2025Serbia - Russia - 100 years since the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake in Belgrade - Sheetlets

After World War I, Belgrade became the cultural centre of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and ballet, although a novelty for the Belgrade and Serbian audience, gradually became an important part of cultural life. The first professional ballet troupe in our country was established in 1920 at the National Theatre in Belgrade. Russian ballet artists who, in the first decade of their stay in Belgrade, formed the backbone of the National Theatre ballet significantly influenced the development of ballet. By bringing elements of the Russian ballet school, they gave local ballet artists the opportunity to learn from the most famous masters of the time. Ballet first began with dances in the opera, and already in 1923, Miloje Milojević's domestic ballet, the grotesque The Valet’s Broom, was performed at the ball in Kasina.