Friday 22 July 2016

Background to La Byadere




















Between the 15 and 20 Aug 2016 Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy will run two intensive workshops on La Bayadère for KNT Danceworks in Manchester.

The first one, which is suitable for beginners, will run from the 15 to the 17 Aug 2016. The second for more advanced students will run from the 18 to 20 Aug. Each course costs £200 though if you are fit and keen enough you can do the two for £350.

I did Jane Tucker's Swan Lake Intensive last year (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3) and her Romeo and Juliet Intensive in April and although those experiences nearly killed me I would not have missed them for the world.

Although La Bayadère is one of the most beautiful romantic ballets it is not performed very often in this country.  I have only seen it once and that was a performance by The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre at the Coliseum last year with  Irina Kolesnikova and Denis Rodkin in the leading roles (see Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere 24 Aug 2015). As it is not so well known I shall be publishing a number of articles on as many aspects of the ballet as I can.

I will start with a treat which is a trailer for the Dutch National Ballet's production in 2009.

Standard YouTube Licence

The National Ballet will perform the ballet again in Amsterdam between the 8 Oct and 12 Nov 2016 which will be the first opportunity for most of us to see it.  Amsterdam's Stopera is actually cheaper and easier to visit than Covent Garden for many of us outside London despite the pound's fish dive. There's lots of information about the current production on the company's website (see La Bayadere Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa).

Here are some other articles about the ballet and its background.

Reviews

Jane Lambert   Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere 24 Aug 2015

Jane Lambert   La Bayadère - The Ninth Life 29 March 2015

General

Jane Lambert   La Bayadere  31 March 2015

Gita Mistry   A British Asian’s Perspective on La Bayadère 29 Aug 2015

Wikipedia   La Bayadere

Companies' Repertoire

Bolshoi Ballet

Dutch National Ballet

Royal Ballet

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