Education
He was admitted to the Imperial Ballet School at the age of nine.
choreographer and ballet dancer
He was admitted to the Imperial Ballet School at the age of nine.
In 1898 he made his debut at the Maryinsky Theatre in a pas de quatre from Paquita, and was appointed instructor at the theater's school in 1902.Fokine was an ardent student of both ancient and modern art. He felt that ballet was fettered by tradition and wished to abolish conventional ballet costume, stereotyped gesture, and traditional dance-step sequences. He wanted to make technique a means rather than an end and to employ expressive music to unify action and style.
In 1904 he submitted a scenario of Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, based on these principles, to the directorate of the theater, but the proposed reforms were shelved. He composed his first ballet, Acis and Galatea, and a solo for Anna Pavlova, Le Cygne, which became world famous. These were followed by A Midsummer Night's Dream and La Vigne (1906), Eunice and The Animated Gobelins (1907), and Une Nuit d'Egypte and Chopiniana (1908). Diaghilev invited him to be choreographer for a Paris season of the Russian ballet in 1909. This association led to the international renown that Fokine enjoyed until his death.
He produced more than 70 ballets on almost all the great stages of Europe and America, from the Imperial Theatres to Ballet Theatre. Fokine's principal ballets in Russia were Chopiniana, better known by the name of the second version, Les Sylphides, Le Carnaval, and Le Pavillon d'Armide. Diaghilev's Paris seasons were heightened by Fokine's L'Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird), Petrouchka, and Le Spectre de la Rose.