2013 Chapters (Layout Features)

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: A New Kind of Company

Garafola, Lynn

The Rite of Spring was a new kind of ballet, and it took a new kind of company to produce it. What elements converged in the Ballets Russes in the early years of its existence that made the creation of such a work even remotely possible? What galvanizing vision drove it forward? Who were the dancers of Nijinsky's pre-Slavonic horde, and what did their labor contribute to the making of this monumental work? Finally, how did the Ballets Russes differ from other ballet-producing organizations as the long nineteenth century drew to a close? What made it a new kind of company?