Bolshoi brings ‘La Bayadere’ to the Center

Deirdre Newman

Out of the darkness, the shadows appear. From the mountains, 32

ballerinas dressed in white descend gracefully, one by one. Their

ethereal presence signifies the dreamlike state in which the warrior

Solor pines for his dead lover, Nikiya.

The “Kingdom of the Shades” is the signature dance in “La

Bayadere.” While this scene has been staged many times by itself, it

will be performed in the context of a full-length production by the

renowned Bolshoi Ballet at the Orange County Performing Arts Center

starting Tuesday.

“The shadows in the last act is one of the jewels of ballet

repertoire,” said David Eden, co-producer of the Bolshoi tour. “The

way the Bolshoi does it is unsurpassed.”

A company of more than 100 dancers will present the only Southern

California performances of “La Bayadere” during the Bolshoi’s

eight-city U.S. tour.

The exotic ballet is set in ancient India. The plot involves the

tragic love triangle of Nikiya, a “bayadere” or temple dancer, who

falls in love with Solor, who is then chosen by the Rajah to marry

his daughter, Gamzatti. Overwhelmed by Gamzatti’s beauty, Solor

forgets his vows of love to Nikiya.

When Nikiya dances at the engagement celebration of Gamzatti and

Solor, she is fatally bitten by a poisonous snake hidden in a basket

of flowers by Gamzatti and her father.

Solor has an hallucinatory vision of Nikiya in the “Kingdom of the

Shades.” Later, at his wedding ceremony, he is haunted again by the

vision of Nikiya. The gods, infuriated by the murder of Nikiya,

destroy the temple, killing everyone in it.

The spirits of Nikiya and Solor are reunited in eternal love.

The production, based on Yuri Grigorovich’s choreography and

Marius Petipa’s story, includes the elaborate processionals and

lavish pageantry of the original production, although live elephants

and tigers will not be making an appearance, as they did in earlier

Russian stagings.

The production demands two ballerinas with spectacular technique

to dance the roles of Nikiya and Gamzatti, Eden said.

“They are coached for their roles by previous interpreters,” Eden

said. “Some of the ballerinas doing it on this tour were coached by

the Bolshoi ballerinas who danced this as far back as the 1930s. It’s

passed from one generation to another.”

One of the biggest challenges of mounting this version is

conveying the gamut of emotion through pantomime as well as dance,

Eden said.

“It has a lot of pantomime, so you really need what the Russians

have -- this rich tradition of mime,” Eden said.

The “Kingdom of the Shades” scene is unique because it originally

pushed the boundaries of classical dance, providing an opportunity

for the corps de ballet to showcase their classical pointe technique

in contrast to the drama swirling around them.

“It’s one of Petipa’s earliest ballets, and in the shadows, he

really started introducing concepts which he later developed, [such

as] the symphonization of ballet,” Eden said. “It has an incredible

structure and connection. It really is a choreographed entity.”

The scene also has the distinction of having provided Rudolf

Nureyev the chance to defect to the West during the first production

of that part of “La Bayadere” outside of Russia. Nureyev defected in

1961 in Paris.