Ballets Russes Collection

Title: Ballets Russes Collection

Dates: 1909-2005

Collection Number: xxx.xx

Creator/Collector: Ballets russes

Extent: 17 Boxes. 18.5 linear feet.

Repository: Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library

Abstract: The Ballets Russes Collection traces the history of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and its various offshoots, including de Basil and Blum's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, the Original Ballet Russe, and Massine and Denham's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Each variation of the company is well-documented through programs, press reviews, publicity, and photos.

Language of Material: English

Entire Collection is open for research.

Reproduction of these materials can occur only if the copying falls within the provisions of the doctrine of fair use. Copyright varies by item.

[Identification of item]. Ballets Russes Collection . Collection Number: xxx.xx. Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library

This is an artificial collection which was amassed gradually through donations by many different individuals.

The origins of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo can be traced back to 1909, when Serge Diaghilev signed a contract with the Theatre Chatelet in Paris to present a Russian ballet season. Drawing from the Russian Imperial Theater, he assembled a company which included Michel Fokine, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Vera Karalli, Ida Rubinstein, Vaslav Nijinsky, Adolph Bolm, Mikhail Mordkin, and Theodore Kosloff. After two successful seasons in Paris in 1909 and 1910, Diaghilev formed the group into a permanent company. Between 1911 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, the company presented premiers of many new ballets by Vaslav Njinsky, Michel Fokine and Leonide Massine. Diaghilev's company gave a final performance on July 26, 1929 at Covent Garden Theater in London. After Diaghilev's death, two organizations emerged; Rene Blum formed the Ballet de l'Opera at Monte Carlo and Col. Wassily de Basil and Prince Zeretelli collaborated on the Opera Russe in Paris. Eventually, Blum and Basil merged these groups into one company based in Monte Carlo. The two hired George Balanchine and Leonide Massine as choreographers and many of the finest Russian dancers, including Irina Baronova, Tamara Toumanova, and Tatiana Riabouchinska. Known as the Rene Blum and Col. de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, the company presented ballets from the Diaghilev repertoire and new ballets by Massine and Balanchine. Massine then left to join Blum to form a ballet company for the Monte Carlo Opera. The two companies attempted a merger but ultimately permanently separated. De Basil's company changed its name to Educational Ballets, Ltd. and then later to the Original Ballet Russe. After some unsuccessful seasons, the Original Ballet Russe gave its last performance in 1948. Blum and Massine's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo experienced greater success and performed throughout the world during the 1940s and 1950s. Sergei Denham assumed directorship of the company in 1948 and oversaw successful U.S. tours between 1949 and 1950. After 1950, the company continued to make sporadic tours of the United States until 1962, when it gave its last public performance.

The Ballets Russes Collection traces the history of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and its various offshoots, including de Basil and Blum's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, the Original Ballet Russe, and Massine and Denham's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Each variation of the company is well-documented through programs, press reviews, publicity, and photos. Records on the various versions of the company all include house programs from theaters around the world, as well as the souvenir programs produced to commemorate each season. Publicity in the form of flyers, posters, and playbills is also present for each generation of the Ballet Russe. News clippings and articles from periodicals provide reviews of specific performances, as well as critical evaluations of the company's achievements. Artists featured in souvenir programs and editions of Comoedia Illustre include Leon Bakst, Henri Matisse, Natalia Gontcharova, Andre Derain, and Pablo Picasso. A few photos of Serge Diaghilev and several performers provide limited visual documentation of the first Ballet Russe's activities. De Basil and Blum's version of the company is documented in photos of performances from the 1930s. Photo files are completely absent from the materials on de Basil's Original Ballet Russe. Massine and Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo is most thoroughly documented through photo files on performances, individual dancers, and company tours. Retrospective evaluations of the Ballet Russes are also present in the form of recent news articles and publications from museum exhibitions held within the last twenty years.