Impresario, dilettante and businessman; while Sergei Diaghilev (1872 – 1929) rather defies a single label, he remains best known as the founder of the hugely influential dance company, The Ballets Russes. Embracing all things modern and avant-garde, Diaghilev aspired to create new ballets instead of repeating classical favourites through the synthesis of dance, music and art. As a melting pot of artists, musicians and dancers who lived, performed and travelled together (touring Europe, the United States and South America) the company cultivated an international reputation that attracted stellar collaborations with the likes of Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, Vaslav Nijinsky and Henri Matisse.
It is perhaps no wonder that the V&A launched the centenary celebrations of the company’s first London tour with a sumptuous, interdisciplinary exhibition, ‘Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929’, that ran from September 2010 to January 2011. Diaghilev-fever seeped into the glossy pages of October Vogue with the ‘Russian Dolls’ feature, demonstrating the company’s enduring influence on women’s fashion by introducing an exotic individualism with harem pants, turbans and dramatic black kohl, encouraging a more androgynous sensuality in fashion.
In its contribution to the celebrations in April, The London Coliseum offered the Maris Leipa Charitable Foundation’s ‘Les Saisons Russes XXI’ performed by the Kremlin Ballet Theatre and St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Titov. Seven reconstructed and newly produced ballets were presented over three nights, opening with ‘The Blue God’, a short, one-act ballet set in an ancient Indian shrine. The original 1912 production was a combination of Mikhail Fokine’s choreography with music by Reynaldo Hahn, a libretto by Jean Cocteau and designs by Léon Bakst; yet the details of its initial performances in Paris have been lost, with only photographs, designs and the musical score remaining. Since the ballet was never hugely popular in its time, Andris Liepa seized this opportunity not to revive, but to recreate the ballet for ‘Les Saisons Russes XXI’, setting the libretto to an alternative score and employing artistic director of the English National Ballet, Wayne Eagling, to choreograph the piece. The choice of ‘The Divine Poem’ and ‘The Ecstatic Poem’ by Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin was apt since the works were intended for performance in India with the idea of movement and lighting appealing to Scriabin’s aesthetic; whether it lent itself to the libretto and Eagling’s more modern style of movement was another matter since the contemporary choreography appeared more athletic than balletic. The exquisite and sensual pas de deux between the Blue God (Nikolai Tsiskaridze) and Goddess of Lotus (Ilze Liepa) almost redeemed the repetitive movements which characterised much of the performance.
The recreation of Bakst’s costume and set designs is best summarised in the words of my theatre companion: ‘nuts’. Whilst the costumes were identifiably Bakstian with their gaudy colours and strangely convincing Indian-meets-Russian-folk aspect, the giant snake projecting laser beams seemed, if not inauthentic, a little kitsch. ‘The Blue God’ was followed by a rendition of more eminent ‘Firebird’ which in contrast, was composed and choreographed simultaneously as Stravinsky and Fokine collaborated closely from its inception, resulting in an uniquely embodied performance. Whilst this integration of music and movement made for a much more satisfying second half, there was still something compelling about the unapologetic bizarreness and audacity of the former.
The events of the last eight months have brought this enigmatic dance company back to the fore, demonstrating its relevance through its legacy. Though celebrations are coming to a close, The National Portrait Gallery is showing the evocative ‘Ballet In Focus’ exhibition, featuring the photography of Bassano Ltd., Hoppé and Bert that captures the leading ballet stars of the twentieth century. It is worth even a short visit as you’ll still leave mildly infected by Diaghilev-fever.
