\n<\/p>\n
One after the other, women in white step out of the wings, reaching forward into space before swaying gently back, arms overhead. Then they take two steps forward and begin the sequence all over again. This rocking motion, forward and back, repeats for several minutes, until the stage is filled with bodies hovering on pointe, as if sustained by a single breath.<\/p>\n
The scene is from Marius Petipa\u2019s \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re,\u201d a ballet that premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1877. \u201cThe spectators must have felt that they had died and gone to heaven, which was more or less the case,\u201d the dance critic Joan Acocella wrote in 2019 of the entrance of the Shades, or female spirits, in the second act.<\/p>\n
That sequence \u2014 inspired by Gustave Dor\u00e9\u2019s illustration of souls descending from heaven in an edition of Dante\u2019s \u201cDivina Commedia\u201d \u2014 is one of the reasons this ballet, set to a mostly unremarkable score by Ludwig Minkus, has survived when so many others have not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a simple thing,\u201d the director and choreographer Phil Chan said, \u201ca throwaway step, even.\u201d But the way the scene is structured, he added, \u201cshows you how you can take a single step and give it to an entire group and make it look exciting and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Like many operas and ballets from the 19th century, \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re,\u201d set in an exoticized, ahistoric and sometimes cartoonish India, doesn\u2019t translate well to our times. Some have questioned whether it should be performed at all<\/a>. And while it continues to be staged around the world, there has been a noticeable reduction in performances, at least in the United States. In 2022, Susan Jaffe, the new artistic director of American Ballet Theater, said in an interview<\/a> that it was one of the ballets she planned to shelve temporarily, while thinking about how to make changes.<\/p>\n What can be done with a work like \u201cBayad\u00e8re\u201d? For Chan and Doug Fullington, a specialist in 19th-century ballet, the solution is to remove it from its exotic context and put it in a setting closer to home, the Hollywood of the 1930s. By setting the ballet in a movie-land far west, and swapping Orientalist clich\u00e9s for American ones, Chan said, the team was creating \u201ca form of exoticism that is about us, not about \u2018them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing is, there\u2019s really nothing Indian about it,\u201d he said of \u201cBayad\u00e8re.\u201d \u201cWe might as well add a German clog dance or an Argentine tango. It would literally be just as authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n Called \u201cStar on the Rise: La Bayad\u00e8re \u2026 Reimagined!\u201d the new version recasts the \u201cShades\u201d scene as a dance spectacular \u00e0 la Busby Berkeley. The staging, produced by Indiana University\u2019s ballet department, will premiere on March 29 in Bloomington, and be livestreamed online<\/a> as well as at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re,\u201d was made, far-off places were much in vogue in stage shows. Bizet\u2019s 1863 opera \u201cThe Pearl Fishers\u201d was set in Sri Lanka; Verdi\u2019s 1871 opera \u201cAida\u201d takes place in ancient Egypt; Spain was a frequent setting for both operas and ballets. In 1875, the Prince of Wales undertook a highly publicized tour of India and Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), both British colonies at the time. Two years later, \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d came to the stage.<\/p>\n While in Sri Lanka, the prince had watched a dance performance, a moment that was illustrated in contemporary newspapers. Those illustrations are the likely inspiration for \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u2019s\u201d fast-paced \u201cDanse Infernale,\u201d a fake-tribal number set to a beating drum.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so problematic, but the music is so fun,\u201d Chan said of \u201cDanse Infernale.\u201d \u201cMy idea was that we could take this thing that is so shameful, find the good parts, and make it fun for everybody.\u201d The number, now called \u201cBronco Busters,\u201d is danced by cowboys who slap their ankles, twirl lassoes and run with their arms behind their backs as if they were about to grab their pistols.<\/p>\n The story of \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d hinges on a love triangle among Nikiya, a beautiful temple dancer, or bayad\u00e8re; a not-so-brave warrior; and a rajah\u2019s haughty daughter. Nikiya is a tragic heroine killed by a venomous snake placed in a basket of flowers by her catty rival.<\/p>\n Chan, born in Hong Kong, is a former dancer who now works to bring cultural awareness to ballet and opera. He has written two books on Orientalism in the<\/a> performing arts and, with the former New York City Ballet dancer Georgina Pazcoguin, founded Final Bow for Yellowface<\/a>, an organization that pushes for the elimination of demeaning depictions of Asian characters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think audiences want to see that anymore, this passive, hypersexualized, weak woman who has no agency,\u201d he said about characters like Nikiya and the heroine of the opera \u201cMadama Butterfly.\u201d \u201cSnooze-fest, boring. That\u2019s not who we are anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Chan recently directed a production of \u201cMadama Butterfly\u201d at Boston Lyric Opera that transposed the story to World War II America; instead of a young geisha, the protagonist is a jazz singer. She doesn\u2019t die at the end.<\/p>\n In \u201cStar on the Rise,\u201d Chan and Fullington\u2019s heroine, a Hollywood starlet, also makes it out alive and takes charge of her destiny. Her rival has a change of heart. This paves the way to a happy ending, celebrated, in true movie musical style, with a big dance number, a Charleston.<\/p>\n