6.5.1. The emergence of the Russian Ballets
During Romanticism, ballet reached great technical difficulty and virtuosity in detriment of content.
Contemporary ballet of the 20th century enhanced the expression over the mechanic technique. Now, dancers would use their bodies freely, without so many rules and moving away from academicism.
Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), a Russian businessman, was the most important representative of this new approach, with the establishing of the Russian Ballets in 1909. This company became famous thanks to the collaboration with some of the most important artists (Dalí, Picasso, Miró...) that worked on the stage settings, and composers, like Ravel, Stravinsky, Falla or Debussy.
Some of the most important productions written for this company are Stravinksy's The Rite of Spring, Debussy's Games, or Falla's El Sombrero de Tres Picos.
Below you can watch a modern fragment with the original version by Nijinsky (one of the most famous dancers of Diaghilev's Russian Ballets). You can get a clear idea of what these ballets looked like:
6.5.2. New urban dances
European ballroom dance, that had born in the Romanticism, spread through America during the 20th century. There it was influenced by rhythms from the Latin and black communities, creating new urban dances that became very popular in America and Europe. Some of these new urban dances were:
