0:00:04 > 0:00:09In 1909, Paris was at the heart of a cultural revolution.
0:00:09 > 0:00:14Artists, composers, designers and choreographers joined together
0:00:14 > 0:00:17in an unprecedented spirit of collaboration.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24The ring master was Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
0:00:24 > 0:00:31His remarkable ability to bring seemingly disparate artistic forces together created the Ballets Russes.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36Radical composers like Stravinsky and Debussy, cutting-edge artists Picasso and Matisse,
0:00:36 > 0:00:41designer Coco Chanel and ground-breaking choreographer Nijinsky
0:00:41 > 0:00:44were all key to Diaghilev's unique approach to creativity.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Gone were the ornate sets, tutus and tired productions,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52as the Ballets Russes made dance relevant to the 20th century.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54In came experimental music,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58modernist designs and radical expressive movement.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01The Ballets Russes produced a legendary body of work
0:01:01 > 0:01:05that was innovative, provocative and continues to inspire.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11To celebrate the centenary of the Ballets Russes in 2009,
0:01:11 > 0:01:15London's Sadler's Wells theatre commissioned new works
0:01:15 > 0:01:16inspired by Diaghilev's
0:01:16 > 0:01:18revolutionary collaborative approach.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Three of those works are presented in this programme.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Created by some of today's most radical choreographers,
0:01:25 > 0:01:30they combine the talents of contemporary artists, animators, musicians and make-up designers.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33The process took them on an extraordinary journey,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37exploring the creative legacy of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
0:01:37 > 0:01:39and its continuing influence on the arts.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52When Wayne McGregor, Russell Maliphant and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
0:01:52 > 0:01:55were invited to create new works for In The Spirit Of Diaghilev,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58they were given an almost blank canvas.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00But there were some important stipulations,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04as Sadler's Wells' artistic director Alistair Spalding explains.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08The first was to still make some connection
0:02:08 > 0:02:09with that period,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12either musically, or in a thematic way.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14And then, secondly,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18most importantly, to really have collaboration at the heart of this new work.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24What I've tried to do is to create a situation where
0:02:24 > 0:02:27great new work can be created and shown.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32That's really what we're looking for. We're not looking to shock in the same way,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35and I don't think Diaghilev was either. He was just trying to make new work,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38and some of it was ahead of its time.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43Some of the work we present here is still a little bit ahead of its time.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55Legendary Ballets Russes creation L'apres-midi D'un Faune
0:02:55 > 0:03:00featured music by Debussy and sets and costumes by Bakst.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Scandalously brought to life by Diaghilev's prodigy and lover Vaslav Nijinsky in 1912,
0:03:05 > 0:03:10the piece provided Sadler's Wells' associate artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
0:03:10 > 0:03:13with the inspiration to create Faun.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21It's quite like a fairy tale. I mean, it has something very...
0:03:21 > 0:03:26there's something very innocent about it and you are kind of a witness of another world.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31That's what I appreciated so much about Nijinsky's work, you know,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33he was really trying to be absolutely honest,
0:03:33 > 0:03:37and that's very hard, because people put on masks,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41people pretend, people... He was really trying to create a ritual
0:03:41 > 0:03:44where he was telling things the way they were.
0:03:44 > 0:03:50When the question came about Faun, I started first thinking not about the dance,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53but actually about the dancer. It was James,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57he was in my company, he was working a lot with me,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00sometimes as an assistant, sometimes as a dancer,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and I thought immediately about him
0:04:03 > 0:04:08when we were speaking about the idea of remaking Faun.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17As a character, what I find interesting is that he's kind of half-animal, half-man.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22So I was looking much more for a way of moving that's very animal-like.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26And at the same time, there are certain elements that are part of the faun
0:04:26 > 0:04:28that you can find in other mythologies.
0:04:28 > 0:04:35I wanted it to be about all mythological characters that had that sensuality, that playfulness,
0:04:35 > 0:04:41and also this animal-man hybrid form.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48It was a piece that was quite shocking
0:04:48 > 0:04:54when it came out, because Nijinsky kind of has a moment of ecstasy at the end,
0:04:54 > 0:05:01and...and I found that an interesting thing to try and explore, sexuality.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Shock value was really not what we were going for with this,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07though of course there are things in it that,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10had you shown them 100 years ago, would have been more shocking.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16I was thinking, how can I be very suggestive in the movements
0:05:16 > 0:05:19in such a way that we think it's natural, it's normal?
