The Man Who Midwifed 20th-Century Dance

This May 18 is the centennial of Serge Diaghilev’s first evening of Russian ballet in Paris. “At this moment, audiences were shown a future for ballet far from the sterility of Europe’s opera houses and music halls. The next year came Diaghilev-inspired creations: Bakst’s parrot-cry colours in Scheherazade and the new theatre-music of Stravinsky’s Firebird.”