Diaghilev brought together the talents of his discoveries--artists such as Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Michel Fokine, Léonide Massine, and George Balanchine, to name only a few--to assemble an unsurpassed "total theater."

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The ultimate vehicle for his protean genius was the Ballets Russes, the company he created and first presented in Paris in 1909. Although especially noted for superb male dancers, Ballets Russes featured startlingly modern music, innovative choreography, erotic scenarios, and strikingly original scene designs.

Diaghilev's genius and his extraordinary knowledge of all the arts, from painting to music, led him to discover and inspire genius in others and to facilitate the collaboration of his discoveries. Perhaps most important of all, he had an appreciation of the new and distinctly modern and was thus able to help shape a new art for a new century.

Unabashedly homosexual, Diaghilev was a passionate man in all his endeavors. "It is absolutely necessary for me to make love three times a day," he told his friend the composer Lord Berners. Although his homosexuality was frequently noticed unfavorably by officials and rivals, he made no apologies.

critics had their revenge after his death in biographies that, while praising him as a creative genius, stressed this "deep flaw" in his character, without recognizing that his homosexuality may have been integral to his creativity.

Most malicious and dishonest of all was a biography of Nijinsky by his wife Romola. From 1909 until 1913, Diaghilev and the dancer had been the most famous gay couple in Europe; although their union could produce no children, it gave birth to masterpieces.

Estranged from Diaghilev after his marriage, Nijinsky became depressed and delusional and was committed to a mental hospital by his wife. To vindicate herself, Romola Nijinsky portrayed Diaghilev as a homosexual Svengali whose unwanted sexual advances drove Nijinsky insane and herself as a virtuous wife caring for his victim. This scenario titillated a fascinated public and both fed on and contributed to the pervasive prejudices against homosexuals and homosexuality at the time, but it was far from the truth.

Diaghilev's love affairs have sometimes been characterized as exploitative, but a more accurate account would stress the element of pedagogic love that infused them. He was attracted to a series of beautiful young men in whom he saw qualities of genius and with whom he could merge in creative collaboration.

At the age of eighteen, he fell in love with his cousin Dmitri (Dima) Filosofov, also eighteen, with whom he published an influential art journal, Mir Iskusstva (The World of Art). The relationship lasted fifteen years, when Filosofov left Diaghilev for another man.

Soon after this break, Diaghilev saw the dazzling young Nijinsky dance. He created the Ballets Russes as a showcase for his new lover, and in so doing he brought to fruition both his and Nijinsky's genius. Their affair lasted from 1909 until Nijinsky married in 1913.

Diaghilev's next discovery was an unknown young actor, Léonide Massine, whom he developed into a great dancer and one of the seminal choreographers of the twentieth century. They were together until 1920, when Massine married.

Diaghilev successively fell in love with Boris Kochno, a precocious young poet who eventually became associate director of Ballets Russes; Anton Dolin, a vivacious British dancer; Serge Lifar, a young Russian who traveled to Paris in 1924 determined to seduce Diaghilev and who became the premier danseur of Ballets Russes and, later, the director of the Paris Opera Ballet; and Igor Markevitch, a musical prodigy.

Although known for his possessiveness and controlling nature, Diaghilev inspired love and admiration in his partners, as their autobiographies attest. Moreover, Diaghilev's sexual relationships were integrally related to his artistic achievements. As Markevitch observed, "I would say that the greatest works created by the Ballets Russes were a direct result of love affairs."

With Lifar and Kochno--along with his women friends Misia Sert, Coco Chanel, and Baroness Catherine d'Erlanger--at his bedside, Sergei Diaghilev, "the Tsar of the Arts," died of complications from diabetes in Venice in 1929.

The enduring and persistent connection between ballet and male homosexuality is undeniable and may be related to the art's remarkably masculine provenance.

Artistic dance has proven to be a haven for glbtq people, who have made significant contributions in almost every area, including as choreographers, performers, and teachers.

Patronage--the sponsorship of artists and the commissioning of works from them--has remained a significant factor in the creation of queer visual culture in the modern era.

A cultural crossroads between Asia and Europe, Russia has a long, rich, and often violent heritage of varied influences and stark confrontations in regard to its patterns of same-sex love.

Set and costume design for stage and film are fields that have attracted a large number of talented gay men and lesbians.

St. Petersburg, Russa was once the crucible of one of history's liveliest and most articulate homosexual cultures.

Sir Frederick Ashton may be described as the choreographer who most fully defined British ballet in the twentieth century.

The Ballets Russes represents not only a crucial turning point in dance history, but as one of the earliest gay-identified multinational enterprises, it is a milestone in gay history as well.

Maurice Béjart was a significant presence in late twentieth-century dance as a result of his reinvigoration of classical ballet and his creation of palpably homoerotic dances that celebrate male beauty.

The life of eccentric British composer, painter, and novelist Baron Berners was a grand performance.

An outspoken homosexual, Jean Cocteau was a prolific poet, novelist, critic, essayist, artist, and filmmaker.

For prolific French poet and artist Jean Cocteau, filmmaking may have served as the best medium for the expression of his genius.

English dancer, choreographer, producer, and teacher of drama Rupert Doone had a varied and distinguished artistic career.

Painter Magnus Knut Enckell, whose works exhibit strong homoerotic overtones, was one of the leading figures in the art circles of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Finland.

One of the most illustrious of twentieth-century Spanish composers, Manuel de Falla may have emigrated from Spain in reaction to the homophobia of the Franco regime.

Although best known for his contributions to the development of American ballet, Lincoln Kirstein was an important figure in the shaping of twentieth-century American culture generally.

Fiercely ambitious, Serge Lifar used his extraordinary looks and charismatic personality to rise to the ranks of leading international ballet dancers and choreographers of the twentieth century.

One of the greatest dancers and most innovative choreographers in the history of ballet, Vaslav Nijinsky embodied the sensuality and sexual ambiguity associated with the distinctive new art of the twentieth century.

One of the first openly gay composers, Francis Poulenc became one of the most thoughtful composers of serious music in the twentieth century.

The most important female composer in early twentieth-century English music, Dame Ethel Smyth enjoyed a class privilege that allowed her to be an unapologetic lesbian.

Revered as the father of Polish contemporary classical music, Karol Szymanowski unequivocally expresses homoeroticism in his music.

Russian-born painter, sculptor, and set designer Pavel Tchelitchew created a number of works that illustrate homoerotic desire.

Christopher Wheeldon is one of the most innovative and acclaimed classical ballet choreographers working in the dance world today.