The Astonishing Lives of the Ballets Russes in J.M. Barrie's The Truth about the Russian Dancers.

This article examines J.M. Barrie’s 1920 one-act play *The Truth about the Russian Dancers*, which satirizes the Ballets Russes—a prominent ballet company known for its modernist influence and complex reception in England—through the story of an English aristocrat’s romance with a Russian ballerina. The play uniquely integrates modernist formal elements, including the use of ballet as a nonverbal language, and critiques English xenophobia, classism, and the commodification of dancers, while highlighting the sacrifices demanded by the creation of modernist art. Despite its initial critical success and collaboration with Ballets Russes star Tamara Karsavina, the play has been largely overlooked in scholarship. The article argues that understanding the Ballets Russes’ history is essential to interpreting Barrie’s irony and engagement with modernism, and it calls for greater interdisciplinary dialogue between drama and dance studies.