Notes

The Kingdom of the Shades, from the full-length ballet La Bayadère by Marius Petipa, premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 4, 1877. La Bayadère tells the story of the temple dancer Nikiya, who is in love with the warrior Solor. Nikiya is poisoned by her rival and dies in Solor’s arms. Heartbroken, he falls into a delirious sleep and dreams of the Kingdom of the Shades, where he and Nikiya are reunited in eternity.

Natalia Makarova first staged The Kingdom of the Shades for American Ballet Theatre in 1974. In her words: “The Kingdom of the Shades is one of the most important creations in the history of classical ballet. It is Marius Petipa’s choreographic masterpiece, and remains timeless—exemplifying Petipa’s vision of classicism in its eloquence, harmony, precision, and its crystalline execution. I tried to put more inner spiritual meaning into this act, which is my contribution to the Shades. The corps de ballet, descending one by one from the Himalayan Mountains are hallucinatory visions in the mind of the warrior Solor. Tormented by repentance and his love for the murdered temple dancer Nikiya, in his mind he sees the poetical image of Nikiya, her spirit multiplied into infinity.”