Fokine, Michel

Fokine, Michel (1880-1942), Russian dancer and choreographer whose work revitalized traditional classical ballet and inaugurated a brilliant new era in ballet history.

Born Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokine in St Petersburg on April 26, 1880, Fokine studied at the Imperial Ballet School and in 1898 entered the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre with the rank of soloist. He soon became dissatisfied with ballet in which music had become merely an accompaniment, costumes and scenery only faintly related to the subject, and dance had been reduced to a virtuoso technical exercise, so he developed a philosophy of reform. He believed that ballet, rather than confining itself to traditional steps and movements, should draw on movements reflecting the subject, era, and music. To him, dance and mime had meaning only when they were dramatically expressive. Fokine also felt that movements of the entire body should replace traditional hand gestures unless the style of the ballet required otherwise. Dramatic expressiveness, he believed, should not be confined to the solo dancers, but should be reflected in the ensemble. In Fokine’s view, dance, music, scenic decor, and costuming should contribute equally to create a unified whole.

Fokine’s early works included Chopiniana (1903; revised as Les Sylphides, 1909); The Dying Swan (1905), a solo dance for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova; and Le Pavillon d’Armide (1907). In 1909, in Paris, Fokine was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to become choreographer for his Ballets Russes. Fokine thus gained the opportunity to develop his own ideas, and Diaghilev enlisted some of the greatest composers, dancers, and designers of the age to work with him. The dancers included the Russians Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Tamara Karsavina; the designers, the Russians Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois. The Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky wrote the music for Fokine’s ballets The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911); the score for his Daphnis and Chloé (1912) was by the French composer Maurice Ravel. Other ballets created by Fokine for the Ballets Russes include Schéhérazade (1910), Le Spectre de la Rose (1911), and Le Coq d’Or (1914, The Golden Cockerel). Fokine broke with Diaghilev in 1914 and returned to live in Russia until 1918. In 1919 he settled in New York as a choreographer and teacher. He died there on August 22, 1942.