Digging up treasure — Ballet West pays homage to Ballets Russes

In 1909, Sergei Diaghiev organized Ballets Russes, a ballet company that literally changed the way ballets were performed and seen.

"Before Ballets Russes, the ballets were fairy-tale ballets," said Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute.

"Ballets Russes helped create shorter, one-act works or 'nights of repertoire.'"

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the origination of Ballets Russes. And Ballet West is among the companies who will celebrate the revolutionary company.

During its heyday (1909-29) Ballets Russes not only recruited choreographers such as Michel Fokine, Marius Petipa, Leonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava Nijinska, but also a young George Balanchine, said Sklute.

"Sometimes people forget that Balanchine was Diaghilev's last student and protoge," Sklute said.

In addition, composers such as Georges Auric, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stranvinsky became part of the "company" while Diaghiev utilized master works by Tchaikovksy and Rimsky-Korsokov.

"The music was sometimes commissioned for these works," Sklute said. "Other times pre-exisiting scores were used."

The dancing and the music was all tied together by sets and costumes designed by world-renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Alexandre Benois and Henri Matisse, to name a few.

"Just think to have costumes designed by Picasso or Matisse was, in itself, exciting," Sklute said.

Sklute had been thinking of which Ballets Russes works to set on Ballet West since coming to Utah in 2007. And after working with the dancers, he finalized the program later that year.

The three pieces Sklute chose for the upcoming performances are Nijinska's "Les Biches" ("The Does") Balanchine's "The Prodigal Son" and Fokine's "Polovtsian Dances" from "Prince Igor."

The three works show different aspects of Ballets Russes, Sklute said.

"First off, the term 'Les Biches' isn't what many people think it means," Sklute said.

"It means 'the does' or 'the gazelles,' and the ballet is light and frothy. Nijinska choreographed it, and the costumes and sets were designed by Marie Laurencin."

The music was written by Francis Poulenc in a Saint-Saens' "The Carnival of the Animals" vein, and it premiered in 1924, Sklute said.