Leonide Massine

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17 Calendar

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Age: 21

Lives in: Roma, Italy

Occupation: ballet dancer, choreographer

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Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Jean Cocteau

Roma, Italy

22.11.17

What happiness it is to create in the most picturesque ruins on earth, surrounded by young, genius artists.

Red wine intoxicates us, and Palini invites us to a thousand banquets. Diaghilev relates to Rome like Kandavl to his wife – with love and pride. His house is open to guests, he feeds all with tomato purée and pirozhki. See more

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Jean Cocteau

Roma, Italy

20.11.17

Rome is a provincial city. All capitals save for Paris are provincial. They talk shop right in the middle of the street. Everyone gets together in one single café. See more

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Leonide Massine

"Novedades" Cafe, Granada, Andalusia, Spain

25.06.17

In our favorite cafe, “Novedades,” we noticed a small, dark, young dancer, who stood out with his elegant movement and irresistible power. When he finished his dance, Diaghilev asked him to come to our table. He introduced himself as Felix Fernandez Garcia, and as we were talking I felt in him a quivering sensibility of a person who has original talent. See more

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Leonide Massine

Rome, Italy

29.05.17

During this visit to Paris, Stravinsky introduced me to his great friend Maurice Ravel. The meeting took place in his studio, on the outskirts of Paris. The thirty-year-old Ravel, who has already written the music to the ballet “Daphnis and Chloe” was a smart and erudite interlocutor. For a long time we discussed the idea, suggested to me by the painting of Robert Delaunay, of showing a football match by means of choreography. See more

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Leonide Massine

Paris, France

04.05.17

We went to Paris for the new season at the Théâtre du Châtelet. It was our first visit since the beginning of the war. Parisians, generally jolly, it seemed, have changed under the threat of invasion.

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Pablo Picasso Gertrude Stein

Rome, Italy

01.05.17

Dear Gertrude!

I've been working for days on my decorations and costumes and also on two paintings, which were started here. I want to finish them before the dearture. Decorations will be finished right here. Here I have 60 ballerinas. I go to sleep late. I know every girl in Rome. See more

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Leonide Massine

Rome, Italy

26.04.17

We seriously discussed one of Cocteau’s proposals – a ballet that incorporated elements of a circus and a music hall. We decided to set up one of the stages in front of a circus tent and to cast acrobats, ropewalkers and magicians, as well as to merge choreographic forms with elements of jazz and a cinematic touch. See more

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Leonide Massine

House of Mark Lucretia, Pompei, Italy

17.04.17

We have been on a few excursions to Pompeii and Herculaneum. Picasso was very struck by the magnificence of the ruins, and each time we turned around we would find him on the top of some ancient column trying to get the best view of the various fragments of Roman sculpture which attracted his eye. Diaghilev was less excited. It was not the first time he had seen these wonders, and the hot sun exhausted him. See more

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Igor Stravinsky

Rome, Italy

18.03.17

Diagilev went to Rome where the "Russian ballet" season is set to begin. He asked me to come and conduct The Firebird and Fireworks, for which he hired the Italian futurist Balla to do a special kind of illustrative set with light effects. I went to Rome. See more

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Leonide Massine

Rome, Italy

04.03.17

It’s difficult to convey the excitement of working with artists like Picasso and Cocteau. Every time we met in the Piazza Venezia in Rome to exchange ideas, sparks would fly across the room. Any innovation – sound effects, Cubist-style costumes, megaphones – would engender a fresh new chain of ideas. It seemed to me that Cocteau’s indefatigable imagination served to stimulate the complex artistic vision of Picasso.

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Leonide Massine

Corso Umberto street, Rome, Italy

27.02.17

I have noticed that Picasso exhibits a surprising and rather unusual interest in a picture which hangs above the bed In Diaghilev’s apartments on the Via del Corso. The picture is a stolidly unremarkable and hackneyed piece of Italian 18th-century court art. “Pablo, what can it be in that picture that has piqued your interest so?” asked Diaghilev. “I’m studying it thoroughly”, answered Picasso, “in order to learn better how not to paint”.

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