Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

circa 1936-1978

In 1923, Serge Diaghilev's company, Les Ballets Russes, signed a contract with the Principality of Monaco to become the official ballet of the Monte Carlo Opera. The company was renamed Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. When Diaghilev died in August of 1929, his company disbanded, and the Société des Bains de Mer de Monaco appointed René Blum, a French theatrical impresario, director of its Ballets de l'Opéra de Monte Carlo. Using itinerant dancers, Blum took over the rights to Diaghilev's performing contracts there, as well as the right to use the name “Monte Carlo.” In October 1931 Colonel Vassily de Basil, a former Cossack officer who was managing Prince Zereteli's Paris Russian Opera, joined forces with Blum. The company, which premiered January 17, 1932, became René Blum and Col. de Basil Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. (The company was to assume many variations of this name in the next few years.)

George Balanchine (for the first season only) and, subsequently, Leonide Massine were the choreographers, and the company comprised what were considered to be the best available dancers, many of whom were Russians from the Diaghilev organization. The “baby ballerinas,” Tamara Toumanova, Irina Baronova, and Tatiana Riabouchinska, starred. The repertoire included both classics from the Diaghilev Ballets Russes and new works by Balanchine and Massine, including the latter's symphonic works.

Relations became strained as de Basil wrangled control of the company. On April 30, 1935, Blum disassociated himself from de Basil; he took the rights to the “Monte Carlo” name and hired Michel Fokine as his maître de ballet. De Basil's company, now renamed Col. de Basil's Ballets Russes (by 1939 this company assumed its final name of Original Ballet Russe), eventually hired Fokine away from Blum. Massine, who coveted sole artistic power, was angered enough to break with de Basil and once again join forces with Blum. In the spring of 1937, Massine met with several prominent American citizens including Sergei Denham, a Russian émigré banker; Julius Fleischmann, a wealthy admirer of Massine's; David Libidins, a theatrical manager; and Watson Washburn, an attorney and balletomane. Together they planned the formation of a new company which would take for its nucleus Blum's Ballets de Monte Carlo. World Art (the name was changed to Universal Art in June 1938), a sponsoring financial organization, was formed; the purchase from Blum was completed November 19, 1937; Massine joined the company January 30, 1938, at the expiration of his contract with de Basil; and the transfer of all rights, performing and otherwise, was finalized February 1, 1938. Thus began the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. (Attempts were made to combine the de Basil and Denham/Blum companies during the summer of 1938, but de Basil backed out at the last moment resulting in legal action.)

With Denham as president, Blum as co-director, Libidins as administrative director, and Massine as maître de ballet, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo opened its first season April 5 through May 15, 1938, in Monte Carlo. It was followed by seasons in London (Drury Lane, opening July 12; Covent Garden, opening September 5) and New York (Metropolitan Opera, opening October 12). The company then launched its first American tour, concluding the year with more performances at the Met (March 1939).

Since the original plan called for the company to split its time evenly between the United States and Europe, the Ballet Russe returned to Monte Carlo for a season opening April 4, 1939. The intention was to follow with a season in London on September 4, but war intervened. With great difficulty the company and all its properties managed to make their way back to the United States in time to open a slightly delayed New York season on October 26. René Blum, however, decided to remain in Europe and died in a concentration camp in 1942. Despite its plan, the Ballet Russe was never to perform in Europe again during its entire twenty-five years of existence.

During Massine's association with the company he made many of his most famous works, including Gaîté Parisienne, St. Francis(also known as Nobilissima Visione),Rouge et Noir, Labyrinth,and Bacchanale.

Citing irreconcilable differences, Massine eventually resigned on November 10, 1942 (he did produce one more work for the company in 1954 — Harold in Italy),and for a couple of years the company hired choreographers on a per-ballet basis. Most notable were Bronislava Nijinska (Chopin Concerto, The Snow Maiden, Etude,and Ancient Russia)and Agnes de Mille (Rodeo).

