Dutch National Ballet presents a grand, renewed production of La Bayadère. Rachel Beaujean, Kalpana Raghuraman, Dr. Priya Srinivasan and Ted Brandsen have collaborated on a new storyline that moves away from the orientalist perspective of the original version. When Petipa created La Bayadère in 1877, he had never visited India. Although he consulted various sources, his production presented a fantasised image of an India perceived as exotic through Western eyes. Following extensive research, this new production rewrites the story with greater attention to its historical and cultural context. The Junior Company dances in this production.

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Image: Dancer: Olga Smirnova. Photographer: Hugo Thomassen