La Bayadère

New National Theatre Tokyo, 2000 - 2024

Production and Choreography: Asami Maki
Music: Leon Minkus - Ballet Score: John Lanchberry   Co-Lighting Design: Isono Mutsumi  

I designed the scenery, costumes and lighting for Asami Maki’s production of La Bayadère for the New National Theatre, Tokyo in 2000. Maki Sensei invited me to design the production after I supervised the re-staging of Peter Darrel’s Tales of Hoffman for her own company. La Bayadère has been so popular that it is still in the repertoire and is being staged again using the original production designs, most recently in April - May 2024, by Yoshida Miyako, who was appointed as the National Ballet’s Artistic Director in 2020, It has been said that “the production has all the formal beauty of classical ballet, with spectacular, rapid stage transformations and lush stage art with deep oriental shades. These qualities give the production an originality not seen in the original Russian staging, and make it a great success. This work offers not only classical ballet's unique beauty, such as an astounding dream scene with the Shades slowly dancing down a three-tier, winding slope, but also captivating drama among the characters. The story features complex and dramatic human relationships between Nikiya, the temple dancer with a subtle inner strength, her lover Solor, who serves the Rajah, Gamzatti, the king's daughter who loves Solor, and the High Brahmin, who also loves Nikiya. In the final Act the temple, where Solar first saw and fell in love with NIkiya collapses apocalyptically and Nikiya ascends to the heavens in a scene of breathtaking beauty, leaving Solor alone in the ruined temple.” Carlos Acosta and Alina Cojocaru danced the title roles at the premiere in 2000. Carlos Acosta is now the Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.