Голландский нац. театр, заимев Смирнову, решил создать под неё "Баядерку".

Заодно ещё аз посыпать голову пеплом перед колонианизированными индийцами, придумать нову историю, но сохранить акт теней и все шлягеры Петипа, Чабукиани, Пономарёва, Зубковского и Сергеева. У меня вопрос: а не является ли "сохранение" шлягеров апроприацией культуры?

Вот "новое" либретто:

"You are here: Home / news / Dutch National Ballet ‘corrects’ La Bayadère in a new version
Dutch National Ballet ‘corrects’ La Bayadère in a new version
20 June 2025 by Gramilano 3 Comments

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Dutch National Opera & Ballet, La Bayadère with Olga Smirnova, photo by Hugo Thomassen
In March 2026 Dutch National Ballet will debut a new production of La Bayadère, based on a revised libretto that “recalibrates the historical context” to correct its inherent cultural appropriation.

“Cultural appropriation happens,” says Britannica, “when members of a majority group adopt cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way.” Hemce the Bayadère problem.

Co-director of the new production and director of Dutch National Ballet, Ted Brandsen, says:

Just as you don’t just replace a Rembrandt with a new painting, you don’t let such wonderful ballet heritage go to waste either. The only way to preserve it is to keep performing it. That can only be done by putting it in a different context, away from the orientalist gaze of the nineteenth century and towards equality.

This new adaptation will preserve the choreographic jewels of Marius Petipa, and additional choreography by Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev, but will be based on a revised libretto that “recalibrates the historical context”. The creative team comprises Rachel Beaujean, Dr Priya Srinivasan, Kalpana Raghuraman and Ted Brandsen, who have collaborated on developing a new storyline that moves away from the orientalist perspective of the original version.

Petipa created La Bayadère in 1877. He had never visited India, although he was inspired by a group of Indian dancers who toured Europe between 1838 and 1839, and he consulted various sources. His production presented a fantasized image of an India perceived as exotic through Western eyes. Critical dance theorist, historian and choreographer Srinivasan has conducted extensive historical research and together with the other three co-directors, has rewritten the concept and libretto for the new staging with great attention to the historical and cultural context.

Srinivasan says:

My background as researcher and choreographer helps this production hold a mirror to Dutch colonial presence in India to find real people who inform the characters in the new libretto. We are doing that in many ways, by collaborating with Indian artists from hereditary, mixed race and caste oppressed communities in South India and the Netherlands. The goal now for our new version of La Bayadère is to honour the multiplicity of complex unequal pasts and create new equitable futures for the ballet world.

So the new version of La Bayadère will pay tribute to Indian artists who have been lost in time – Amany and her company of dancers and musicians, an Indian dancer who, through their performances in nineteenth-century Europe, influenced ballet, music and opera. Amany and Nikiya (the real and imaginary) symbolise generations of bajadères, the Indian temple dancers whose status was lost through colonisation, nationalism and caste oppression. Through projections in working with hereditary and mixed-race artists, some of whom are Dutch descendants from South India, including Dr Yashoda Thakore and Tenma, some of the lost voices are remembered, recognising their lasting impact on ballet and other Western cultural forms.

The sets and costumes by Jérôme Kaplan are inspired by seventeenth-century cosmopolitan India and Netherlands, reflecting the presence of many cultures but also refer to other times and cultures. Deputy artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet, Rachel Beaujean, is responsible for the staging and additional choreography

The new story
The new La Bayadère is set in Southeast India, where the Dutch established several trading posts during the era of the Dutch East India Company. The sincere love between Nikiya, a spiritual temple dancer, and Solor, a dancer and captain of mixed heritages, challenges the expectations of race and caste in the original work.

Solor allows himself to be manipulated by the Dutch governor William Carel Hartsinck, who forces him to marry his daughter, Alida. When Alida discovers that Solor already loves another, she decides to eliminate Nikiya. Overcome with grief and guilt at her departure, Solor drifts into a dream state. In the iconic ‘Kingdom of the Shades’, he sees Nikiya once more, but she remains out of reach. The consequences of his wrong choices will haunt him forever."

https://www.gramilano.com/2025/06/dutch … -bayadere/