Ballets Russes - Oxford Definition

A ballet and opera company founded in 1909 by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev; its combining the arts of visual design, music, choreography, and scenario derived from 19th-century theories of correspondence and Gesamtkunstwerk. It performed in Paris and toured Europe and the Americas: in 1922 it established a permanent base in Monte Carlo until it was disbanded on Diaghilev's death in 1929. Among the visual artists who designed costumes and sets for the company were Léon Bakst, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, and Picasso. The choreographers included Mikhail Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky, and among the many famous dancers were Ninette de Valois, Anton Dolin, and Alicia Markova. The distinguished composers from whom Diaghilev commissioned work included Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Satie. The Ballets Russes was at the forefront in reforms in stage design and public taste and acted as an intermediary between the public and the avant-garde.