Modernism on Stage restores the Ballets Russes to its central role in the Parisian art world of the 1910s and 1920s, and includes close readings of ballets designed by Picasso, Delaunay, Matisse, and de Chirico. Dance is brought to bear upon modernist art history as more than a source of imagery, but as part of the avant-garde's articulation of the idea of a total work of art.