La Bayadère

A cinema screening of the Paris Opera Ballet's La Bayadère, Nureyev's staging of Minkus's ballet about the doomed love between warrior Solor and temple dancer Nikiya.

Theatre Royal Winchester screens the Paris Opera Ballet's production of La Bayadère on its cinema screen. Choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa, the ballet is set in a dreamlike India and follows the ill-fated love between the warrior Solor and Nikiya, a sacred temple dancer. The work is celebrated for its virtuosic variations, ensemble scenes and the famous 'Kingdom of the Shades' act, in which 32 dancers in white tutus perform slow arabesques. Koen Kessels conducts Minkus's music in an adaptation arranged by John Lanchberry.