ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author not only suggests that Leonide Massine’s choreography played a vital role in the ballet but that his working methods and approach to choreography owed more to cubism than futurism. The element of ambiguity that infused both Massine’s choreography for Parade and Picasso’s cubist works raised questions concerning reality, representation, and meaning in art. Massine and Serge Diaghilev were acquainted with the futurists before meeting Picasso and engaging with cubism. Cubism explored the tension, or ambiguous relationship, between the external world and the reality of the work of art. The inclusion of spoken text and shouted provocations would have brought Parade closer to futurism. Diaghilev and Massine met the futurists in Italy in late 1914, but Diaghilev had already been exposed to choreographic experimentation through the work of Vaslav Nijinsky. Jean Cocteau developed the libretto for Parade over the winter of 1915–1916.
