Now pay attention. There once was a dance company that introduced the wonders of Russian ballet -- Nijinsky, Karsavina, "Les Sylphides," "Scheherazade" -- to an adoring Western public. Called Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, it died when Diaghilev did, in 1929. After that, there were lots of Ballets Russes -- or Ballet Russe, in the singular style that some favored -- and even a company weighted with the title The Educational Ballet Limited's Covent Garden Russian Ballet.

There were two p...