The Company's Genesis
The Ballets Russes was an offshoot from the Russian Mir iskusstva (World of Art) movement. The World of Art, led by Alexandre Benois, had produced painting exhibitions and published a culture magazine. In 1907 Benois and his circle conceived the idea of bringing Russian nationalist opera to Paris. They were warmly received, and Benois made plans for another season the following year. In 1908 the group presented a mixture of opera and ballet in Paris, and enjoyed riotous success, particularly in the latter art form. Afterward they presented mainly ballets. By the time the group returned to Paris in 1909 for the first "official" Ballets Russes productions, Diaghilev had firmly taken the reins from Benois (though the latter continued to work for Diaghilev for some years afterwards).
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