Sergei Diaghilev: What you need to know about the trailblazing ballet pioneer

Sergei Diaghilev, one of the most influential pioneers of modern art in the 20th century, was born 145 years ago.

He was born in 1872 to a wealthy Russian family and would go on to found Ballets Russes, one of the most influential ballet companies of the 20th century.

Diaghilev is remembered as an art critic, visionary, all-round provocateur and trailblazer responsible for helping turn ballet into a modern art form.

The Ballets Russes

Diaghilev formed the influential Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909 and the company went on to tour Europe and America.

The Ballets Russes were a trailblazing dance company that united talents from the disciplines of art, fashion, dance, choreography, and music, and vaulted them to dizzying creative heights.

From 1909-1929, the Ballet Russes performed on stages around the globe, mesmerising, even scandalising, audiences with its unprecedented costumes, stage sets, compositions, and choreography.

Notable performances

In Schéhérazade, which premiered at the Théâtre national de l’Opéra, Paris, in 1910, dancers traded tutus for artist Léon Bakst’s risqué harem pants while Vaslav Nijinsky performed in gold body paint and bejeweled costumes.

Firebird, based on Russian fairy tales, marked Diaghilev’s first commissioned score from Igor Stravinsky, kicking off a collaboration that would include the primal work, The Rite of Spring and Pulcinella. 

Famous collaborations

Pablo Picasso designed the costumes and sets for three Diaghilev ballets, including Pulcinella.

Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, French artist Henri Matisse, and French  Jean Cocteau—all figured into Diaghilev’s sensational productions.

Legacy

“Diaghilev had made his mark in Europe and the Americas, and in this relatively short space of time he transformed the world of dance, theatre, music and the visual arts as no one had ever done before, or since,” notes his biographer Sjeng Scheijen.

“Through his journal Mir iskusstva and exhibitions, he brought Russian art out of years of stagnation, championed international symbolism, art nouveau, the Arts and Crafts movement and Russian neonationalism, and revived forgotten aspects of Russia’s artistic past.” 

Death

Diaghilev died from diabetes in Venice, after travelling from London for a holiday, on 19 August 1929, aged 57.

In his own country his death merited only a solitary mention: a brief obituary on page 15 of the Red Panorama, a journal of art and literature, Scheijen notes.

The history of the Google Doodle

Sergei Diaghilev's Google Doodle

On Sergei Diaghilev’s 145th birthday, Google “salutes his boundless imagination with a Doodle that depicts the impresario flanked by his vividly costumed Ballets Russes dancers against an onion-domed Russian backdrop”.

“Diaghilev wowed the world, both then and now,” Google added.