THE RUSSIAN BALLET (1909-1929)

Under its impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, The Ballets Russes, a touring company of Russian artists, performed throughout Europe and the Americas during the early 20th Century, showcasing ground-breaking ballet. They never performed in their homeland or returned there after the Russian Revolution.

The Ballets Russes was full of gay men, both on the stage and behind the scene. Diaghilev bedded many of his leading men including Vaslav Nijinsky, the most famous male ballet dancer in the world at that time.

Designing the sets and costumes for the ballet was another gay man, the painter Léon Bakst. One of his most recognised works is of Nijinsky in costume for The Afternoon Of A Faun, which contained a masturbatory dance scene that shocked audiences.

Nijinsky succumbed to schizophrenia at the height of his fame. In 1913 he married a female Hungarian fan who had stalked the troupe.

After returning for a tour of the Americas in 1917 Nijinsky and his family retired to Switzerland and he spent the rest of his life in and out of mental institutions before dying in England, aged 61.

Diaghilev’s next star was another lover, Léonide Massine, who became Europe’s leading ballet choreographer of the 1920s and ’30s. Later, Massine became a famous womaniser and married four times.