| Original Ballet Russe | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Name | Original Ballet Russe |
| Previous names | Les Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil Covent Garden Russian Ballet |
| Successor | Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo |
| Year founded | 1931 |
| Closed | 1947 |
| Founders | René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil |
| Principal venue | Monte Carlo |
| Senior staff | |
| Company manager | Sol Hurok |
| Artistic staff | |
| Artistic Director | Colonel Wassily de Basil |
| Resident Choreographers | Leonide Massine (1932–1937) George Balanchine (1932–1933) Michel Fokine (1937–c. 1941) |
| Other | |
| Formation |
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The Original Ballet Russe (originally named Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo) was a ballet company established in 1931 by René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil as a successor to the Ballets Russes, founded in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev. The company assumed the new name Original Ballet Russe after a split between de Basil and Blum. De Basil led the renamed company, while Blum and others founded a new company under the name Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo. It was a large scale professional ballet company which toured extensively in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, and Central and South America. It closed down operations in 1947.