Ernst Oppler
Les Sylphides
circa 1909
Lithograph
German Dance Archive Cologne / SK Foundation for Culture
When Käthe Kollwitz was invited by the Berlin Secession to a performance of the Ballets Russes at the Theater des Westens in May 1910, she saw a mixed program of various ballets, probably in excerpts.
This included the short ballet Les Sylphides, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine (1880–1942) to piano pieces by Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), which has no plot.