Stage photograph taken by Sasha on the stage of the London Coliseum by Sasha showing Bronislava Nijinska and Lydia Sokolova in costumes for Le Train Bleu as performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, December 1924. The ballet created in June 1924 for the 8th Olympiad in Paris was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska to music by Darius Milhaud, with a set designed by Henri Laurens and costumes by Coco Chanel.

Sporting ballets had actually become very popular in the late C19th but a more innovative approach had been adopted with Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 Jeux which at one level presented a futuristic game of tennis. It was said to take place in 1920 and significantly the production was designed by Léon Bakst in conjunction with the fashion house of Paquin (Bakst designed a number of fashionable dresses for Paquin). In the light of this it is interesting that Nijinsky’s sister, Bronislava Nijinska, chose to play a tennis player in her own creation designed by Chanel. Bronislava Nijinska’s Tennis Player was modelled on Suzanne Lenglen who at the age of 15 had become the tennis champion of France and was singles and doubles champion at Wimbledon between 1919 and1924. Her ‘sensational leaps’ on court delighted her audiences.