Music: Ludwig Minkus
Choreography: Elizabeth DiStasio-Waddell after Marius Petipa
Ballet Synopsis
La Bayadère is based on the ancient Indian poem, "Sakuntala". The ballet is set in India. Nikiya, a bayadère (temple dancer), is in love with Solor, a noble warrior. But the Rajah has decided that Solor should marry his daughter, Gamzatti the princess. Solor is overwhelmed by Gamzatti's beauty and forgets his love for Nikiya. The High Brahmin (who is also in love with Nikiya), tells the Rajah that Nikiya and Solor are in love. The Rajah decides to have Nikiya killed. Gamzatti tries to persuade Nikiya to give up Solor, but Nikiya refuses and attacks the princess. Gamzatti is so furious, that she also decides to have the bayadère killed.
Nikiya dances at the betrothal celebration of Gamzatti and Solor. She is fatally bitten by a poisonous snake hidden in a basket of flowers, sent by the Rajah and Gamzatti. Solor has an hallucinatory vision of Nikiya in the “Kingdom of the Shades”. He tries to grasp her but she disappears. Later, at his wedding ceremony, he is again haunted by the vision of Nikiya, but he is the only one who can see her. The gods, infuriated by the killing of Nikiya, destroy the temple, killing everyone in it. The spirits of Nikiya and Solor are reunited in eternal love.