Rare Original Photo BALLET RUSSE DE MONTE CARLO Dancers On Stage GRADUATION BALL

Description

Very hard to find! This is an original 1940's -1950s production photograph for the Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo Company. Features the dancers on stage for "Graduation Day"! 8 x 10 inches.
The back reads... "This photograph is the property of Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo Inc. and is not to be used in any book or any private enterprise without permission".
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes in 1937 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil (usually referred to as Colonel W. de Basil). De Basil then renamed his rival company The Original Ballet Russe.
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo featured such dancers as Frederic Franklin, Alexandra Danilova, Maria Tallchief, Tamara Toumanova, George Zoritch, Yvonne Joyce Craig, Nina Novak, Raven Wilkinson, Cyd Charisse, Marc Platt, Irina Baronova, and Leon Danielian. The company's resident choreographer was Massine; it also featured the choreography of Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinska, Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Ruth Page and Valerie Bettis.
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo toured chiefly in the United States after World War II began. The company introduced audiences to ballet in cities and towns across the country, in many places where people had never seen classical dance. The company's principal dancers performed with other companies, and founded dance schools and companies of their own across the United States and Europe. They taught the Russian ballet traditions to generations of Americans and Europeans.