Bluebeard Carnaval Firebird Helen of Troy Petrouchka Polovtsian Dances Russian Soldier Le Spectre de la Rose Les Sylphides |
Michel Fokine was one of
the most influential
choreographers of the 20th
century. He was also a
talented dancer and teacher.
He graduated from the
Imperial Ballet School in
1898 and was promoted to
First Soloist at the
Mariinsky Theatre in
1904.
His early works were
choreographed for school
performances or for special
occasions. In 1907 he
created his first work for the
Imperial Russian Ballet,
Pavillion d'Armide.
That year he also created
Chopiniana, to
music by Frederic Chopin,
an early example of
choreography to an already
existing score rather than to
music specifically written for
the ballet. Chopiniana
was revised over the next three
years and Fokine's romantic
pas de deux in the style of
Taglioni to the Waltz in C
minor, Op. 64, No.2,
became the basis for his ballet
blanc, Reverie
romantique, Ballet sur la
music de Chopin, which
Diaghilev re-titled Les
Sylphides in 1909.
Fokine established his
reputation while he was Chief
Choreographer for Serge
Diaghilev's first ballet seasons
in the West. Diaghilev
provided Fokine with the
opportunity to break away from
the academic form of late 19th
century ballet and implement
his reforms. Among his most
famous ballets created for the
Ballets Russes were the
Polovtsian Dances
from Prince Igor, Les
Sylphides, Le Spectre de la
Rose and
Petrouchka.
Fokine worked in Russia until
1918 and was later to settle in
the USA where he continued
to work as a teacher, dancer
and choreographer. He created
a number of new ballets for
Ren Blum's Ballet Russes,
including L'Epreuve
d'Amour, and for Ballet
Theatre, including
Bluebeard, but Fokine
was most constantly in
demand to revive the
masterpieces he originally
created for Diaghilev's Ballets
Russes. |
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