Exhibitions

The beautiful studio portraits of the ballet stars of the 1930-ies in their stage costumes reveal to us this epoch in the history of the Russian Ballet in exile.

Among his other archives, Alexander Vassiliev happens to own a rare collection of photographs dedicated to the history of the Russian ballet. One hundred years ago Serge Dyagilev, the brilliant promoter, took the ballet company he had founded to Paris, and ever since Ballet Russe has been a well-known name. The talented new trend choreographers, Mikhail Fokine, Leonid Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava Nijinska, George Balanchine and Serge Lifar, raised the art of the Russian ballet to its highest pitch. Brilliant scenic artists and ballet costume designers, Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst, Mstislav Dobujinsky, Nicholas Roerich, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, harbingered the new epoch in the art of scenic design. The endless row of Petrograd and Moscow Imperial Ballet stars went into exile to glorify the world scenes by their brilliant talent, excellent technique acquired through Russian ballet teaching methods, their profound artistry and bright and arresting images.

After Dyagilev's death in 1929 in Venice, his brilliant company broke up and only three years later two new companies were founded – "Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo" and "De Basil Russian Ballet". They were directed by two experienced managers – Leon Blum and Vassiliy Grigorievich Voskresensky, formerly Cossack colonel who became known in the ballet world as Colonel de Basil.

The two companies existed simultaneously, toured extensively both with new performances and reconstructions of Dyagilev repertory, and travelled half the world during the 1930ies and the 1940ies. They performed in Europe, Australia, North and South America. The young "baby ballerinas" trained in the best ballet studios of Paris – those of former St.-Petersburg Imperial Ballet primas Olga Preobrajenskaya and Mathilda Kschessinska – were invited to dance the leading roles. Among them were the admirable Irina Baronova, the masterful Tamara Tumanova and the lyrical Tatyana Riabuschinska who were recruited to "De Basil Russian Ballet", while the "Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo" was enlarged by the graceful Natalya Krasovskaya and several male soloists – graduates of the mentioned ballet studios. After the end of the Second World War the interest in the famous Russian ballet companies subsided. The demise of Colonel de Basil was the last event in this period of history of the Russian ballet in exile.

These photographs have not been included in the exhibition «Ballet Russe (Russian Ballet in Exile)», but they will be interesting both for those who have visited the exhibition at 35 Bolshaya Morskaya and those who would like to learn from photography about the magic world of ballet.

Alexandre Vassiliev's Website