In 2018 Greg Horsman choreographed a version of La Bayadère for a trio of commissioners, Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. His setting was mid-19^th century India at the time of the British East India Company, set up as a trading entity but in effect a coloniser. The idea had merit. Petipa’s oriental fantasy was to give way to a more authentic, nuanced picture of Indian culture and its people while keeping the storyline intact. 

Things did not go well. The story was told in crude, broad-brush strokes in Brisbane in 2018 and in the lightly tweaked version Perth saw in 2019. Some of the criticism was taken on board and, as Horsman told The Australian in February this year, when La Bayadère was presented in Winnipeg in October 2019 “members of the Indian diaspora were invited in to watch rehearsals and performances, and there was no negative feedback. In fact it was only positive.”

The program for WAB’s revival of La Bayadère this month credits a cultural adviser, Sindhu Nair. 

The production is noticeably less coarse than previously although characterisation remains paper-thin. This is most damaging in the translation of Gamzatti to Edith, a young British woman who becomes engaged to Prince Solor and, as per the original narrative, kills the temple dancer Nikiya to whom Solor has promised his love. 

Edith has been toned down a notch, for which much thanks, but remains a cartoon whose murderous instincts are inexplicable.

Horsman simply hasn’t made a strong enough case for La Bayadère, a work that would have disappeared if not for the beloved Kingdom of the Shades scene, in which the opium-addled Solor sees a vision of Nikiya, multiplied by as many women as are available to the presenting company (as WAB it’s a corp of 16). Minkus’s music doesn’t often rise above the merely serviceable so that’s not what keeps La Bayadère clinging to the far edges of the classical repertoire. The Shades are what do it and the task is to find a context in which the scene can work as part of a full-length ballet. The task continues.

Fascinatingly, just two weeks ago a new La Bayadère was produced by Indiana University’s ballet department, transposing the setting to Hollywood in the 1930s. One of the creators was Phil Chan, a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, a cultural awareness movement. The New York Times reported that Chan and co-creator Doug Fullington stuck close to Petipa’s original – Fullington is an expert in 19^th-century ballet tradition – while essentially turning a melodrama into a comedy. Chan and Fullington apparently didn’t feel that was a big stretch.

Their production used a reorchestration of the Minkus score by Larry Moore that included whips, a washboard and three saxophones. Horsman’s version also featured a new orchestration, by Nigel Gaynor, that introduced Indian instruments and textures.

The music was the most successful part of the Horsman rethink and made a strong impact in Perth, where it was played by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under the assured baton of WAB’s chief conductor, Jessica Gethin. 

The highlight of Perth’s opening night performance of La Bayadère was, not surprisingly, the Kingdom of the Shades. There were a few wobbles from the corps but their unanimity hit the mark. Candace Adea, Alexa Tuzil (who also dances Nikiya) and Polly Hilton (Edith at some performances) were strongly individual in their Shades solos and Gakuro Matsui (Solor) and Chihiro Nomura (Nikiya) gave clean, albeit not terribly charismatic performances. 

La Bayadère was programmed by former WAB artistic director Aurélien Scannella and its performance overseen by guest artistic director David McAllister. It was fun to see him return to the stage to perform the non-dancing role of the Maharaja. He retired decades ago but hasn’t lost any of his stage presence.

Postscript: Jessica Gethin was today announced as artistic adviser to Orchestra Victoria, a position described as OV’s lead artistic role. OV is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Australian Ballet and, among other ventures, the orchestra plays for TAB and Opera Australia when those companies are in Melbourne. Before leaving TAB last year Nicolette Fraillon occupied the position of OV artistic director along with her roles as TAB music director and chief conductor. Her successor, Jonathan Lo, is solely TAB music director. Gethin retains her WAB role, which is not a full-time commitment.