Ballets suédois

The Ballets Suédois (French pronunciation: [sɥe.dwa]) was a predominantly Swedish dance ensemble based in Paris that, under the direction of Rolf de Maré (1888–1964), performed throughout Europe and the United States between 1920 and 1925, rightfully earning the reputation as a "synthesis of modern art" (Baer 10).

The Ballets Suédois created pieces that negotiated new terms of the post-World War I European imaginary by combining forms of “dance, drama, painting, poetry, and music with acrobatics, circus, film, and pantomime” (Baer 10).

The collaboration of the choreography of Jean Börlin, the artistic direction of de Maré, and the aesthetic framework of Fernand Léger, provided a rich intercultural cross-section of avant-garde performance in interwar Europe.

These included the poets Blaise Cendrars, Paul Claudel, Cocteau and Ricciotti Canudo; the composers Auric, Honegger, Milhaud, Cole Porter, Poulenc and Satie; and the artists de Chirico, Fernand Léger, and Francis Picabia.

Following a series of random images, among them the artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp playing chess, it culminated with the mock funeral of Börlin, which turns into a comic chase when the hearse runs away.