An Examination of the Influence of Sergei Diaghilev and Ballet Russe on the Development of Ballet in the Early Twentieth Century

An Examination of the Influence of Sergei Diaghilev and Ballet Russe on the Development of Ballet in the Early Twentieth Century

Ballet was taking an important place in Western Europe at the beginning and at the middle ages of the Renaissance. When the ballet was monotonus in 19th and 20th century, on the scene came Sergei Diaghilev with his inspiration to show the Russian art to Paris. Two years after performances in Paris, Ballet Russe was founded as an independent ballet company that combined great dancers, choreographers, designers and musicians.

Sergei Diaghilev was born on 31 March 1872 at Selishchenko in Novogorod Province, a south-western region of Russia. His mother, Evgenia Nikolaevna, died at the birth of Diaghilev. His father Pavel Pavlocich Diaghilev, a professional army officer, re-married two years later, so the young boy could grow and not missing a mother in the family. After his graduation from Perm Gymnasium, Diaghilev was enrolled at St Petersburg University Law Faculty in 1890. His passion toward art and music continued developing at his free time, parallel to the law school. At that time he was studying music composition under Rimsky-Korsakov, and taking singing lessons from Antonio Cotogni – an Italian tenor. After all these classes in the musical field, he was not able to develop a music career, so he focused more on art. Diaghilev was helped by Alexandre Benois and Dmitry Filosofov for developing his art skills. They opened his eyes to the Russian art and after that he began organizing series of art exhibitions in St Petersburg. His first exhibition was in March 1897 and the last one was in the spring of 1906- contemporary Russian art. The works were by artists from St Petersburg’s World of Art group and some selected artists of Moscow’s Thirty-Six group (Kodicek 124).

Sergei Diaghilev was part of the elite in Russia and Europe. His cousin Dmitry Filosofov, with whom he stayed in St Petersburg and traveled across Europe, played an important role in helping to develop Diaghilev as part of his “intelligentsia” group. With the help of Filosofov, Diaghilev joined an elite society: the Society of Self Improvement, which was a group of old friends that were graduated from the May High School and were part of the elite at that time. They were gathering to discuss different issues about culture at the house of the artist Alexandre Benois, who was the founder of this society and an important figure in developing Diaghilev’s experience in the World of Art and the early Ballets Russes (Kodicek 124). As Anne Benois-Tcherkessova explains in her interview for John Drummond book, this small society was gathering in the house of her father where they were discussing issues about art-all kinds of questions about art (103). After a while an idea came to them to create a magazine which was out for several years and let to composing excellent articles. This magazine was created because of Princess Tenischeva and gave many people of high culture the possibility to publish their thoughts on different aspects such as art, philosophy, literature and music. According to Anne Benois neither their magazine, nor their ideas were very popular at