Mikhail Fokin staged Les sylphides in two stages. The first version of the ballet consisted of five numbers; a month later, Fokin added several new ones to them, removed Chopin and his visions from the stage and improvised a new choreography in three days. The second edition of Les sylphides turned out to be his best work. In his own words, Fokin "returned the conventional ballet dance to the moment of its highest development" — instead of Chopin, he brought on stage a ballet of Chopin's time, the 1830s.
Fokin's choreography is resumed by Natalia Bolshakova and Vadim Gulyaev, stars of the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theater, and now invited teachers-tutors of the Ural Ballet. The artists rely on sketches by Alexandre Benoit and Lev Bakst, created for the Paris premiere of Les sylphides in Sergei Diaghilev's entreprise.
performed on the same evening with the ballets Carnival and Pictures at an Exhibition
