Ballets Suédois
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ballets Suédois was a predominately Swedish dance ensemble that, under the direction of Rolf de Mare (1888-1964), performed throughout Europe and the United States between 1920 and 1925, rightfully earning the reputation as a “synthesis of modern art” (Baer 10).
The Ballets Suédois created pieces that negotiated new terms of the post-World War I European imaginary by combining forms of “dance, drama, painting, poetry, and music with acrobatics, circus, film, and pantomime” (Baer 10). Between 1920 and 1924, the ensemble performed 24 creative pieces, totaling 2,678 performances in 274 cities throughout twelve countries. The collaboration of the choreography of Jean Börlin, the artistic direction of Mare, and the aesthetic framework of Léger, provided a rich intercultural cross-section of avant-garde performance in inter-war Europe.
[edit] References
- Baer, Nancy Van Norman. Paris Modern: The Swedish Ballet 1920-1925. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 1995.
- McCarren, Felicia. Dancing Machines: Choreographies of the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. pp.112-129.
