Within the production, Chagall worked closely with the director and other dancers to fully harmonize his costumes with their movements and gestures (Barron). Daphnis and Chloe was a transitional work for Chagall in that he was not working out of New York as an unwilling immigrant, but in Paris where he’d previously flourished as an artist before the war. He brought what he’d learned in Aleko and Firebird to the National Opera in Paris to craft his most dynamic play to date. Without the language barrier, it also gave him a chance to further build relationships with the dancers and cast of the production. Chagall saw his dancers as vehicles for his vision. As “mobile elements” of his paintings, the dancers and costumes mirrored the figures he
