For Art's Sake – The Story of Ballets Russes

 

on BBC

Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes made its legendary first performance at the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, in May 1909. In the following 20 years it revolutionised ballet, reinventing an entire art form which had grown stale elsewhere in Europe, redefining it for the 20th century.

For Art's Sake – The Story of Ballets Russes celebrates the legacy of Ballets Russes and its continuing influence on dance, art and culture. It explores Sergei Diaghilev's role as an extraordinary impresario with a remarkable ability to bring artists together.

The programme, directed by Ross MacGibbon, features interviews with Wayne Eagling, Artistic Director of English National Ballet, Frederic Franklin who performed with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo for 20 years and saw the Ballets Russes perform in 1929, designer Karl Lagerfeld, choreographer David Dawson along with footage of the English National Ballet's Ballets Russes Festival from Sadler's Wells Theate in London and Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, including the creation «Faun(e)», starring Raphaël Coumes-Marquet from Dresden Semperoper Ballet, which Dawson has been nominated for as Best Classical Choreographer for the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award.

The BBC documentary following the story of the Ballets Russes will be aired on BBC4 on 11 December at 8 p.m.

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