoirs that the ten-minute ballet L’Après-Midi d’un Faune required ninety rehearsals. In the early stages of developing the ballet, Nijinsky had his sister try out some of his choreography. In 1922, Bronislava Nijinska took the unusual step of performing in the ballet not as the Nymph, but as the Faune—the role created by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky. Mikhail Larinov (1881–1964) created this drawing of Nijinska as the Faune, with Diaghilev watching.

In 1913, Nijinsky’s assistant, Marie Rambert (1888–1982), asked Igor Stravinsky for a copy of the piano score so that she could record Nijinsky’s choreography for Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring: music by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by Nikolai Roerich; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; first performance on May 28, 1913. Théâtre Champs-Élysées, Paris). In her diary, Nijinska relates the events surrounding the appointment of Marie Rambert as an assistant to Nijinsky for Le Sacre: “After visiting the studio of [Emile] Jacques-Dalcroze, Diaghilev claimed that he was concerned that our artists would not be able to master the difficult rhythms . . . and that he had invited Dalcroze’s best pupil . . . to teach us eurhythmics. I was burning with indignation and protested loudly, ‘I cannot see what a Dalcroze pupil can teach our artists. We are already familiar with Stravinsky’s music, having danced in two ballets, Petrouchka and The Firebird, where we had no trouble with the rhythms of his complicated scores’.”

By 1913, Vaslav Nijinsky was a household name throughout Europe, and many publications were created to mark his celebrity status. In this 1913 print, Nijinsky is shown in the role of the Golden Slave with Ida Rubinstein as Zobéïde in Fokine’s Schéhérazade.

Vaslav Nijinsky and a young Hungarian, Romola de Pulszky (1891–1978), an ardent fan who took up ballet to be close to Nijinsky, were married while the Ballets Russes was on tour in South America. The couple did not share a common language.

As a result of his anger at Nijinsky’s marriage, Diaghilev dismissed Nijinsky from the Ballets Russes in late 1913. Nijinsky rejoined the company in the summer of 1917 for a tour of Spain and South America, but refused to dance unless paid—in cash—prior to each performance. This 1917 receipt notes that for $500 Nijinsky will dance Le Spectre de la Rose and Les Sylphides at the Theatre Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. Six weeks later he appeared in his last public performance in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was twenty-nine years old.

Described as a “gorgeous calamity” by critics, The Sleeping Princess ran for 115 performances but nearly bankrupted Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. To finance the lavish production envisioned by Diaghilev, the Alhambra Company gave him an advance against box office receipts of nearly ₤20,000. When Diaghilev could not pay back the loan, a legal battle ensued and the sets and costumes were impounded. The Ballets Russes was barred from performing in England until late 1924. (The Sleeping Princess: music by Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky, partly reorchestrated by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by Léon Bakst; choreography by Marius Petipa, with additional dances by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on November 2, 1921, Alhambra Theatre, London.)

Aurora’s Wedding (also known as Le Mariage de la Belle au Bois Dormant), a twenty-minute, one-act version of the court scenes from the ill-fated production of The Sleeping Princess. Aurora’s Wedding was performed more than 200 times until 1929. Bronislava Nijinska danced the part of the Siamese Butterfly. (Aurora’s Wedding: music by Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky, partly reorchestrated by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by Alexandre Benois, with additional costumes by Natalia Goncharova; choreography by Marius Petipa, arranged and with additional dances by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on May 18,1922, Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris.)

For Diaghilev’s production of Les Noces (The Wedding), Nijinska insisted on simple scenery and dark colors for the costumes to emphasize the seriousness of the theme, which centers on a young peasant girl who leaves her family for the unknown world of marriage. (Les Noces: music by Igor Stravinsky; sets and costumes by Natalia Gontcharova, choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on June 13, 1923, Théâtre de la Gaïté-Lyrique, Paris.)

In 1989, Bronislava Nijinska’s daughter, Irina Nijinska, supervised the reconstruction of Les Noces for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. One review noted that “66 years after its premiere, the ballet remains astonishingly experimental.” Another critic said: “Les Noces was deftly done, both in the rendition of Stravinsky’s pungent score and in the dancing.”

The large cast of forty dancers in Les Noches was complimented by Stravinsky’s complex orchestration, which included four pianos, percussion, and a chorus. In this letter to Nijinska, Stravinsky attempted to clear up some ambiguities in the score and wrote: “Sergei Pavlovich [Diaghilev] said to me that you and he are not clear on the reprise at the beginning of Les Noches. Now you listen carefully!”

Les Fâcheux (The Unfortunate) was one of several ballets and operas produced by the Ballets Russes during the 1920s that focused on themes related to eighteenth-century France. These productions were rooted in France’s post-World War I fascination with bygone monarchies and court life. (Les Fâcheux: music by Georges Auric; sets, costumes, and curtain by Georges Braque; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on January 19, 1924, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

Les Tentations de la Bergère, ou L’Amour Vainqueur (The Temptations of the Shepherdess) was another of Diaghilev’s ballets inspired by eighteenth-century France. Unlike similar productions, which utilized twentieth-century scores, the music for Les Tentations de la Bergère was composed by Michel de Montéclair (1667–1737). (Les Tentations de la Bergère, ou L’Amour Vainqueur: music by Michel de Montéclair, arranged and orchestrated by Henri Casadesus; sets, costumes, and curtain by Juan Gris; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on January 3, 1924, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

Although Natalia Goncharova created striking sets and costumes, La Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (The Night on Bald Mountain) was performed only three times and soon fell into obscurity as a ballet. (La Nuit sur le Mont Chauve: music by Modest Mussorgorsky; sets and costumes by Natalia Goncharova; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on January 19, 1924, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

Les Biches (The House Party) explored the sexual mores of the 1920s with a candor never before seen on a ballet stage. The flamboyant cast of characters included gigolos, a hostess, and a pair of sapphists, who probed a multitude of forbidden themes such as castration, narcissism, and voyeurism. (Les Biches: music by Francis Poulenc; sets, costumes, and curtain by Marie Laurencin; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on January 6, 1924, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo.)

Le Train Bleu examined Bronislava Nijinska’s view of the shallowness of modern love. Its title was motivated by the train that took fashionable sun worshipers from Paris to the chic seaside resorts of southern France. The ballet’s characters included a tennis player, based on 1920s French champion Suzanne Lenglen, and a golf player said to be modeled on the Prince of Wales. Other characters in the ballet were described by the librettist Jean Cocteau as “tarts and gigolos.” (Le Train Bleu: music by Darius Milhaud; sets by Henri Laurens; costumes by Gabrielle [“Coco”] Chanel; curtain by Pablo Picasso; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; premiere on June 20, 1924, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris.)

Although many of the Ballets Russes’s designers, dancers, and all of its choreographers were Russian, the company never performed in Russia. Without a permanent home, the Ballets Russes performed every year of its existence, touring throughout Europe, the United States, and South America, even through the dark years of World War I.

Members of the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev were photographed in Madeira, on their way to South America in August 1913, one month before the marriage of Vaslav Nijinsky and Romola de Pulszky. (Nijinsky and de Pulszky are standing next to each other, directly behind the boatswain.)

Serge Grigoriev, Ballet Master of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes from 1909–1929, took photographs of some of the company’s last tours before Diaghilev’s death. Top photographs from the left: Felia Doubrovska, Serge Lifar, George Balanchine, and Lubov Tchernicheva; Tchernicheva; Doubrovska, Constantin Tcherkas, and Tchernicheva. Bottom photographs are unidentified.