By 1944, however, George Balanchine had essentially become the company's resident choreographer. He held the position for two years producing twelve works in all, including four premieres: Danses Concertantes, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Night Shadow (La Sonnambula),and Raymonda(with Alexandra Danilova), as well as the musical comedy, The Song of Norway,in which the company starred.

Balanchine left the company in 1946 to form his own company, and the Ballet Russe was once again without a resident choreographer — this time for good. Other major choreographers to work with the company included Serge Lifar (Icare),Anton Dolin (Pas de Quatre),Frederick Ashton (Devil's Holiday),David Lichine (Graduation Ball),Ruth Page (Frankie and Johnny, The Bells, Billy Sunday,and Love Song),and Valerie Bettis (Virginia Sampler).

Among the many important composers and designers to have collaborated with these choreographers were Salvador Dali, Christian Bérard, Paul Hindemith, Pavel Tchelitchev, Eugene Berman, Henri Matisse, Richard Rodgers, Willem de Kooning, Igor Stravinsky, Alexandre Benois, George Gershwin, Oliver Smith, Aaron Copland, Boris Aronson, Nathalie Gontcharova, Vittorio Rieti, Darius Milhaud, Isamu Noguchi, Jean Cocteau, and Antal Dorati.

The company's roster of dancers throughout the years included most of the world's greatest, such as Alexandra Danilova, Frederic Franklin, Alicia Markova, Mia Slavenska, André Eglevsky, Tamara Toumanova, Igor Youskevitch, and Serge Lifar. In later years, Leon Danielian, Nicholas Magallanes, Mary Ellen Moylan, Maria Tallchief, Nina Novak, and many others starred. The list of guest performers included such luminaries as Alicia Alonso, Igor Schwezoff, Anton Dolin, Irina Baronova, Argentinita, Ruth Page, and Agnes de Mille.

From the fall of 1939 to the company's final performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (April 13-14, 1962), the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo spent nearly all its time on the road, touring extensively throughout the United States, with occasional excursions to Canada and South America. During two particularly lean years financially, 1952 and 1953, a smaller Concert Company replaced the larger organization for these tours. The Ballet Russe often performed two hundred times a year, for a total audience of a million people in a hundred different cities: it brought ballet to every corner of the continental United States.

The booking and management of this huge enterprise was undertaken by various groups and individuals over the years. Sol Hurok had control at the start and stayed with the company through 1942, although he often had to split his duties between this company and Ballet Theatre, which he also managed. Other agents included Columbia Concerts, David Libidins, Columbia Artists Management, and Community Concerts.

By the early 1960s waning artistic standards and union difficulties served to undermine the popularity and financial viability of the company. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo quietly dissolved after its spring performances in 1962. Sergei Denham, however, refused to give up. With the financial backing of Julius Fleischmann and other long-standing supporters, he attempted to reorganize the company in Tunis (1963), then Greece (1964 - 1965), and finally in Monte Carlo (1966 - 1967), the company's original home. There he did have some encouragement. The company, renamed Ballets de Monte Carlo and made up mostly of young, inexperienced dancers, managed a winter and spring season there, but nothing more came of it.

Although the performing company had disbanded, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo continued to operate its school in New York City. The school, opened in 1954, had originally belonged to Maria Swoboda, but she turned all her rights and leases over to Denham. Swoboda continued to teach there along with Frederic Franklin, Igor Schwezoff, Anatole Vilzak, Valerie Bettis, Leon Danielian, Edward Caton, Duncan Noble, and others. Its aim was to train the best professional ballet dancers possible, and it continued to do so until it lost its lease in June 1967 and was forced to close for good.

In its quarter-century of existence the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, under Sergei Denham's directorship, attained all the goals it set for itself — specifically, to preserve the ideals, tradition, and glamour of the classical ballet; to bring together noteworthy artists in painting, music, writing, and dance; to present ballet at popular prices; to inspire and train native-born American artists; and to establish ballet as a popular form of entertainment in America.

