Rolf de Maré’s Ballets Suédois was at the forefront of the Parisian avant-garde between 1920 and 1925. The company produced twenty-four distinctive, innovative works that challenged conventions of ballet and explored diverse modes of creative expression. Its goal was “to interpret modern life” through a synthesis of the arts, and in doing so, the company reflected the vitality and volatility of the postwar milieu. Primary sources reveal the considerable impact the Ballets Suédois had in its day, yet the company has been largely overlooked in scholarly research, mostly due to its brief lifespan and the shadow of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. This dissertation seeks to expand historical narratives of modernism in Paris in the early 1920s. It considers the vital role of the Ballets Suédois and its embrace of the art of the “everyday” in the wake of the Great War. It reveals that eclecticism and ephemerality are at the heart of the everyday aesthetic, and the Ballets Suédois and its oeuvre both extolled and embodied these concepts as viable artistic values. A multidisciplinary study of three selected works produced by the Ballets Suédois—La Boîte à joujoux (1921), Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel (1921), and Within the Quota (1923)—illuminates varied manifestations of the everyday among the company’s body of work. The primary focus in each case study is on the music, which was composed by Claude Debussy, members of Les Six, and Cole Porter, respectively. Essential elements of the music are examined through style analysis and discussed alongside aspects of the dance, visual art, scenario, and mise-en-scène, evidence for which comes from archival research conducted at the Dansmuseet in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, France. Furthermore, each ballet is considered within the larger context of the company’s vision, repertoire, and achievements. Ultimately, this dissertation addresses the significance of the art of the everyday, as well as the nature of the Ballets Suédois’ legacy. It demonstrates that the Ballet Suédois and its collaborators celebrated the realities of eclecticism, simultaneity, and ephemerality. They offered postwar audiences new perspectives on art and life during a period of great change. They elevated the art of life.
