Fokine hoped to go beyond the older ballet traditions. To him virtuoso ballet techniques were not an end in themselves, but a means of expression. He believed that many of the ballets of his time used costuming and mime which did not reflect the themes of the ballets. Therefore, he tried to strip ballets of their artificial miming and outdated costumes. In addition, as a choreographer, he started a reform that took ballerinas out of their pointe shoes. Also, he experimented with a freer use of the arms and torso. He presented his reformist ideas to the management of the Imperial theatre, but did not get their support. Some of his early works include the ballet "Acis and Galatea" (1905) and "The Dying Swan" (1907), which was a solo dance for Anna Pavlova, choreographed to the music of Saint-Saëns' "Le Cygne".