Sergei Ivanovich Denham was, by all accounts, a man of charm, class, and continental manners. He loved good food, fine wine, the company of friends, and especially the ballet. He was born Sergei Ivanovich Dokouchaiev (Docootshieff) on October 22, 1896. When his banker father died, a French governess was hired to help care for the children — eight in all: three girls and five boys (another older brother had died before Denham was born). It was to this governess that Denham gave credit for nurturing his early love of ballet. He recalled that she once made him a play theater out of an orange carton and cut out paper ballerina dolls for him to play with.

The family moved from Samara on the Volga to Moscow, and Sergei was sent to boarding school near St. Petersburg. Eventually he finished his schooling at The Moscow Commercial Institute. His education was eclectic, covering both business and the arts. Sergei had a particular talent for the piano. Among the many respected and well-known people to frequent his cultivated mother's home was Alexandre Scriabin, who was said to have given Sergei some piano instruction.

In May of 1915, Denham married Valentine Nikolaevna Yershova, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. The couple had two daughters of their own, “one in the capitalistic system” — Irina, now Mrs. Robert Pabst — and “one in the communistic” — Valentine, now Mrs. Robert Wilson — as Denham himself put it.

Denham's professional career was extremely diversified. When World War I began he worked for the Red Cross. After the 1917 Revolution he took his family east, first to the home of relatives in Uralsk, then to Vladivostok, where he became director of dormitories at the university. Next he served as representative of Admiral A. V. Kolchak's anti-Bolshevik government. His job entailed procurring funds to support Kolchak's troups — work that would later prove quite useful in raising money for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. While in Shanghai on business for the Admiral, Denham heard that Kolchak's regime had fallen and decided to make the move that would shape his destiny — he and his family emigrated to the United States.

In 1921 they arrived in San Francisco. With his family situated Denham set off alone, first to Chicago, then finally to New York, in search of work. The first job he found was in an antique store on West 59th Street. He sent for his wife and daughters.

A newly acquired friend introduced Denham to the banking world, and he soon found himself vice-president at Bankers Trust. He was put in charge of establishing and overseeing branches in Eastern Europe and eventually London, Paris, and Vienna.

Denham was an outgoing, social man and through his travels was able to meet many people who would help precipitate his ultimate career choice. One was Serge Diaghilev whom Denham said first planted the seed of the idea that America could and should be the next great center of ballet; another was a group of Colonel de Basil's dancers on tour whom he found enchanting; and yet another was Watson Washburn, an attorney and balletomane whom Denham first met on the boat from Shanghai. Washburn, in turn, introduced Denham to several wealthy ballet lovers, setting the final stage for what was to come.

By the mid-thirties it was becoming apparent that the Blum/de Basil company was having problems. Seizing the moment, Denham called together his new friends and formed World Art Inc., a stock corporation which then purchased Blum's company. Denham was appointed president of this new ballet organization — a post he was to hold throughout the entire length of the company's existence.

Along with the classics, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, under Denham's direction, produced several quite novel works, including Bacchanale, Labyrinth, Rodeo, Frankie and Johnny,and Billy Sunday,as well as an unprecendented number of works by women ballet choreographers. The list includes Agnes de Mille, Bronislava Nijinska, Pilar Lopez, Ruth Page (whose works, such as those mentioned above, were often controversial), Valerie Bettis, Antonia Cobos, Ruthanna Boris, Tatiana Chamie, Nini Theilade, and Nina Novak. With such a record, Denham could rightly feel that his company was both “vital in new ideas” as well as “successful in maintaining the finest traditions of the ballet.”

In retrospect, Denham believed that the three most important accomplishments of his term as director of the Ballet Russe were to rid ballet of a) the bias of private ownership, b) the tyranny of the impresario, and c) the artistic monopoly of the resident choreographer. Whether he achieved these objectives through a concerted and clearly thought out plan or by chance or sheer necessity, his basically positive outlook on life allowed him in later years to remember them as master strokes.

Denham once wrote: “I look upon my work in the ballet as a sort of repayment of my great debt to this country which is completely and fully responsible for whatever well-being I enjoy today.” Whatever his failings and mistakes, Denham clearly loved America and the ballet.

He died in New York City on January 30, 1970, after being struck by a bus as he was leaving the Ballet Russe offices. His wife died several months later. He is survived by his two daughters.