the general public. Ballets Russes By the early 1900s the Russian ballet went beyond its borders and infiltrated Paris. It had become its own force and was distinctly Russian, while still being embraced by the Parisian society. In 1903 Ivan Clustine, a Russian dancer and choreographer who had started his career at the Bolshoi Theatre, was appointed Maître de ballet at the Paris Opera. Clustine's hiring promoted a frenzy of questions about his nationality and choreographic agenda: “His hiring was thought a direct attempt by the Opera to imitate the Russian company; even he thought as much, maintaining, not without despondency, that inspiration too often came from the north: ‘A revolution! A method that people often apply in the country of the tsars.’ Clustine, although acknowledging his nationality with pride, harbored none of the revolutionary intentions that some thought an inevitable consequence of being Russian.” The Parisians, while denying adoption of the backwards Russian troupe, had distinct Russian influence in their theater. “Despite Clustine’s protestations, several features of the Opera’s post-1909 ballets, along with its institutional conventions and balletic policy, appeared to betray a Russian influence.” The stigma of Russian brutality and force was applied even in Paris. While their style was not only being accepted in Paris, but implemented in Paris theaters, the Ballets Russes were still considered dangerous, even in the theatre of performing art. “The Ballets Russes, at base, became a metaphor for invasion, an eternal force that could engulf and control, could penetrate the membrane of French society, culture and even art itself.” The embracing of Russian ballet in the Paris society became a point of contention and French nationalism collided with Russian determination. Questions arose about the Russian intention in the Paris theaters under the title “cultural politics” including “the delimitation of boundaries, the preservation of identity and the nature of relational engagements.” Russia was incapable of simply bringing Russian culture to the West, but created a paranoia of intentions wherever they went. In the beginning, the relationship between Russia and France through the arts was a testimony to their political allegiances. “French critics acknowledged a shared choreographic heritage: French ballet had migrated to Russia in the nineteenth century, only to return, decades later, under the guise of the Ballets Russes. The company, then, moored in a history that intertwined both nations, not only contributed to a cultural programme of exchange. The Ballets Russes were