0:05:19 > 0:05:24But at the same time, it feels like an exploration of something you don't know,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26as if, you know, the first time or something.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33It's almost inspired by the Kama Sutra.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38It's very much intertwined... an intertwining of those bodies,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42so that's kind of the aspect that I found interesting
0:05:42 > 0:05:47because I hadn't explored it that much in previous pieces, this sexual aspect.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50It's looking at a lot of aspects of a relationship
0:05:50 > 0:05:54and how this relationship between the two of us develops in many different ways
0:05:54 > 0:05:57and so we're able to do that sort of thing,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00we're not stuck with the stuff like boy meets girl,
0:06:00 > 0:06:05- romantic nymph fun characters, because of this history.- Mmm.
0:06:07 > 0:06:13Debussy's original score was complemented with additional music by acclaimed composer Nitin Sawnhey.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16What I wanted to do was find,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19really, the feeling and continue the feeling
0:06:19 > 0:06:20of what Debussy had already done,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23as well as continue that flow of the choreography,
0:06:23 > 0:06:26so that was really the essence of where we were coming from.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36I didn't really want to create a pastiche of his work,
0:06:36 > 0:06:41and I needed to find something which had a sense of entering into another dimension altogether.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46So the feeling that I was looking for was a sense of a doorway opening up.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Even in the way that the two musical pieces I've added in,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52it's very much about trying to find that doorway
0:06:52 > 0:06:57and a different kind of perspective on what we're looking at and listening to.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04It's great when the make-believe happens together,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06when two people see the same thing and go,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09"Yeah, and this could happen then," and you get excited together.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14We always have the freedom to present our ideas, and in turn,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18he gives his own... you know, if we do something that sends out an image for him,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22'he'll tell us about this and maybe mould it more to that image
0:07:22 > 0:07:25'and then give us something that we can mould more to what we see in it.'
0:07:25 > 0:07:28'The nice part of being a choreographer'
0:07:28 > 0:07:32is that it's a very social art. You constantly have to talk with people.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49ORCHESTRA STARTS TO PLAY
0:22:25 > 0:22:28APPLAUSE
0:22:36 > 0:22:38CHEERING
0:22:44 > 0:22:49Choreographer Russell Maliphant trained at the Royal Ballet School,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53and has performed with cutting-edge companies such DV8 and Michael Clark,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55forming his own company in 1996.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00AfterLight was directly inspired by his fascination in Nijinsky's artistry.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05I had read, many years before, a diary of Vaslav Nijinsky,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08who danced with Ballets Russes...
0:23:08 > 0:23:11when they were at their height.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17Very interesting life, fantastic dancer.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22He drew a number of drawings and pastels
0:23:22 > 0:23:26and it stayed with me in my mind.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28And I find them very sculptural.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33You know, there's always a counter-rotation, a twist,
0:23:33 > 0:23:39and the use of the arms, where there's an angle at the elbow and an angle at the wrist.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42These very fine sculptural positions.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46So I thought, "Well, OK, maybe there's something that we could use
0:23:46 > 0:23:48"as an inspiration."
0:23:51 > 0:23:55We'd been thinking of something with kind of small matchbox-size lights
0:23:55 > 0:23:58where you could flash something through,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01and you just get a...a...moment.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Gradually, you get two, three, four, five, six,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08so more of the movement is revealed.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10The lighting concept for AfterLight
0:24:10 > 0:24:15came from Russell's long-time collaborator Michael Hulls.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20What really inspired me was just looking at the old photographs.
0:24:20 > 0:24:27They have a kind of battered, old, monochromatic appearance, and that,
0:24:27 > 0:24:33actually informed how I thought the quality of the light should be,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36and I wanted it to relate to that.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41We looked at some animations,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44and when Michael came into that, you know,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46he kind of started to paint with that.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49It seemed a process that we could...
0:24:49 > 0:24:55we could get something that was more fluid than even the moving lights.
0:24:57 > 0:25:03More choreographic, in a way. The light can have its own choreography and texture,
0:25:03 > 0:25:08so it's sculptural - it's not always the dancer that's being choreographic.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10There's a sharing partnership there.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12To create the lighting effects they wanted,
0:25:12 > 0:25:17Russell and Michel joined forces with someone more familiar with the rock stage.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Animator Jan Urbanowski has previously worked with U2 and Lady Gaga.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24It's actually just an animation, it's a lighting source.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27And it's the only lighting source, which is...
0:25:27 > 0:25:30which is really... it's quite interesting, really.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35But of course, the relationship between Daniel the dancer and the light is...
0:25:35 > 0:25:39it's so intertwined, where the light is and where Daniel is,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41and what Daniel is doing with the light
0:25:41 > 0:25:45and what the light is doing with Daniel has been...
0:25:45 > 0:25:48To work that out is taking a little while.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52As it came about, and we started to work with animation,
0:25:52 > 0:25:56it kind of became clear that the strongest element in that
0:25:56 > 0:25:59was a solo dancer working with this animation.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04Show me a different version where you take the arm over the head,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07so instead of the arm being low and then you going under...
0:26:07 > 0:26:12There's still a part where you're moving...
0:26:12 > 0:26:14PIANO MUSIC
0:26:15 > 0:26:18We'd been playing with many different things in the sound,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and trying to get something that brought out
0:26:21 > 0:26:25what I saw as kind of a ethereal...
0:26:25 > 0:26:28texture or quality.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33And it was... it was kind of difficult to find it.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38And then one night I was sat at home on the sofa with my wife,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and I was doing some computer editing,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and on the video that was running, it had the Satie music.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50And listening to the refrains of the Satie music and watching the video,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53it seemed that that had a real delicacy to it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57There's a very strong mood generated from that music.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03There's a mood of looking back at some of those elements of the time -
0:27:03 > 0:27:08the involvement of Picasso, and Bakst and Stravinsky, and Satie,
0:27:08 > 0:27:14and Nijinsky. You know, great collaborations that we look at now
0:27:14 > 0:27:18and think, "Wow, how amazing that all this went on at that time."
0:27:18 > 0:27:23It's very much a new venture. We're still doing what we do,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26but we're doing it with Jan and animation.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28It's a pleasure to go into...
0:27:28 > 0:27:31another collaboration, a different way.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Working with Russell has been fantastic.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36For him to be able to think about all of these aspects
0:27:36 > 0:27:40and bring this together and to work with all these new people
0:27:40 > 0:27:46and new technologies and new aspects and trying to push what contemporary dance is
0:27:46 > 0:27:49has been... Yeah, I quite admire the guy, actually.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57PIANO MUSIC
0:42:15 > 0:42:17APPLAUSE
0:42:29 > 0:42:32CHEERING
0:42:41 > 0:42:42Come from the wing...
0:42:42 > 0:42:45Wayne McGregor combines a role as resident choreographer
0:42:45 > 0:42:50of the Royal Ballet with running his own company, Random Dance, which is a resident at Sadler's Wells.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54I've got rose-tinted spectacles when we look at the Ballets Russes.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57We think of it as an artistic movement which was out of context
0:42:57 > 0:43:01of anything else - actually, 1909, when the Ballets Russes was founded,
0:43:01 > 0:43:07there was fantastic advancements and excitement around discovery and experimentation,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11science, technology - the whole world was changing.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14That very much shaped, I think, a lot of those ideas, and so,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18for me what I found very curious about it was this idea about, well,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22if you look at the social-political context of the Ballets Russes,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25is there anything in there that might generate an idea?
0:43:25 > 0:43:30And I started to find out that Shackleton had found the magnetic South Pole at that point,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34and that feeling of endurance and physical stress that he was under,
0:43:34 > 0:43:39this aspiration for the new very much was similar with the notions of the Ballets Russes.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51The circumstances of making this dance have been very particular.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54We went to America to work with a range of cognitive scientists
0:43:54 > 0:43:56to really look at the nature of creativity,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00the nature of collaboration from a cognitive point of view.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04We would take these Shackleton points of view - this idea that, for example,
0:44:04 > 0:44:09when you are going through extreme physical conditions and extreme sub-zero temperatures,
0:44:09 > 0:44:10you start to get amnesia,
0:44:10 > 0:44:13you start to hallucinate, you know.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17The physical stress on your body is expressed in some way,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20in some kind of mental, cognitive model.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24I thought that kind of connection was really, really exciting to explore,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27and it's really actually changed the nature of the choreographic process.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31The artwork and visual concept for Dyad 1909 came from
0:44:31 > 0:44:35Turner-Prize-nominated artists Jane and Louise Wilson.
0:44:35 > 0:44:36Wayne invited us for,
0:44:36 > 0:44:41what he felt would be an interesting project to us. I think he felt
0:44:41 > 0:44:46that Dyad might actually work well with some of the imagery that we've worked with in the past.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50I saw Jane and Louise Wilson's exhibition at the BALTIC,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54and it was this really disorientating space,
0:44:54 > 0:44:59where multiple projection and multiple surfaces just dislocated your idea of where you were.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01I thought this piece would be quite interesting
0:45:01 > 0:45:05because so often we understand what the grammar of a stage is,
0:45:05 > 0:45:10and I thought if we could start to alleviate that a bit, that might be quite interesting.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14The works that we've created are from existing works,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17so it wasn't like we were commissioned to produce something new.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22It's not like we've shot something around Shackleton, cos obviously, these are existing works.
0:45:22 > 0:45:27Maybe, in some respects, that's kind of...made it a little bit more interesting,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31because it's been less over-determined in a way. I think if we were looking directly
0:45:31 > 0:45:34to try and reference the narrative so specifically,
0:45:34 > 0:45:38then perhaps it wouldn't be so interesting.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43One of the things I wanted to get in the piece was this sense of going from literalism, if you like,
0:45:43 > 0:45:48so a real understanding of what Shackleton and the Ballets Russes was like,
0:45:48 > 0:45:52to a surreal kind of space where you got lost.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55I thought that content would work really well.
