Michel Fokine

Michel Fokine (1880–1942) was a Russian-born choreographer widely regarded as the father of modern ballet and the reformer who liberated the art form from the rigid conventions of the late nineteenth century. He trained and danced at the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg, but it was his work for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 that made his reputation internationally. His five principles of choreography — articulated in a famous letter of 1914 — argued against the use of standardised steps, called for expressive mime integrated with dance, and demanded that design, music, and movement form a unified dramatic whole. His masterpieces for the Ballets Russes include The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), Les Sylphides (1909, a reworking of his earlier Chopiniana), Scheherazade (1910), and Le Spectre de la rose (1911). He later worked in Europe and the United States. The Firebird in particular remains one of the most performed ballets in the international repertoire.