What is Ballets Russes?
[[File:Bakst Diaghilev.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Diaghilev]]: 1906 portrait by [[Bakst]]]] [[File:Russia-2000-stamp-Sergei Diaghilev.jpg|thumb|right|200px]] [[File:Bakst Daphnis et Chloë Set Act II 1912.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Léon Bakst: set design for the world première of the ballet ''[[Daphnis et Chloë]]'' (music by [[Maurice Ravel]]), Paris 1912: Act II]] [[File:Ballets Russes - Apollo musagète.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ballets Russes with ''Apollo musagète'' 1928. Dancers are Alexandrova Danilova and Serge Lifar.]] The '''Ballets Russes''' were a company of [[ballet]] dancers whose full title was ''Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev''. They became extremely famous in [[Europe]] in the early part of the [[20th century]]. The group was formed and directed by the Russian [[Sergei Diaghilev]]. The Ballets Russes had more influence on [[ballet]] and ballet music than any other ballet company of their time. The dancers were from Russia, but the group travelled throughout Europe, spending a lot of their time based in [[Paris]]. [[Stravinsky]] was one of the many composers who wrote ballet music for them. Sergei Diaghilev was an [[impresario]] who was extremely good at spotting good dancers and helping them to rise to great standards. He had very good taste in [[art]] and [[music]] and inspired some great composers to write music for his dancers. He got some of the most famous [[painter]]s of his time to make set designs for his productions. == History of the ballet group == The group was started in 1909. By 1911 they had become a group who toured regularly. Many of the dancers had come from the [[Mariinsky Theatre]] in [[Saint Petersburg]]. They adapted the productions from the Mariinsky Theatre, performing ballets such as ''Prince Igor'', ''Cleopatra'' and ''Le Festin'' and ''Les Sylphides''. During the [[World War I]] they were cut off from any contact with [[Russia]]. During these years they experimented with many new ideas. Productions such as ''Les Biches'' and ''Le Train Bleu'' were about the fashionable s