The most illustrious figure to have emerged from the Ballets Russes, Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) was celebrated for both his virtuoso dancing and his pioneering choreographic work. Nijinsky is represented here in a bronze by the French sculptor Maurice Charpentier-Mio together with the Ballets Russes’ prima ballerina, Tamara Karsavina. They are captured in the midst of performing the 1911 ballet Le Spectre de la Rose (The Spirit of the Rose), in which a young girl falls asleep after a ball and imagines a romantic encounter with a personification of the rose she has dropped. The piece won notoriety for Nijinsky's spectacular leap through a window at its conclusion, dressed in his magnificent rose petal costume designed by Léon Bakst.

A year later, in 1912, Nijinsky choreographed his first work for the Ballets Russes: L’apres-midi d’un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun), which Danny Katz cites as his favourite ballet. The scenography, costumes, as well as the choreography, were directly inspired by classical art, one of Danny’s primary collecting interests (see Lot 15, Attic Grave Stele). In his tableau of a Faun’s fevered dream following an encounter with nymphs, Nijinsky’s dancers move in a fashion akin to figures in ancient Greek vase painting, a style of dancing not hitherto seen on the ballet stage. The ballet’s sexually explicit ending proved highly controversial, with Nijinsky himself, as the Faun, appearing to climax over a nymph’s veil.

Afternoon of a Faun was set to the symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, composed by Claude Debussy in 1894 as a response to a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé. The sensuous flute solo of Debussy’s orchestral work provided the ideal setting for Nijinsky’s ethereal and erotic vision. Though the composer’s music was in this case pre-existing, in 1912 Debussy was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose an original score for the ballet Jeux, thus cementing his association with the Ballet Russes.

For Danny Katz, the musical score is a vital component of a choreographic work, and he is a great admirer of Claude Debussy. The upcoming sale includes a plaster bust of Debussy by the French sculptor François Louis Simecek, alongside a painted portrait of perhaps the most iconic Ballets Russes composer, Igor Stravinsky. It was Stravinsky’s innovative score which, combined with Nijinsky’s experimental choreography, caused a sensation at the 1913 premiere of The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps). Now perhaps the best-known work by the Ballets Russes, The Rite startled early audiences with its radical depiction of savage ritual, derived both musically and choreographically from folk culture.

The distinctive portrait of Stravinsky offered in the sale was painted by Catherine, Baroness d’Erlanger, a patron of the arts and admirer of the Ballets Russes. It was probably through them that she met the composer, and their friendship lasted until the painter's death in 1959.

Like Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in their day, Danny Katz’s patronage is focused on the cutting edge of dance. In the numerous works he has commissioned over the years, he has supported pioneering choreographers and companies, as well as the contemporary component of more traditional ensembles such as the Royal Ballet.

On the occasion of his 60th birthday, he commissioned the duet DK60 from Kim Brandstrup, which received its first performance at Sotheby’s in 2008. More recently, in 2018, Danny supported the Royal Ballet’s celebration of the Leonard Bernstein Centenary, which included new works by Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon. The ballet Danny is most proud of, however, combines his passion for dance with another keen philanthropic interest, that of neurological disorders. Created for the contemporary ballet company Rambert by Aletta Collins, Awakenings (2010) is an emotionally challenging piece inspired by the neurologist Oliver Sacks’ book of the same name, with an original score by Tobias Picker.

Watch an excerpt of Awakenings here:

With its unique synthesis of movement, music, theatre and design, Danny considers contemporary dance "the modern idiom of art". Another thrill of watching ballet, he admits, is the extreme physicality achieved by its performers: "It’s a short life, filled with suffering, blood, and guts." Ultimately, though, his fascination with dance is intrinsically linked with his career in the art world, which began with sculpture: "Sculpture is terribly important to me because I love the world of dance. I love the motored form, physical movement; it’s what I’m about."