| In 1909 the Ballet Russes opened in Paris. They gained a reputation of experimentation and excitement, and most admired were their male dancers.
Although the most famous members of the company were Russian, such as composer Igor Stravinsky, Diaghilev commissioned Western European artists and composers, including as Pablo Picasso. Diaghilev's choreographers, Fokine, Nijinsky, and American but Russian-born George Balanchine, were given creative license to try new styles of movement. The Russes lasted 20 years, but their influence continued: Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova formed her own company and toured internationally. Fokine worked with many companies, including what was to become the American Ballet Theatre. The Polish-born British dancer Dame Marie Rambert and the British dancer Dame Ninette de Valois were the founders of British ballet. Rambert's students included the British choreographers Sir Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor, and John Cranko. Balanchine was invited to work in the United States by Lincoln Kirstein, an American arts patron. |  |
 | In the 1920s/30s, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Mary Wigman broke from traditional ballet and began expressive movement called modern dance. Ballets also reflected this move toward realism. In 1932 the German choreographer Kurt Jooss created The Green Table, an antiwar ballet. Antony Tudor developed the psychological ballet, which revealed the inner being of the characters. Modern dance also eventually extended the movement vocabulary of ballet, particularly in the use of the torso and in movements done lying or sitting on the floor. |
| Popular dance forms also enriched the ballet. In 1944 the American choreographer Jerome Robbins created Fancy Free, a ballet based on the jazz-dance style that had developed in musical comedy. The idea of pure dance also grew in popularity. Balanchine began to create plotless ballets in which the primary motivation was movement to music. His ballet Jewels (1967) is considered the first evening-length ballet of this type. Dance in general underwent an enormous upsurge in popularity beginning in the mid-1960s. Ballet began to show the influence of a younger audience, in both themes and style. The athleticism of dancing was enjoyed in much the same way as sports, and virtuosic steps were admired for their challenge and daring. Popular music such as rock and roll and jazz was used to accompany many ballets. | Today's ballet repertoire offers great variety. New ballets and reconstructions and restagings of older ballets coexist with new works created by modern-dance choreographers for ballet companies. Choreographers experiment with both new and traditional forms and styles, and dancers constantly seek to extend their technical and dramatic range. The frequent tours of ballet companies allow audiences throughout the world to experience the full spectrum of today's ballet activity. |
