Not until 1934, did Brodovitch first come to New York as art director for Harper's Bazaar magazine. His exposure to the Parisian Avant-Garde in the 1920s, led to his work as a set designer for Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballet Russe. In the latter half of the 1930s, Brodovitch photographed the dance company backstage and during rehearsals in Boston and Philadelphia. This seminal work, that consisted of 104 images, was so influential among photographers in the 1940s-50s that it is credited as the genesis of the New York School in photography. Brodovitch brought his singular vision of the ballet magic to photography by capturing in still images the elusive stage atmosphere that only ballet has ... the unemphatic moments, the ones the audience does not applaud but which establish the spell of the evening. (citing Edwin Denby pp. 11-12; and The New York School Photographs, p. 352).

Prints by Brodovitch are rare. Few prints were made, although the entire work was published as the legendary book Ballet in 1945. In 1956, the negatives were destroyed in a fire.