Fall for Dance at City Center celebrates the 100th anniversary of the influential Ballets Russes. Founded by Sergei Diaghilev in 1909, the Ballets Russes collaborated with Europe's top musicians, designers, and dancers to revolutionize performing arts. It nurtured great choreographers and composers and reclaimed the importance of art. The 2009 Fall for Dance Festival pays tribute through eight companies presenting classics by Ballets Russes or contemporary interpretations of its works. An exhibit of the Ballets Russes will be on display during the festival. DanceTalk series will provide context on creative collaborations and the troupe's lasting influence.
1. Fall for Dance at City Center . Celebrating 100 Years of the Ballets RussesSergei Diaghilev set the European cultural scene ablaze with his creation of the Ballets Russes, a collaboration of the continent’s most talented musicians, designers and dancers who more than rejuvenated the performing arts of their time. From 1909-1929, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes served as a canvas for Europe’s brightest artists to display their works, nurturing choreographers like Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska and George Balanchine as well as composers like Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Francis Poulenc. The Ballets Russes reclaimed the importance of the arts and forever changed the way people viewed dance. To pay tribute to its extraordinary contribution to the arts, the 2009 Fall for Dance Festival includes eight companies presenting Ballets Russes classics or contemporary interpretations of its great works. New York City Center and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy & Lewis B. Cullman Center, will exhibit portions of Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath at New York City Center during the Festival. In addition, Fall for Dance’s annual DanceTalk series will provide attendees with the opportunity to hear from dance experts about creative collaborations during the Ballets Russes era and influences this seminal period in dance has had on today’s artists.
