Some of Fokine's early works include the ballet Acis and Galatea (1905) and The Dying Swan (1907), which was a solo dance for Anna Pavlova choreographed to the music of Le Cygne.

Petrushka (1912), with music also composed by Stravinsky and set design by Alexandre Benois Petrouchka, was inspired by the Russian puppet which traditionally appeared at the Butter Week (Shrovetide) Fairs.

In this ballet, Fokine included street dancers, peddlers, nursemaids, a performing bear, and a large ensemble of characters to complement the plot.

The story was centered on the sinister Magician (Enrico Cecchetti) and his three puppets: Petrouchka (Nijinsky), the Ballerina (Tamara Karsavina) and the savage Moor (Alexander Orlov).

Nijinsky's exit featured a grand jeté out of the young girl's bedroom window, timed so the audience would last see him suspended in mid-air.

[3] The Paris premiere of The Golden Cockerel by Ballets Russes in 1914 was an opéra-ballet, guided by Fokine with set design by Natalia Goncharova.

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, disrupted the established touring circuit, which included countries now on opposing sides.

He moved to Sweden with his family in 1918, and later established his home in New York City, where he founded a ballet school in 1921, and continued to appear with his wife, Vera Fokina.

By 1924, he organized the American Ballet Company, which performed regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House and toured the United States.

Fokine studied Greek and Egyptian art, including vase painting and sculpture, and incorporated these into his ballets.

He believed that pointe should be used when the dancing body desires to express a soaring and upward theme, rather than to flaunt the strength of dancers' feet.

[4] In doing so, Fokine sought to unify motion with emotion and the body with the soul, bringing new life to the ballet as a language and an art.