0:45:55 > 0:46:01It's still been developing in a way, I'm sure. Once you've got the set in place,
0:46:01 > 0:46:03I think that's really exciting,
0:46:03 > 0:46:08because I think Wayne wants to get the dancers really to interact with the set.
0:46:11 > 0:46:18McGregor was also keen to feature new music and approached Icelandic musician Olafur Arnalds
0:46:18 > 0:46:22who supported Sigur Ros on their most recent European tour.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25I didn't try to make it like the Ballets Russes.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27I didn't... You know, I just did my own thing.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31I mean, I just thought, there's a reason why he asked me to this,
0:46:31 > 0:46:32not someone else.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37I just heard his music online, actually,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41and I thought there was something about this Icelandic sensibility,
0:46:41 > 0:46:47this kind of open space, this sense of distance in the music that was really captivating to me.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52And this idea that it kind of was overlaid with these haunting melodies
0:46:52 > 0:46:55that, again, were very emotionally evocative.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57HAUNTING MUSIC PLAYS
0:46:57 > 0:47:00I came here a month ago and I watched them rehearse.
0:47:00 > 0:47:06It was in the early stages of rehearsing, so the piece wasn't together yet,
0:47:06 > 0:47:13but I just got this really dark feel from them, almost evil, so a lot of it's very, very dark.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Cold...
0:47:15 > 0:47:19Um, it's not supposed to be uplifting or...
0:47:19 > 0:47:21anything like that.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31The only things that really came from me is that when I'm watching dance,
0:47:31 > 0:47:35one of my favourite things is that when you give the dancer space,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39when you don't try to completely steer them and control them,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44when you give them space to have their own time and do their own thing
0:47:44 > 0:47:51so there's an area of time not, like, a bar or two bars, it's just kind of free.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01We've got another collaborator called Kabuki
0:48:01 > 0:48:07who's this incredible kind of make-up artist whose work we'll finalise today.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12What he's done is connected some of those disparate elements, the Shackleton elements,
0:48:12 > 0:48:17the Ballets Russes, quite glamorous element, with this kind of almost like a survival mask make-up,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20which forces you to look at the body in a different way
0:48:20 > 0:48:23because the expression is taken from the faces.
0:48:23 > 0:48:29For an artist used to designing make-up for the stars of Sex And The City and pop acts like Madonna,
0:48:29 > 0:48:34creating the masks for Dyad 1909 presented a different challenge.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39It's not like a literal thing, but something that maybe...
0:48:39 > 0:48:43gives you a feeling of something connected to an expedition
0:48:43 > 0:48:48to the south pole even though you might not be aware of it.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50They could take it off,
0:48:50 > 0:48:56so in a way it's more about designing something that you can remove from the face,
0:48:56 > 0:48:59rather than a make-up which stays on throughout the show.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09A lot of expression, even in dance, comes from the relationship of the face and the body.
0:49:09 > 0:49:15When the face is masked or in some kind of change, the expressivity of the body has to change.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18That's what they're finding their way through.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20The more that they dance in those masks,
0:49:20 > 0:49:24the more they'll be able to find the connection with the audience without their normal tools.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27So I think that challenge is a good one.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29HAUNTING MUSIC PLAYS
0:49:34 > 0:49:38I like to find what is the temperature of right now
0:49:38 > 0:49:42and how is it I can express myself with the material of the moment?
0:49:42 > 0:49:47I just think that is very much, absolutely the way in which Diaghilev would've thought.
0:49:47 > 0:49:53How can we set circumstances where we do the brave new thing absolutely of the moment?
0:49:53 > 0:49:55AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYS
0:59:00 > 0:59:02ROBOTIC VOICE: I remember it well.
0:59:02 > 0:59:06I asked you not to go.
0:59:07 > 0:59:14But all I heard was the screaming silence of the wind.
0:59:14 > 0:59:20And just like the wind will always blow through the leaves,
0:59:20 > 0:59:24I will always remember this
0:59:24 > 0:59:28as our last lost chance.
0:59:28 > 0:59:31VOICE ECHOES
0:59:31 > 0:59:33PIANO MUSIC PLAYS
1:02:03 > 1:02:05POWERFUL STRING MUSIC PLAYS
1:05:43 > 1:05:45AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYS
1:06:08 > 1:06:11ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS
1:10:01 > 1:10:03EERIE RUMBLING
1:13:30 > 1:13:33SILENCE
1:13:37 > 1:13:40APPLAUSE
1:13:56 > 1:13:58CHEERING
1:14:05 > 1:14:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:14:08 > 1:14:11E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk