Monte Carlo Russian Ballet
| Original Ballet Russe | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Name | Original Ballet Russe |
| Previous names | Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil Covent Garden Russian Ballet |
| Successor | Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo |
| Year founded | 1931 |
| Closed | 1947 |
| Founders | René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil |
| Principal venue | Monte Carlo |
| Senior staff | |
| Company manager | Sol Hurok |
| Artistic staff | |
| Artistic Director | Colonel Wassily de Basil |
| Resident Choreographers |
Leonide Massine (1932–1937) George Balanchine (1932–1933) Michel Fokine (1937–c. 1941) |
| Other | |
| Formation |
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The Original Ballet Russe (originally named Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo) was a ballet company established in 1931 by René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil as a successor to the Ballets Russes, founded in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev. The company assumed the new name Original Ballet Russe after a split between de Basil and Blum. De Basil led the renamed company, while Blum and others founded a new company under the name Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. It was a large scale professional ballet company which toured extensively in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, and Central and South America. It closed down operations in 1947.
The company's name is derived from the Ballets Russes of impresario Sergei Diaghilev. The last season of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes was 1929, during which it toured and performed in both London, England, and Paris, France. During the final season, it produced the new ballets The Prodigal Son and Le Bal. The company performed for the final time in London at the Covent Garden Theatre on July 26, 1929. Diaghliev died of complications from diabetes a month later, on August 19, 1929.
In 1931, with the help from financier Serge Denham, René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil formed the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. One of the new company's board members was American businessman Jim Thompson.
The company hired Leonide Massine and George Balanchine as choreographers. The majority of the works performed had previously been staged by Diaghilev's company, but other new works were commissioned, such as Jeux d'enfants, with music of George Bizet and sets by Joan Miró. Featured dancers included David Lichine (who soon began choreographing ballets for the company), and the "Baby Ballerinas" Irina Baronova, Tamara Toumanova, and Tatiana Riabouchinska. The company conductor was Efrem Kurtz, who stayed with the company until 1942, touring with them extensively. The company librettist was Boris Kochno. The ballet gave its first performance in Monte Carlo in 1932.
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