La Bayadère: Designing Colonised Culture

There is a longstanding tradition in western ballet which incorporates the stereotypical in ‘other’ culture. Designers often perpetuate stereotypical generalisations within their costume practices in order to represent these cultures on the stage. Ballet is an inherently traditional artform, with many of the largest ballet companies taking on historic works, which have remained in the cannon, nearly unchanged, for over 100 years. Many of the most popular ballets were created in the romantic period, under the authorship of composers such as Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Ludwig Minkus and choreographed by Sergei Khudekov, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, which were then repopularised in the early 1900s by Sergei Diagalev and his Ballet Russe. While it is a widely recognised issue within ballet, that many of the stories and designs have become increasingly criticised, some productions have been retired and others have been allowed to continue to dominate the largest stages in Europe. This paper will focus on La Bayadère, it’s history and Yolanda Sonnabend’s 1980 design for the most recent production with the Royal Ballet, which ultimately led to its retirement from the companies repertoire in 2018. Many dancers blame the design for the public banishment of the ballet, claiming that the choreography can be made empowering, but is dragged down by the continual revival of colonialised perceptions of an ambiguous ‘orient’, but what is the origin of the stereotype? What role does the music have on the creation of the ballet’s design? How has La Bayadère contributed to the current perception of repertory ballet? And what now is the future of this ballet?