Figurine

This small figure represents Adolph Bolm as the Warrior Chief in Polovtsian Dances, Mikhail Fokine's ballet in Borodin's opera Prince Igor. An excerpt from the opera set in the Russian steppes was the sensation of the first Paris season organised by Diaghilev in 1909 with dancers from the Imperial Russian Ballet. Before Diaghilev's productions, European audiences couldn't have conceived of a ballet like this or a man dancing like Bolm. He leapt on stage to the pounding rhythms of Borodin's music and a chanting chorus, and Fokine's choreography astonished audiences who had never seen male dancers dancing in such an uninhibited way.