Ballets Russes Style
Mary E. Davis
In the decades between its debut performance in Paris in 1909 and the death of impresario Sergei Diaghilev in 1929, the Ballets Russes was an unrivaled sensation not only in France but in London, New York and the other cities it toured. Attention has often been centred on the links between Diaghilev’s troupe and modernist art and music, but there has been surprisingly little written concerning the Ballets’ role in tastemaking and trendsetting. Ballets Russes Style reveals for the first time the full extent of the ensemble’s influence on haute couture.
The Ballets Russes’ seasons were an exciting laboratory for ambitious cultural experiments, often grounded in the aesthetic confrontation of those great designers, artists and composers who travelled with the troupe from St Petersburg – Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois and Igor Stravinsky among them - and Paris’s avant-garde, which included Picasso, Satie, Matisse, Debussy and Ravel. The ensemble brought the stage and everyday life into creative contact with each other, most noticeably in the world of fashion. In its heyday, the Ballets Russes was a potent force in defining Paris Style, bringing the work of great designers such as Jeanne Paquin and Coco Chanel to the stage, and creating sensibilities that resonated in the collections of couturiers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent and beyond.
Beautifully illustrated and drawing on unpublished images and memorabilia, this book illuminates the ways in which innovations by the Ballets Russes in dance, music, sets and costume both mirrored and invigorated contemporary culture.
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About Mary E. Davis
Reviews for Ballets Russes Style
The Independent
Davis vantage point offers intriguing insights into the broader cultural impact of Diaghilev’s enterprise. Her book is a welcome addition to recent scholarship on the Ballets Russes and its enduring allure.
Times Higher Education
this book combines a lively history of the troupe with detailed assessments of the set and costume designs.
Sydney Morning Herald
Mary Davis has plenty to say, inviting her readers to revel in an aspectrarely discussed in scholarly books, the effect of the Ballets Russes on Paris fashion and style and, conversely, how style and fashion affected the ballet . . . Davis’s book illuminates the relationship between popular culture and art spawned by the Ballets Russes. It charts the heritage of the various ballets Diaghilev introduced to the French upper class world between 1909 and 1929. These drew on mythology, on Russian folklore and ultimately on the avant-garde artistic circles of the 1920s. It fills a much needed gap in Ballets Russes history . . .
The Slavonic and East European Review
The well amalgamated combination of art history, ballet history and fashion history is one of the many strengths of this study . . . It also provides a refreshing insight on a theatre phenomenon that suffered from a pedantic historicization.
Modernism/Modernity
a fascinating look at the ways in which early 20th-century Russian dancers in France caught the public imagination . . . beautifully illustrated on heavy stock
The Gay and Lesbian Review
A wonderful descriptive account of the Ballets Russes from its inception to its demise, emphasizing the relation of the company and its development to the fashion and arts world. Written with great clarity it explores these relationships in detail. Most informative and insightful.
Elizabeth Wilson
A wonderful addition to the large body of literature available on the topic, this is a small, compact and well-organized book focusing specifically on the impact the troupe had on designers working at the time of Diaghilev . . . What is nice about this particular volume is the links drawn between specific theatrical designs or performers and the couture they inspired . . . I will be spending considerable time with this book in the coming months.
wornthrough.com