La Bayadère ballet has been universally acclaimed for many years; it is performed in theatres around the globe, and therefore does not seem to the public as something special. But in fact, it is quite an extravagant artefact of the colonial-imperial era. The action of the ballet, which was first staged in St. Petersburg in 1877, takes place in India: the noble warriors hunt a tiger, the temple dancers, the bayadères perform the ritual around the sacred fire, the elephant is strolling at the head of the crowded festive procession, shadows, "the shades", are coming down from the tops of the Himalayas in the hero’s opium induced dream — all this unfolds in front of the spectator’s eyes for three to four hours. During the time in which the ballet was conceived, Russia had a dispute with Britain over the Indian colonies, and the performance was extremely relevant.
Empires and colonies do not exist anymore, and together with them has disappeared the political background of the La Bayadère. The ballet itself went through many metamorphoses (in particular, the final act was lost, in which the caravan of the entire cast of characters was attacked by the gods — Pyotr Gusev tried to restore this in Sverdlovsk in 1984). What is left is a simple melodrama with intrigues and unhappy love, but the main thing is that the main construction of the dance by Marius Petipa was preserved: an exotic divertissement, sparkling with all colours, is contrasted with a classic ensemble in white — a famous scene called The Kingdom of the Shades placed out of any precise time and place. As for the Indian entourage, the viewers still enjoy this, although everyone knows perfectly well that the tiger is a plush toy, and the elephant rides on wheels!
