Art Deco print of the program cover created by Pavel Tchelitchew (pronounced chel ee' chef) for the Ballet Russes production of "Ode" in 1928.

The Ballet Russes, led by impresario Sergei Diaghilev and young ballet master George Balanchine, is considered the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Tchelitchew's costume and stage design for this same ballet is considered some of the most innovative set design work of its time.

The ballet Ode tells the story of Nature, first represented as a statue, coming to life when asked by a student to display her power over the constellations, the rivers, planets and humankind. After these displays the student is not fully satisfied and asks Nature for a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. Mesmerized by its beauty and wonder, the student attempts to enter the Aurora Borealis, and as a result destroys it. The ballet ends with Nature returning to her statue form.

The stage design used delineations formed by white cords, along which miniature puppets of the dancers were placed to simulate perspective. The costumes were dresses with mesh masks or fitted bodysuits with geometric designs. A cinema screen displayed moving images and rear-projections of diffused and sparkling light.

This cover design, a thoughtful composition of dancers made of dots interacting with geometric lines, builds on these themes and creates interest thorough a sense of metamorphosis and the unknown.

Pavel Tchelitchew (1898 - 1957), a Russian-born painter, sculptor, and set designer, continuously experimented with new styles, eventually incorporating multiple style perspectives including notably, elements of surrealism and fantasy in his work.

He was a part of the circle of creative artists as well as of the homosexual elite throughout the span of his career included significant time spent in France and in the United States working with on set designs for the Ballet, and a variety of significant paintings and sculpture.

Highlights of his trajectory include Gertrude Stein noticing his entry in the 1925 Salon D'Automne and her buying the entire contents of his studio. An American debut as part of a group show at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1930. Well-known paintings are portraits of Natalia Glasko, Edith Sitwell and Gertrude Stein and the works Phenomena (1936-1938), Cache Cache (1940-1942) and his most well known work, Hide and Seek, currently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In addition to Ode (Paris, 1928), he designed sets for L'Errante (Paris, 1933), Nobilissima Visione (London, 1938) and Ondine (Paris, 1939), among others. A number of pen-and-ink sketches that illustrate homoerotic desire are housed in the Kinsey Collection of erotic art.