‘As Long as it’s not a Military March’: Negotiating Wartime Culture in Parade

Abstract

ABSTRACT The ballet Parade premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 18 May 1917, performed by the Ballets Russes with a plot conceived by Jean Cocteau, music by Erik Satie, choreography by Léonide Massine, and set designs by Pablo Picasso. It is characterised by Picasso’s Cubist set designs, a folkish plot, and a thinly textured, repetitive musical score juxtaposing light classicism and ragtime numbers, augmented by extra-musical noises, including a typewriter and a Wild West revolver shot. Parade’s light-heartedness contrasted viscerally with the contemporary realities faced by Parisians in 1917. Just 125 miles from the front and subject to air raids, the sights, sounds, and dangers of war were familiar to the audience of the ballet’s premiere, and many of them found Parade offensive. Despite this seeming incongruity, I argue that Parade was not incidental to the First World War but was a result of and response to the war surrounding it. A contextual analysis of Parade demonstrates some of the concerns of artists working during the war, the tensions and disagreements that emerged among artists, and how the direction of their art was shaped both during and after the war. Moreover, Parade also serves as an artistic ‘case study’ that can provide historians with a clearer understanding of the day-to-day realities, anxieties, and opinions of the people living in Paris during this unique moment.