MIKHAIL FOKINE

Born in 1880 into a wealthy merchant family in St Petersburg, Fokine started training in ballet at the age of 9 years old at the Imperial Ballet School and made his professional debut in Paquita on his 18th birthday (1898) at the Maryinsky Theatre, before starting to teach from 1902 and choreograph from 1905. Among his earliest choreographies was Anna Pavlova’s signature solo The Dying Swan (1907).

Fokine’s innovative approach, rejecting the stereotypical idea of technical virtuosity (“the bag of tricks”) as an end in itself, met with disfavour at the Imperial Theatres, so his breakthrough came in 1909, when Sergei Diaghilev invited him to become resident choreographer of the new Ballets Russes, which led to a long series of classic, ground-breaking ballets: Les Sylphides, Carnaval, Le Pavillon d’Armide, The Firebird, Petrushka, Le Spectre de la Rose, Daphnis & Chloe and Scheherazade. involving collaborations with composers including Ravel, Rimsky Korsakov and Stravinsky.

This rich creative association ended in 1914 when Fokine objected to Diaghilev’s close association with and clear preference for Nijinsky. In 1918 Fokine moved with his family to Sweden and then to New York, where he became a US citizen (1932), founded a ballet school and continued to dance, with his wife Vera Fokina, and where he died in 1942.

Fokine’s role in the achievement of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes cannot be overstated, and without his creative genius, it is impossible to conceive the initial impact of the company 1909-1912, and beyond. Fokine’s works remain an essential aspect of the world’s ballet repertoire.

©Tim Tubbs