Michel Fokine Overview

Michel Fokine approached the still-youthful art of ballet with fresh insight, revitalizing a form that had become saturated with spectacle. In 1898, after joining the Maryinsky Ballet, Fokine found himself dissatisfied with his beloved art form. It had been reduced to... [more]

Michel Fokine approached the still-youthful art of ballet with fresh insight, revitalizing a form that had become saturated with spectacle. In 1898, after joining the Maryinsky Ballet, Fokine found himself dissatisfied with his beloved art form. It had been reduced to a circus act, as dancers showed off their own virtuosity at the expense of artistic vision. When he moved on to become resident choreographer at the Ballets Russes, he worked to reinterpret the role of the choreographer as visual artist, dramatist, and storyteller. In a full-scale assault on choreographers' century-long obsession with the leg and foot (it had been 89 years since Marie Taglioni first went up "en pointe"), Fokine urged ballet to reconsider the arm. His "Dying Swan," set to the evocative music of Camille Saint-Saëns, , gave ballet not only arms but also wings. The arm's fluid movement suggests bonelessness, evoking a swan's wings and undulating waves of sorrow. "The Dying Swan" has become a signature piece for most dramatic ballerinas. According to Fokine, emotional interpretations were altogether absent from ballet. He strove to synthesize technique with dramatic concerns of content and interpretation. By tailoring steps to fit subject matters, he insisted on a kind of cultural accuracy. Hence, Fokine modeled the arms of "The Dying Swan" after the graceful movements of the real bird; he borrowed steps from Indian temple dances for the Hindu-inspired "Le Dieu Bleu"; and he created whimsical doll-like movements for the puppet story of "Petrouchka." Fokine widened ballet's expressive possibilities by insisting that dancers become the things they portrayed. And often they were "things" -- in Fokine's "Spectre de la Rose," a man becomes a rose. Fokine's reinvention of the choreographer's vision did not challenge his loyalty to the tenets of classical ballet. Although he collaborated with famous "moderns" like Jean Cocteau, Fokine did not understand the desire to study outside the classical tradition. (He once got into a vehement argument with Martha Graham about their opposing conceptions of beauty.) In the current era of athleticism, Fokine's ballets are often dismissed for their lack of vigorous dancing. But to see Fokine staged well is to witness a unique and guileless wonderland, a surreal and fantastic vision. [show less]