Les Sylphides

ballet by Fokine

Also known as: “Chopiniana”

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July 14, 2026

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Les Sylphides is a ballet choreographed by Michel Fokine for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1908, originally titled Chopiniana. This ballet is a virtually plotless work that revives the earlier Romantic ballet tradition. Fokine developed a soft, uncluttered style for Les Sylphides, characterized by simple arm movements, fluid groupings of dancers, and a flowing, lyrical quality in its phrasing and movement. It notably avoids virtuosic jumps or turns. The ballet's soft style and lyrical phrasing are a departure from the more athletic and elaborate choreography often seen in classical ballet.1

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dance
Innovations in the 20th century
…in Chopiniana (1908; later called Les Sylphides), a virtually plotless ballet that recalled the earlier Romantic tradition, Fokine created a soft and uncluttered style that contained no bravura feats of jumping, turning, or batterie. Arm movements were simple and unaffected, the grouping of the dancers had a fluid, plastic quality,…
Read More
…in Chopiniana (1908; later called Les Sylphides), a virtually plotless ballet that recalled the earlier Romantic tradition, Fokine created a soft and uncluttered style that contained no bravura feats of jumping, turning, or batterie. Arm movements were simple and unaffected, the grouping of the dancers had a fluid, plastic quality,…
Read More

theatre music
Music for ballet
…companies for what Diaghilev renamed Les Sylphides (1909). More than 60 years later, another arbitrary suite by Chopin, although retained in its piano form, proved to be no less fruitful for the American choreographer Jerome Robbins in Dances at a Gathering (1969).
Read More
…companies for what Diaghilev renamed Les Sylphides (1909). More than 60 years later, another arbitrary suite by Chopin, although retained in its piano form, proved to be no less fruitful for the American choreographer Jerome Robbins in Dances at a Gathering (1969).
Read More