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Originally called the Imperial Theater School, the school that trained all the original ballet dancers of the Ballets Russes was founded in St. Petersburg.
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Ballets Russes premiered at the Theatre du Chatelet wowing Parisian audiences thus beginning the Fokine era.
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During the first of the Ballets Russes choreographic eras, Fokine choreographed he majority of the company's ballets and acted as b balletmeister. Some of his ballets are still performed today such asr Les Sylphides, Scheherezade, Firebird, Petrushka, and Spectre de la Rose.
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A Brief period of time during the Diaghilev era, during his era Nijinsky took the creative reins and choreographed numerous ballets.
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Njinsky's Jeux premieres at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and was composed by Claude Debussy.
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During this time Massine worked more towards modern dance rather than traditional ballet choreographing works such as Le Soleil de Nuit, La Boutique Fantastique, and Le Tricorne.
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Balanchine was the last of the choreographers for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes choreographing nine ballets including La Chatte, Apollon Musagete, Le Fils Prodigue and Le Bal.
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Upon his death, Diaghilev left his dancers without work. Many believed this was the end of Ballets Russes as it appeared no one would step up to fill the late impresario's position.
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Lead by Wasily de Basil and Rene Blum with Balanchine as Ballet master the Ballets Russes De Monte Carlo opened to raving reviews with critics sggesting that it was the true heir to the ballet Russe.
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Blum and Basil did not see eye to eye and in 1934 their partnership was dissolved. Basil stuck with the original company while Blum resigned and went out on his own
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Basil's ego became to much for Massine to handle and hence Massine resigned taking the title of the company with him.
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At the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London Basil's company under its new name began its inaugural season
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Under Massine's leadership the company began a season at the Theater Royal, Drury Lane
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In 1938 both the Original Ballets Russes and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo performed in London within a few hundred yards of each other during what was known as the London Ballet Wars
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Due to much internal conflict and impresario Horuk's desertio of the company, it took its final bow on any stage in November of 1948 in America.
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Lead by impresario Sol Horuk, the company toured the U.S. reaching over 3 million patrons by 1935
