18.02.2014

Debuts in La Bayadère

Yulia Stepanova will be making her debut as Gamzatti on 19 February, followed by Yekaterina Chebykina on 22 February. On 23 February David Zaleyev will perform as the Golden Idol for the first time. Also making their debuts in La Bayadère will be Zlata Yalinich (19 February) and Anna Lavrinenko (22 February) in the D’Jampe dance, Oxana Marchuk (19 February) in the Manu dance and Xenia Romashova (19 February) in the dance of the bayadères from Act II.

La Bayadère is one of the most popular ballets in the classical repertoire. Almost every major classical dance company in the world has some version of it in its repertoire. The secret of its popularity lies in the exoticism of oriental colour, the flavour of the production and the expressiveness of the dancing. This love story, told in the ballet through complex and demanding choreographic language, is a “test” of professionalism, the ballerina’s ability to dazzle and the acting skills of the other lead performers – a test to be faced by Yulia Stepanova (19 February) and Yekaterina Chebykina (23 February) as Gamzatti, the Rajah’s daughter. But the vivid protagonists are just one component of the ballet’s success. La Bayadère is rich in well-developed corps de ballet ensembles and memorable scenes of the soloists. One of the most spectacular of all is, of course, the dance of the Golden Idol. Temple servants carry a golden statue of the Idol onstage, and he seems to be released by some invisible spring – soaring through the air and freezing in statuesque poses... This extremely virtuoso variation, involving a series of high leaps and fixed poses, will be danced by David Zaleyev.