Russes. Diaghilev's 'Ballets Russes' in Paris and Monte Carlo 1921–1925 The company staged ballets for twenty years, starting with its 1909 opening of La Saison Russe in Paris, and ending in 1929 when its founder Sergei Diaghilev died. He had directed the company's operations: both the business and the theatrical (music, choreography, dance, decor and costumes). He chiefly worked with five choreographers, more or less in sequence: Fokine (1909-1912, 1914), Nijinsky (1912-1913, 1917), Massine (1915–1920, 1925-1928), Nijinska (1921-1925, 1926), Balanchine (1925-1929). Diaghilev's "successive phases" are described as: "reform (Fokine), modernism (Nijinsky and Massine), and ... constructivism and neoclassicism (Nijinska and Balanchine)." The early twenties were Nijinska's time at the helm. Originally started in Russia by an arts impresario to function as an "exporter of Imperial culture" (initially the ballet productions in Paris), it happened that the company never performed in Russia. By 1918 less than half its dancers were Russian, 18 out of 39. 12 were Polish. The rest were four Italians, two Spaniards, two English women, and a Belgian. The company's ambivalent and attenuated connection to Russia had not survived the 1914–1918 war, the 1917 revolutions, and the civil war. In 1922 for financial reasons it relocated its base of operations from Paris to Monte Carlo. Her initial choreographic work, and derivations In 1921 Diaghilev asked Nijinska to return to Ballet Russes, chiefly for her choreography. He had become aware of her recent work in Kiev, especially that she had staged the Petipa-Ivanov classic Swan Lake, to music by Tchaikovsky. He had re-engaged her "because" of this demonstration of her abilities. As well as ballet mistress and a principal dancer, she was in line to be the Company's first and only female choreographer. Yet Diaghilev as ever was also cautious. Partly to test the quality of her work, and partly because of his company's financial condition, he first gave Nijinska major tasks in his on-going ballet productions. The Sleeping Princess, originally La Belle au bois dormant (1921) As theatrical events unfolded in late 1921, Ballets Russes was confronted with a severe financial crisis. The immediate cause was its lavish London production of the celebrated classic The Sleeping Beauty originally staged in 1890 in Saint Petersburg. Its 1921 version had been renamed The Sleeping Princess apparently because, as Diaghilev wryly observed, following the war the role of titled princess had become a rarity. The ballet was "one of the great