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Sergei Diaghilev, the creator of the Ballet Russe, dies, leaving his original dancers unemployed after his company disbands.
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Wasily de Basil and Rene Blum resurrect the Ballet Russe in its new form: Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. They wanted to continue working with exeptional artists like Pablo Picasso to create grand, avant-garde works.
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Balanchine hires young dancers (usually under 16 years old). The standout group of ballerinas were called the 'Baby Ballerinas' whose names were Tamara Toumanova, Tania, Riabouchinska, and Irina Boranova. Balanchine choreographed such works as Cotillon (1932) and Concurrence (1932) while with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
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After the first season of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Blum and de Basil secretly replace George Balanchine with Leonide Massine as the principal choreographer. Massine introduced the symphonic orchestra ballet and created strong male roles in his ballet.
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After being displaced from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, George Balanchine opened the School of American ballet to train young dancers for later professional careers.
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Massine and Basil got into legal battles over the ballet company name, dancers, choreography, costumes and music. Massine won the rights to the name Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and created his own dance company with Rene Blum, but lost the rights to most of his choreography, and de Basil renamed his company The Original Ballet Russe
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The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was chosen to go on an American tour, and de Basil took his Original Ballet Russe to Australia where they spent 7 months.
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After war erupted across the globe, it was difficult for the ballet companies to find work. Rene Blum was captured by Nazis and executed at Auschwitz.
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With both companies stranded, Sol Hurok, the company manager, decided to take both companies on tour. He and de Basil had a falling out, and de Basil - having black-balled his company in America - had to take his company on a Latin American tour.
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De Basil and Hurok reconciled, and Hurok was to arrange a tour for the Original Ballet de Monte Carlo, but the Latin American tour exhausted his company. He hired new dancers less qualified for the job, and his company collapsed in 1948.
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The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo experienced success in films and television, but Massine began to choreograph flops.
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Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo hired Agnes de Mille and true American ballets emerged from her cooperation with the company such as Rodeo (1942) and Oklahoma (1943).
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Balanchine returned to Ballet Russe in 1944 and created more works for the company such as Pas de Deux (Grand Adagio) (1945) and The Night Shadow (1946).
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Balanchine created a ballet company which his ballet school fed into, creating further competition for his attention between Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and NYCB.
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The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo went bankrupt in 1968, but many of the dancers had left beforehand to persue careers in teaching and opening studios.
