russe

DUST LIGHT, LEAVES

Above autumn's burgundy
and rust,
beyond the orange groves
chafing and ruddy in the frost,
a cloud lifts into blue . . .

the west goes up all haydust, flame,
and the flat land glimmers
out to it on the day-stream--
it is Millet's sky of "The Angelus,"

that nine- teenth century sky
we have only in paintings
and in these few still moments
in their rose and amber rags.

As a child, I remember this . . .
standing on the creek stones,
dusk moving over the fields
like a ship's hull pulling away

with that first sense of loss
and release; I saw it was
all about the beginning of dust
rising into the long sky's seam.
into my own two eyes and hands.

A chalk-white moon overhead
and to the right, umber waves
of sparrows back and through
the empty trees . . .

Soon, stars will draw analogies
in the dark, but now the world
is simple as the dead leaves
glowing in this late hour,

simple as our desire
to rise lucent as clouds
in their camisoles of dust,
the cool air burning though us

over leaves drifting on a pond,
over the last memory
of ourselves looking up,
stunned as a carp blinking at the light.

Christopher Buckley

(this whole exploration in hue began when i noticed, in the metropolitan museum's collection, the oddly matching color schemes of the (at top) dagobert peche textile and the callot soeurs gown. i am not sophisticated in color theory, but i poked around until sense seemed to begun being made. the ballet russe had a tremendous influence on design in the first quarter of the twentieth century. how those became the colors of the ballet russe, and how these same colors came to become circulated around the western world, i do not know. but know that matisse as well as bakst designed their costumes, then carried the language of their colors into the world.)

scheherazade

the story in diaghilev's ballet scheher- azade is found nowhere (and, perhaps, everywhere, in bits and pieces) in the collection of stories called the arabian nights. there are stories which include the characters named in the ballet, including, of course, scheherazade, who is the 'featured player' of the book, but beyond this, it's sketchy, but who cares? one view of that backbend is all the reason one needs.

as you can see, the production of the ballet has remained remarkably similar, including the costumes by bakst and the choreography by fokine. then, as now, the designs have had a great power in influencing fashion and style.

george barbier was so moved by the ballet that he created a series of drawings illuminating the performance, and paul poiret openly attributed his inspiration to bakst.

even now, i can easily see bakst as further motivation to galliano in his fall 2009 rtw collection. and not only galliano, but the whole world celebrates the ballets russes this year because, as of this month, it reaches its hundredth year.

much has been written, and much of that fascinating, about the simultaneous appearances of scheherazade, salome, salammbo, and other very sexual, very dangerous, women during the terrifyingly liberating time of the fin-de-ciecle. it will not be added to here.

instead we will simply exalt and congratulate the multitude of wondrous artists who came together at that time: diaghilev, nijinsky, cocteau and matisse, bakst, and balanchine, and rimsky-korsakoff, and stravinsky. there were chanel and braque and leger and derain and miro and rouault and picasso and utrillo and gontcharova and pavlova, and redon.

or better yet, go celebrate them yourselves:
in boston, london, stockholm, amsterdam, salt lake city, hamburg, paris, and many many more.

or read more in the new york times, from harvard, or everywhere in the world! the universe! or even further out! start here! or here.

if we want to analyse, i'm sure there'll be time. for now, dance.

addenda: • Ballets Russes and Western Couture